Mission Garden Lecture at Pima County Historic Courthouse Reopening
Tues, Nov. 16, 2021, 11 AM -12 PM MST, Free
Please note the lecture location is at the Pima County Historic Courthouse* (not at Mission Garden)
—> Please register for the free event here
About the Courthouse Reopening events: “In celebration of the recently completed renovations to the Pima County Historic Courthouse, the County cordially invites the community to attend free lectures and events during the week of November 15th-19th. Subject matter experts from our community will provide free talks on a wide range of topics. Learn more about the true story of Wyatt Earp, relive Courthouse cases that made history, identify the sounds of the Sonoran Desert, broaden your understanding of the region's gems and minerals, and go back in time with presentations from the Presidio Museum . Tickets are free and will be available beginning October 15th. Space is limited and will be by RSVP only so please register to attend.
About the Mission Garden lecture: Curator Dena Cowan is working with doctoral candidate Ellen Platts to develop new pathways for recording and sharing interpretive content about the wide variety of plants within the Garden.
The project includes building new ways for the public to access the interpretive ethnobotanical stories that bring the Garden to life. Through an interactive StoryMap built with the ArcGIS platform, visitors to the Garden, both onsite and remote, will be able to take virtual tours using their own devices, and find illustrated descriptions of themed garden areas, as well as stories about individual plants. Contributors of these stories represent the multi-cultural history of the Garden, including people of the different ethnicities and backgrounds associated with the cultures whose agricultural and culinary traditions are being interpreted.
About the Presenters:
Dena Cowan was born and raised in Tucson, and received a BFA from New York University, but she lived most of her adult life in rural Spain, where she learned agro-ecological traditions. Since she returned to Tucson in 2012 she has participated in the development of Mission Garden, where she served as Community Outreach Coordinator and Garden Supervisor before taking on the role of Curator of Collections. She is also Regenerative Farming Consultant for Oatman Flats Ranch, a large-scale farm in the lower Gila River valley specializing in heritage and arid-adapted crops.
Ellen Platts is a doctoral candidate in anthropology at the University of Maryland. She is currently living in Tucson conducting fieldwork for her dissertation project, which examines sustainable development and food justice in Tucson as they have been impacted by the city's designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy.Hear from Dena Cowan, Curator of Collections, and Ellie Platts.
—> Please register for the free event here
*Masks or face coverings are required inside all County facilities.
