In recent years the IMA has made a commitment to the Indianapolis community to become more conscientious stewards of the environment in its pursuit of fulfilling the museum’s mission.  This has been a worthy challenge for an institution to take on within the confines of the museum itself, but we also have the unique position of having 152 acres of gardens and woodland that give us an advantage over many urban institutions when measuring our carbon footprint.   In an effort to evaluate that advantage, we turned to a software analysis tool created by the USDA Forest Service called i-Tree.

The intention of i-Tree is to allow communities and other users to assess their current urban forest cover, create awareness and educational opportunities, and guide application for better management of those trees.  It has frequently been applied on a city-wide scale, but can also analyze an entire state’s urban forest, or a small, local city park.  The results are based on field data collected from random plots, accounting for tree species, height, trunk diameter, and canopy characteristics.  The data is then entered into the Urban Forest Effects (UFORE) analysis model, which calculates the amount of air pollution removed, carbon sequestered and stored by the trees, and sustained economic benefits.

100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park

To elaborate on the terminology of carbon sequestration and storage, a brief review of plant photosynthesis may be helpful.  Photosynthesis is the process of converting light energy to chemical energy in the form of sugar (glucose).  Carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) molecules are broken down with energy from the sun into glucose (C6H12O6), a usable energy form, and oxygen (O2), which, lucky for us, is expelled into the environment as a waste product.

Simplified diagram of the photosynthetic process, from biomassauthority.com

Eventually, that glucose can be reorganized into different forms: sucrose, starch and cellulose.  Each of these sugars is made of a different 6-carbon compound, which are used as sources for plant energy, or stored as organic compounds to develop plant growth and the structural form of the plant (i.e. the inner wood of a tree).  Think of these terms when discussing carbon sequestration and storage, where you can associate sequestration with removing carbon from the air for the process of photosynthesis, and associate storage with the amount of carbon that has been accumulated in the size development of the tree.  This is important, because if the tree were to die, all that stored carbon would be released back into the air or soil as the tree decomposes.

The carbon cycle as it relates to the environment (found here).

Fallen trees litter the woodland floor of 100 Acres.

The results of measuring carbon sequestration and storage have more meaning when you can understand, in part, how they fit into the plant’s life cycle.  Now that you know some of the conditions and terminology, you’re ready to hear what we found about our own, IMA urban forest!

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

I wasn’t able to attend the American Institute for Conservation’s (AIC) Annual Meeting last month in Milwaukee.  However, thanks to ArtBabble, today I’m able to watch one of the more potent discussions: The Plus/Minus Dilemma: The Way Forward in Environmental, which was co-sponsored by International Institute for Conservation (IIC).

This discussion, which was moderated by our Director & CEO, was recently summarized in an article in the Art Newspaper, Climate control: time to change the settings.

I also want to point out what a great job AIC and IIC have been doing with their blogs to let members know about conferences and current news.  Check out the AIC blog and read all of the recent posts about the Annual Meeting.  While there’s no substitute for actually going to a meeting, the amount of information the members of AIC are sharing through the blog is impressive. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Art, Conservation, Current Events, Travel

That’s a line from an old poem of mine.  It’s about the desire—begun in childhood and still going strong—for a hide-out, den, fort, or tree house: some small, cozy, rustic space in nature that facilitates dreams.

(A lot like what the Indianapolis Island residents are going to experience in the IMA’s 100 Acres: Virginia B. Fairbanks Art & Nature Park).

There’s an architect who’s long advocated for the domestic pleasures and greater sustainability possible with smaller, well-crafted homes: Sarah Susanka, author of the Not So Big House series of books.  She speaks at The Toby this Thursday, May 20 at 7 pm, as part of the IMA’s Planet Indy speaker series.

In advance of her Indy visit, I asked Sarah a few questions about her ideas:

What is the relationship between good design and sustainability?

In my books, they go hand in hand.  I believe that anything that is well-designed will stand the test of time and will sustain the inhabitant.  The wise use of both energy and monetary resources is a core element of good design.

How do you create desire for small instead of big?

I talk to people and work with people at all ends of the spectrum–people who want 600 sq. ft. homes and those who want 6,000 sq ft.  I’ve tried to offer the tools they really need to evaluate their decision.  When people are focused on high square footages, there is usually some “keeping up with the Joneses” going on.  I tell these clients: “How about having the coolest house, not the biggest?”  I help people “right-size” their homes.

What about modular homes?

The pre-fab industry is learning how to make better a house than the typical modular home currently on the market.  But a small house doesn’t have to be a cheap house.  You don’t buy a Porsche because it’s big – the point is that it’s beautifully made.  I believe that if we could look into the future we would find that many houses are going to be made through a manufacturing process.  The art of the home will be greatly enhanced and tailored onsite, but basic form will be delivered.

Manufactured Housing

What projects are you working on now?  What trends do you see?

My latest book [published March 2010] is More Not So Big Solutions For Your Home, about doing more with less space.  And we’re developing a line of houses for the builder market, for the people who build suburbia.  Some of them are gung-ho about building smaller houses, but you can’t just shrink a big one and make it livable.  We need to take their simple-to-build houses and make them a whole lot more interesting to live in.

A longer version of this interview will appear in the June-July issue of Indiana Living Green magazine.

Filed under: Current Events, Education, Local, Public Programs, The Toby

After a long journey to Indianapolis, Atelier Van Lieshout’s Funky Bones benches arrived last week and were unloaded on the grounds of 100 Acres: The Virginia B. Fairbanks Art and Nature Park.

Last month, 22 benches were packed in a 40 foot ocean-going freight container at the artist’s studio in Rotterdam. After an Atlantic ocean crossing, U.S. customs clearance, and a few truck trips, the container arrived at the park.

IMA staff assembled on the morning of arrival ready to unload and unpack. We opened the container to find each bench thoughtfully packed and placed within the container. As is typical with artwork in transit, extra materials were used to pad and protect each piece. However, given the size of the work, these “extra materials” amounted to a huge pile of Styrofoam.

Feeling a little guilty about leaving the Styrofoam in a dumpster for trash pickup, I began to ask coworkers if they knew of any places in Indy where we could take the foam to be recycled. Sure enough, just up the road from the IMA, we found exactly what we were looking for. We threw the first of two loads into an IMA Horticulture dump truck and headed to our destination. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Art, Art and Nature Park

I love documentaries. The more depressing, the better. The kind that hit you over the head with how the world is going to hell in a hand basket, leaving you sad and hopeless. Yep. Love it. When I asked my Twitter followers if they liked documentaries and why, I got some really great responses…

Director Chris Paine, via NUVO.net

@mitchmaxsom: Happy or sad, well-told stories that better help us understand another perspective or circumstance are beautiful and necessary

@joanofdarkknits: I watch them, but I hate them [at the same time]. I still have images burned into my brain from one on animal cruelty and one on child cruelty.

@raypawulich: They can be powerful, but if I’m going to invest my time in sitting still and watching something, I choose to be entertained.

Sure, they can really open your eyes. But sometimes, they just tell you to keep on keepin’ on. For example, I’ve been on an save-the-planet documentary kick lately, but I’ve always been pretty passionate about the environment. I don’t eat meat, I recycle, ride my bike a lot, I’ve worked for an environmentally-conscious local newspaper, and now an environmentally-conscious museum. All good things, but I have to admit, just like anyone I get lazy (I forgot my reusable grocery bag at home. Again. Oh well.) and stray from the path. Sometimes I just needed a jolt of reality to reaffirm my tree-hugging beliefs. That’s not a bad thing, right? Do what you gotta do to stay motivated. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Current Events, Film, Local, Public Programs, The Toby