Cafe Botanique, February 9, 2011 - Gates Hall

Codex to Codex, Leaf to Leaf

Karen Jones, Collections Conservator

Every part of a book (which may include paper, cloth, leather, inks, pigments and adhesives) reacts to its environment and deteriorates with age. Made from organic materials - many plant-based - books have also proven to be among the most durable and efficient transmitters of information since ancient times. Why are 16th century papers more durable than contemporary papers? Is rice paper really made from rice? What are the differences between Eastern and Western paper-making traditions? Learn about preserving your own paper-based collections as well as a bit of the history of bookbinding and paper-making, and appreciate the often-anonymous artisans who made ingenious use of the plant world's natural resources. 

Karen Jones has been a bookbinder and book and paper conservator in private practice for almost 30 years, serving local, state and regional archival institutions as well as private collections, including the Colorado Sate Archives, Colorado State University, Denver Public Library, Colorado History Museum, University of Denver and the University of Wyoming. A professional associate member of the American Institute for Conservation since 1990, she also served as the collections conservator for the Jefferson County public library system from 1980-2010.

Thursday, February 9

Denver Botanic Gardens – Gates Hall

6:30 – 8 p.m.

(Please follow this link to register)

Cafe Botanique, January 26 - Gates Hall

Chambers of Silk - An Artistic Collaboration with Plant and Insect Life

 Jill Powers, Fiber Artist, Boulder CO

Silkworms have been domestically raised on Mulberry leaves for thousands of years. Observing the beauty and fascinating life cycle of the silkworms up close led Colorado artist Jill Powers to envision a project encompassing her sculpture and the creation of the silkworms’ cocoons. Her presentation is a visual journey into the plant and insect world of raw silk, from an artist’s perspective. Using the forms of antique silk weaving shuttles, Jill designed and created small chambers out of kozo bark fiber to house the final stage of cocoon creation. She raised over 90 silkworms in her studio, and made a series of sculptures around the chambers where the cocoons were spun. “I think of the silkworm as an ancient textile artist…and my secret collaborator.”

Jill Powers is an artist with a Master’s degree in fibers from Tyler School of Art. She is on the visual arts faculty at Naropa University, and teaches her own workshops and retreats specializing in unusual natural materials. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally and has been featured in “500 Baskets,” “The Fiberarts Design Book,” The Crafts Report, American Style Magazine, and the New York Times. Her work won Best of Show in the Millennium Show at the American Museum of Papermaking in Atlanta. 

Thursday, January 26

Denver Botanic Gardens – Gates Hall

6:30 – 8 p.m.

(Click here to reserve your seat)

Cafe Botanique, November 18, 2011 - Gates Hall

The woods of 18th & 19th Century Chinese Furniture

By Carol Goldstein, Ph.D 

The Qing dynasty (1644-1911) was the last imperial dynasty and the one from which the vast majority of furniture still available originates. However, the study of Chinese furniture and therefore the material from which it was made, is relatively recent. The materials used were not well documented and there is widespread variance in much of the information available. To say that opinions differ among botanists and connoisseurs regarding the identification of these woods is a gross understatement. The materials used for constructing furniture in today’s China and their current classification will be included in the presentation.

Dr. Carol Goldstein was born and raised in New York City, she moved to Denver in 1972 to earn a Masters degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado. In 1988, Carol and her husband moved to Hong Kong where they lived, worked, traveled and most importantly, engaged in serious collecting of antique Chinese furniture and accessories for 10 years. Her home is filled with various collections ranging from antique Caucasian rugs, Neolithic pottery and antique Chinese furniture to contemporary art. In addition to her academic teaching activities, Carol has been active with the Asian Art Association of the DAM since returning from Hong Kong and currently serves as the Association’s immediate past president.

Thursday, November 18, 2010
Denver Botanic Gardens – Gates hall
6:30 – 8 p.m.

Cafe Botanique, October 13 - GATES HALL

Blessings Without Words: Botanical Motifs in Chinese Children’s Clothing and Accessories

Sally Yu Leung, Cultural Ambassador, Asian Art museum, San Francisco, CA

In China, children’s clothing and accessories are more than mere adornments of the body; they are bearers of the hopes and blessings for these tiny human beings. In this presentation, Sally Yu Leung, an independent curator of Chinese decorative arts, collector, teacher of Chinese brush-arts at Pixar Animation Studios, and also a Cultural Ambassador at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco will reveal the enchanting mysteries behind the hidden meanings in Chinese children's clothing and accessories.
Book signing follows. A beautifully produced and illustrated, 217 page book written in Chinese/English by Sally Yu Leung, Hidden Meanings in Chinese Children Clothing & Accessories, will be available at $ 45.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Denver Botanic Gardens – Gates Hall

6:30 – 8 p.m.

Cafe Botanique, September 22, 2011 - Gates Hall

Utilization of the International Space Station: past, present, and future

Tara Ruttley, PhD,  NASA ISS Program Scientist

Tara M Ruttley, PhD is the Associate Program Scientist for the International Space Station (ISS) for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. Her role in the Program Science Office consists of representing and communicating all research on the space station, and supporting recommendations to the ISS Program Manager and to NASA Headquarters, regarding research on the ISS.

This is a part of the NASA’s Destination: Station – Denver 2011

 Pre-registration is not required but encouraged (http://catalog.botanicgardens.org/dateselect.aspx?item=430). This lecture offers one elective credit hour in the Botanical Illustration program. Suggested donation $5

 Thursday, September 22, 2011

Denver Botanic Gardens – Gates Hall

6:30 – 8 p.m.

Cafe Botanique, June 2 - Morrison Center

Marja Eloheimo, Environmental and Medical Anthropology, The Evergreen State College, University of Washington

Working as a multidisciplinary project team in a year-long academic program at The Evergreen State College, students engaged in hands-on work to revitalize a fledgling ethnobotanical garden at Evergreen’s “House of Welcome” Longhouse. This presentation will describes the innovative project, its academic framework and embedded interdisciplinary and intercultural learning. Students refined existing habitat and theme areas, and developed the sayuyay Sister Garden (a medicinal portion of the garden patterned after a project on the Skokomish Indian Reservation). Students also collaboratively developed interpretive and educational materials; an important component was the beginning of a poly-vocal book about the garden, its history, its habitats and its potential for interactive teaching and learning. Through this work, students began to create a valuable educational resource and contributed to multiple communities, including Evergreen, local K-12 schools, local First Nations, and a growing global collective of ethnobotanical gardens that promote environmental, and cultural diversity and sustainability. 

Marja Eloheimo has taught at The Evergreen State College since 1987. Her academic and professional foci are ethnoecology and medicinal botany with an emphasis on First Peoples of the Pacific Northwest, Tribal Peoples in eastern India, classical Chinese “five-element” philosophy and local community herbalism.  

Register here

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Denver Botanic Gardens – Morrison Center

6:30 – 8 p.m.

Cafe Botanique, April 27 - GATES HALL

(Little bluestem – Schizachyrium scoparium – BLM CO932, Seeds of Success)

 Seeds of Success - Building a National Collection of Native Seeds

Peter Gordon, Ph.D., Botanist, Bureau of Land Management

Seeds of Success (SOS) is the national native seed collection program created under the umbrella of the Native Plant Materials Development Program (NPMDP), led by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). SOS was formally established in 2001 in partnership with the Millennium Seed Bank (MSB) to collect, conserve and develop native plant materials for restoring and rehabilitating public lands in the United States. The initial partnership between BLM and MSB quickly grew in scope and evolved to include many additional partners, such as botanic gardens, arboreta, zoos and municipalities. To date, SOS has well over 9,000 collections representing more than 3,000 species of wild land native plants in its National Collection.

The BLM Colorado State Office has coordinated over 500 wild land native seed collections from very diverse habitats, ranging from sub-alpine forests to sand dunes to shale cliffs and has been involved with SOS since its inception. Our staff works to collect seed, mentor interns, manage collection information and promote the development of native plant materials in Colorado. 

 Pre-registration is not required but encouraged. 
This lecture offers one elective credit hour in the Botanical Illustration program. Suggested donation $5.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Denver Botanic Gardens – Gates Hall

6:30 – 8 p.m.