educational resources

Columbus Park : The Prairie Idealized
The Columbus Park CLC module was posted on TCLF website in 2003. CLF Co-chair Jo Ann Nathan unveiled the final project as part of Mayor Daley's "Greening" symposium in August. This past fall, five hundred copies of the Columbus Park CLC were produced in CD-ROM version and the CLC series secured ISBN numbers with the Library of Congress. The module is available for purchase at TCLF website. There are on-going meetings with Chicago-area partners regarding project outreach and dissemination.

TCLF contributed towards an exhibition proposal to the National Building Museum for an expanded version of last years Jens Jensen exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center. TCLF is committed to supporting this effort and has made a commitment to assist with fund raising if appropriate. The Museum is considering the proposal.

In 2003, TCLF continued to expand its educational programs and products enabling the Foundation to realize its mission of "stewardship through education."

Cultural Landscapes as Classrooms (CLC)
This year marked the first web posting of a Cultural Landscapes as Classrooms (CLC) module, with great progress made on the second two modules in the CLC series. In November, under the direction of board member and evaluation expert, Victoria Williams, PhD, TCLF board engaged in a strategic planning workshop to investigate measurement modules for the CLC series.
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City Shaping: The Olmsteds and Louisville
The second CLC module, The Olmsteds and Louisville, progressed significantly in 2003. The module explores how Frederick Law Olmsted and his successor firm shaped the City of Louisville, Kentucky for generations to follow and interprets for both children and adults Frederick Law Olmsted's land ethic and Louisville 's forefathers' commitment to the Olmsted vision, embodied in a nationally recognized park system of large and small parks, parkways, boulevards, subdivisions, and institutional grounds.

The CLC Creative Team made two extensive trips to Louisville in the spring and summer of 2003 to complete location photography, conduct video interviews and gather additional material. In all, eighteen people were interviewed during these trips including members of the community (e.g., the Shelby Park Neighborhood Association), experts (e.g. Chuck Parish, historian for the Army Corps of Engineers), artists (e.g., a young artist who is also a skateboarder at the Extreme Park), and experts such as Grady Clay, Susan Radamacher and Mac McClure.

Over this past year, the Creative Team has refined and focused the thinking on this very complex module. This work continues to build on what we learned in the Columbus Park module. Over this past year the team began prototyping the modules interface in Flash to allow for a flexible/graphic, intuitive, interactive interface. An "archive" database is being created so that it is robust enough to support all of the planned modules and content at TCLF site. Graphic design for the application is also now underway. TCLF anticipates that this module will be unveiled in the fall 2004.

Modern Garden Icons
The Modern Garden Icons module interprets two, pre-eminent Modern Gardens in post-war America: Dan Kiley's design for J. Irwin and Xenia Miller in Columbus, Indiana and Thomas Church's biomorphic design for the Dewey Donnell Garden in Sonoma, California. Building on the video interviews of Dan Kiley at his home in Charlotte , VT in 2002, this past year, the CLC Creative Team began principal photography for the Miller Garden in Columbus , Indiana in July. During this trip the team shot still photography and QuickTime VTR panoramas. In addition to the on-site photography of the Miller Garden , there were two trips to California in July and August to film several practitioners who will be included in the modern garden module. The first trip included two days of filming with Lawrence Halprin (who worked with Church on the Donnell garden from 1947-49) and the second included video documentation of Walt Gutherie (who worked with Church for 15 years) and Ted Osmundson, the designer of the Kaiser roof garden who also worked with Church. The SWA Group has underwritten this oral history videography.

During this year TCLF secured a major gift from Elise Jaffee and Jeffrey Brown to assist with these project costs. Additional grants were prepared to secure the remaining project costs.