Mount Auburn with a motto that sums up what makes his work here so different from a traditional indoor space: don’ t fight the site.“ When you’ re in a theater, you can create whatever reality you want, and it’ s easy to encourage the imagination. When you’ re outside, with a concrete reality all around you … it’ s really, really important to think hard about what you’ re seeing and what you’ re doing.” In other words,“ I would be foolish to try and set a play in a desert next to Willow Pond!”
Challenges notwithstanding, Patrick is excited about the opportunities for site-specific performances to engage theatergoers in an unconventional setting like Mount Auburn, especially the ability to create a uniquely intimate experience for the audience. While not technically breaking the fourth wall( having actors address the audience directly), he has found that the barrier between the two sides is more relaxed than in a traditional theater, simply because the performance space is all around them, transporting them into the story on a deeper level.“ That change of relationship is so exciting for me, because it builds a sense of intimacy between everybody … people get really excited by that,” he explains. In the process, he can create new, deeper ways for audiences to engage with the history and nature around them.
Grant News
By Jenny Gilbert, Director of Institutional Advancement
In 1831, civil engineer and surveyor Alexander Wadsworth( 1806 – 1898) used the tools of his trade— a compass and a 66-foot chain of 100 swiveled links— to survey the land comprising the first 72 acres of Mount Auburn Cemetery. And until very recently, Wadsworth would have recognized the tools at Mount Auburn in the measuring tapes and compasses we used to map our plant collections. However, more recently, global positioning and mapping technology, as well as a series of generous grants, have given us new tools for mapping our collections that Wadsworth would have struggled to identify.
With three grants from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust( 2014 – 2015), we have been able to purchase GPSbased tools. These resources enabled our curatorial staff to purchase the hardware and software needed to collect data in the field that feeds directly into a geodatabase. In 2016, we received a Museums for America grant( MA-30-17- 0309) from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to hire Brian Morgan from the Alliance for Public Gardens GIS and ESRI to install his GIS( geographic information system) database model on our servers and configure the hardware and server software to allow the database to run and be accessible via the Internet.
The public can get a first look at his work in Fall 2018, when he will produce staged readings followed by audience feedback sessions, thanks to a grant from the Bob Jolly Charitable Trust. After further editing, final
Patrick and Director Courtney O ' Connor visit Washington Tower.
productions will start in Spring 2019. In the meantime, Patrick continues to enjoy getting to know Mount Auburn on every level.“ Learning about the history, whether it’ s in the archives or talking to the people who work here, has just been so enriching for me personally and artistically, to think about all the possibilities,” he says.“ It feels like you can just explore and explore and explore, and I wish it was even longer!”
Staged Readings of Patrick’ s plays will be held: Saturday, September 8th at 1PM Tuesday, September 25th at 5:30PM
These grants set the framework for the Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery to apply for and receive a FY2017 $ 100,000 grant( MA-30-17-0309-17) from the IMLS in support of a two-year project to develop a new plant collections online map application that will help guide visitors onsite or enable them to visit the arboretum collections virtually. The grant will allow Mount Auburn’ s horticulture curatorial staff to work with Blue Raster, LLC, a GIS consultancy group, which will merge our existing plant collections database with ESRI GIS technology; build online map and plant information functionality on our website; perform ongoing GIS analysis and development; and create a mobile data collection application for use in the field. The project will also support interns who will work with our staff to assist with GIS tasks, photograph plants for the database and website, and update the plant collections data electronically during a systematic fieldcheck on the grounds.
The goal to develop online mapping has broadly affected the national community of arboreta. These modern tools are making plant collections data more accurate and accessible, for the better stewardship of living collections.
2018 Volume 1i | 17