For more than 40 years, Visual Artist Caryl Henry Alexander has collaborated with multigenerational, multicultural, and interfaith communities to design and implement community-centered public art projects.
With a deep focus on culture, environment, and nature, Caryl’s work explores the connections between people and our environment, collectively weaving stories through visual-based creative expression.
In the studio, her work spans painting, printmaking, papermaking, textiles, installations, and sculpture, often incorporating repurposed materials and natural plant elements.
In the community, she engages as a visual artist, curator, lecturer, and activist, using art to foster collective creative vision and action.
From her perspective as a visual artist and herbalist, the Hazel Crest Open Lands Project is an excellent and valuable asset to the community. I am inspired to present three ideas to you that engage the land and the arts in lifting up the efforts that have already been successfully achieved at the site. My ideas are centered on the power of nature to help us relax and remember ourselves.
Join the artist as she gathers natural elements to build the mandala project: rocks, twigs, branches, grass, etc, flora, and leaves.
August 8: Visit the land and design the mandala
August 9:Hazel Crest Family Mandala Build, 11am-1pm at the gathering space
Full Moon Social Mandala Ceremony 7:30pm -10:00pm
August 10: The artist will be documenting the mandala and traveling.
Project History:
Hazel Crest Open Lands Arboretum received ArbNet Level II Accreditation in 2019. The Hazel
Crest Open Lands Area totals 53 acres along Kedzie Avenue between 172nd Street. The
Open Lands Commission is evolving to be more than just about transforming the Open Lands
from an invasive brush-infested jungle into an enjoyable woodland. They have added more
educational presentations and guest speakers at Commission meetings, embraced other
cultures, and experimented with Climate Change Projects with the U.S. Forest Service, and
Morton Arboretum. (Some would brag about their education sessions and research projects to
get into the Level III area.) Not only has the commission labeled hundreds of trees, but they
have also identified and cataloged different species of trees.
