Creating connection in a disconnected world.
Inspiring people to care for the planet.
From 2019-2022, the Arbor Institute was a work of social art that cultivated environmental awareness. We combined the arts and ecology with contemplative practices to connect us with each other, with the Earth, and with the interdependency of life.
Our exhibitions, events, and programs engaged the community in conversations about the ecological and climate crises to foster environmental justice and resiliency through the arts.
A record of these actions can be found through the menu above.
Middle Way Garden grew out of the Arbor Institute and is our current social art focus. In a rapidly changing world we have shifted our efforts to work with the Earth itself. The Garden is an agroecology land arts project and sacred place for growing, connecting, and healing ourselves and the Earth.
Creating connection in a disconnected world.
Inspiring people to care for the planet.
The Arbor Institute was a work of social art that existed from 2019-2021 to cultivate environmental awareness. We combined the arts and ecology with contemplative practices to connect us with each other, with the Earth, and with the interdependency of life.
Our exhibitions, events, and programs engaged the community in conversations about the ecological and climate crises to foster environmental justice and resiliency through the arts.
A record of these actions can be found through the menu above.
Middle Way Garden grew out of the Arbor Institute and is our current social art focus. In a rapidly changing world we have shifted our emphasis to work with the Earth itself. The Garden is an agroecology land arts project and sacred place for growing, connecting, and healing ourselves and the Earth.
Creating connection in a disconnected world.
Inspiring people to care for the planet.
The Arbor Institute was a work of social art that existed from 2019-2021 to cultivate environmental awareness. We combined the arts and ecology with contemplative practices to connect us with each other, with the Earth, and with the interdependency of life.
Our exhibitions, events, and programs engaged the community in conversations about the ecological and climate crises to foster environmental justice and resiliency through the arts.
A record of these actions can be found through the menu above.
Middle Way Garden grew out of the Arbor Institute and is our current social art focus. In a rapidly changing world we have shifted our efforts to work with the Earth itself. The Garden is an agroecology land arts project and sacred place for growing, connecting, and healing ourselves and the Earth.
MIDDLE WAY GARDEN :
An agroecology land arts project and sacred place for growing, connecting, and healing.
Happening Now
Happening Now
Middle Way is an experimental permaculture garden located at the nexus of critical environmental and social issues.
Situated on the banks of Left Hand Creek in Boulder County, we are using multiple strategies to regenerate a site which has already been profoundly effected by flood and fire and will continue to face those challenges into the future. The Garden is directly addressing the issue of food poverty in our community. Food poverty is characterized by limited access or affordability of healthy food to make a healthy diet, higher percentage of income spent on food, and less choice from a restricted range of foods.
The food grown at Middle Way Garden is distributed to Community Food Share and other local food banks and families in need.
Our questions:
- What does it mean to bring resiliency and regeneration to a landscape increasingly challenged by the demands of climate change?
- How can food production systems work with the ecosystem to build health rather than deplete and denude it with industrial farming techniques ?
- How do we work with the specifics of our site’s microclimate and water limitations to grow food?
- At what scale are the synergistic planting programs of permaculture most sustainable/ achievable?
- How can a garden designed with mutually supportive permaculture “guilds” be used as a model of and a model for mutually supportive and integrated social systems as advocated by the tenets of “social permaculture?”
- If the diversity of living systems is integral to the creation of thriving, symbiotic, plant cultures, how might we apply these principles to human cultures?
- How can we respectfully borrow and apply the wisdom of indigenous cultures to steward this land?
- How can the other arts be integrated into the agricultural arts?
All Programs
All Programs
Pollinators Project –
conversations with some of the most visionary, wise, and empathic people on the Front Range and beyond who are cultivating a more just, loving, and livable planet.
Middle Way Garden
a social permaculture project on Left Hand Creek, north of Boulder, CO
Community Meals
share stories, create connections and explore collaborations over food.
coming soon
Biophilia
online journal and archive with original and curated articles, interviews, films, performances, and artworks interweaving art, ecology, and contemplative life.
Pollinators Project
conversations with some of the most visionary, wise, and empathic people on the Front Range and beyond who are cultivating a more just, loving, and livable planet.
Biophilia
online journal and archive with original and curated articles, interviews, films, performances, and artworks interweaving of art, ecology, and contemplative practice.
Community Meals
share stories, create connections and explore collaborations over food.
coming 2021
Pollinators Project
conversations with some of the most visionary, wise, and empathic people on the Front Range and beyond who are cultivating a more just, loving, and livable planet.
Biophilia
online journal and archive with original and curated articles, interviews, films, performances, and artworks interweaving art, ecology, and contemplative practice.
Community Meals
share stories, create connections and explore collaborations over food.
coming 2021
Stories, News, and Opportunities
Stories, News, and Opportunities
CU Boulder Today : Invisible Disruption
Exhibition digs into complex social issues of fracking. By Kenna Bruner. >
Denver Post : Reflecting on Grief
Boulder team weaves a casket for mixed-media exhibit aimed at helping the community cope. By Ross Taylor. >
Welcome 2020-2021 Intern :
Morgan Golightly
Morgan is an undergraduate at Naropa University studying art therapy and somatic movement therapy. Read more >
Art + Science Creative Strategies Cohort
A partnership with CU Boulder and Boulder County Arts Alliance. Learn more >
Poetry for the Planet 2020 : Summer Solstice
Online performance with Front Range Poets curated by poet, activist and storyteller Brice Maiurro. View event recording >
Constance is a NJ native who is currently pursuing her Masters in Dance at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her unique style is the result of over 20 years of experience in a variety of dance genres/experiences ranging from Modern, Middle Eastern forms, nightlife entertainment, improvisation, and styles based in Africanist aesthetics.
Constance’s choreographic work interrogates the grey area of preconceived notions and popular truths versus personal realities. She strives to marry her knowledge of how to make dances for the proscenium, her fascination with uncanny narratives, and a love for film to construct a collection of multimedia vignettes to be primarily presented in nightlife establishments and other alternative performance spaces.
Follow | @connie_love_art
Visit | danceconstancedance.com
Constance performed at the Arbor Institute as part of the Interwoven exhibition’s Night of Open Grief on Sept. 19, 2020 and danced in vigil with the handwoven willow casket and community offerings on Sept. 25 as part of the Interwoven Community Vigil.
Constance is a New Jersey native, currently pursuing her Masters in Dance at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her unique style is the result of over 20 years of experience in a variety of dance genres/experiences ranging from Modern, Middle Eastern forms, nightlife entertainment, improvisation, and styles based in Africanist aesthetics.
Constance’s choreographic work interrogates the grey area of preconceived notions and popular truths versus personal realities. She strives to marry her knowledge of how to make dances for the proscenium, her fascination with uncanny narratives, and a love for film to construct a collection of multimedia vignettes to be primarily presented in nightlife establishments and other alternative performance spaces.
Follow | @connie_love_art
Visit | danceconstancedance.com
Constance performed at the Arbor Institute as part of the Interwoven exhibition’s Night of Open Grief on Sept. 19, 2020 and danced in vigil with the handwoven willow casket and community offerings on Sept. 25 as part of the Interwoven Community Vigil.