Creating a Community Forest: Artist Walk with Matthew López-Jensen
Join artist Matthew López-Jensen for a slow walk through and around the future home of the Mosholu Teaching Forest.
López-Jensen is a “Super Steward” for this 20-acre site and he has been building a community coalition to help restore this landscape. The walk will unpack this complicated, years-long project and along the way the group will assist with some stewardship activity. The walk will visit important trees (like one of the oldest sassafras trees in New York City), look at bedrock, talk about edible plants, maybe see mushrooms, discuss what makes a forest “healthy” and see what happens when an urban forest is abandoned. López-Jensen will also discuss the artistic layers that overlap with the project and the advocacy.
The walk will end with light fare and drinks at the James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center (JBOLC) Community Farmers Market. The Saturday market hosts a mixture of farm stands, locally made goods, music, yoga, nature, and community.
This event is part of new series developed with Creative Time HQ, a forthcoming gathering space for art and politics opened by Creative Time. "Parallel Walks" is a series of artist-led walks that take place in two disparate sites that are connected through a shared political, social, contextual, or geographic theme. López-Jensen's walk is parallel with Journei Bimwala’s walk, "Foraging in the city! What is it? How is it done? And is it worth it?" on Thursday, August 17th at 6:30 PM in the Lower East Side, Manhattan.
Plan your trip
Transit: Meeting spot is less than 0.1 miles from Mosholu Parkway, 4 train stop, and 0.6 miles from the Norwood – 205th Street, D train stop.
Meeting Spot: Large boulder a few steps away from the Mosholu 4-Train
Dress: Please wear closed-toed shoes and long pants
Bring: Water and a snack
Artist Bio
López-Jensen is a Bronx-based, interdisciplinary environmental artist and educator whose projects combine social practice, walking, mapping, photography, and research. He is the 2023 Erie Canal Artist-in-Residence, a Guggenheim Fellow in photography, and has twice received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in support of site-specific landscape projects. He has participated in residencies at MacDowell, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Queens Museum, Guild Hall, and the NYC Urban Field Station, among others. He has been commissioned to create public projects by the New York Botanical Garden, City as Living Laboratory, the High Line, Green-Wood Cemetery, Waterfront Alliance, Kenpoku Arts Festival, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and others. His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Brooklyn Museum, among other institutions. He received his MFA from the University of Connecticut, and his BA from Rice University. López-Jensen teaches environmental art and photography at Parsons School of Design at The New School and at Fordham University.
Join artist Matthew López-Jensen for a slow walk through and around the future home of the Mosholu Teaching Forest.
López-Jensen is a “Super Steward” for this 20-acre site and he has been building a community coalition to help restore this landscape. The walk will unpack this complicated, years-long project and along the way the group will assist with some stewardship activity. The walk will visit important trees (like one of the oldest sassafras trees in New York City), look at bedrock, talk about edible plants, maybe see mushrooms, discuss what makes a forest “healthy” and see what happens when an urban forest is abandoned. López-Jensen will also discuss the artistic layers that overlap with the project and the advocacy.
The walk will end with light fare and drinks at the James Baldwin Outdoor Learning Center (JBOLC) Community Farmers Market. The Saturday market hosts a mixture of farm stands, locally made goods, music, yoga, nature, and community.
This event is part of new series developed with Creative Time HQ, a forthcoming gathering space for art and politics opened by Creative Time. "Parallel Walks" is a series of artist-led walks that take place in two disparate sites that are connected through a shared political, social, contextual, or geographic theme. López-Jensen's walk is parallel with Journei Bimwala’s walk, "Foraging in the city! What is it? How is it done? And is it worth it?" on Thursday, August 17th at 6:30 PM in the Lower East Side, Manhattan.
Plan your trip
Transit: Meeting spot is less than 0.1 miles from Mosholu Parkway, 4 train stop, and 0.6 miles from the Norwood – 205th Street, D train stop.
Meeting Spot: Large boulder a few steps away from the Mosholu 4-Train
Dress: Please wear closed-toed shoes and long pants
Bring: Water and a snack
Artist Bio
López-Jensen is a Bronx-based, interdisciplinary environmental artist and educator whose projects combine social practice, walking, mapping, photography, and research. He is the 2023 Erie Canal Artist-in-Residence, a Guggenheim Fellow in photography, and has twice received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in support of site-specific landscape projects. He has participated in residencies at MacDowell, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the Queens Museum, Guild Hall, and the NYC Urban Field Station, among others. He has been commissioned to create public projects by the New York Botanical Garden, City as Living Laboratory, the High Line, Green-Wood Cemetery, Waterfront Alliance, Kenpoku Arts Festival, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and others. His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art and the Brooklyn Museum, among other institutions. He received his MFA from the University of Connecticut, and his BA from Rice University. López-Jensen teaches environmental art and photography at Parsons School of Design at The New School and at Fordham University.