Placemaking on the Jones Falls: A Nature Journaling Workshop

The Peale’s exhibition is an invitation to extend our senses into the landscape around us and the other futures it may promise, to turn our attention from the commotion of city streets to the vibrant yet unseen riverscape at our feet. By imagining what the many things we leave behind could one day become when our fossil-fueled civilization has faded away, the exhibition dreams of a more symbiotic and hopeful time to come for our watershed and planet.

Nature journaling is one method to disrupt the regular current of daily life and access a flow more in sync with the natural rhythms around us. Nature journaling is an ancient practice which combines elements of scientific inquiry, drawing, writing and mindfulness to connect with the wonders of the natural world around us. Nature journaling invites us to slow down, closely observing elements that often go unnoticed in our surroundings. Tapping into curiosity and deep, sustained attention, participants will gaze with “new eyes” at the unseen natural wonders hidden within our urban ecosystem. Through community reflection and sharing, we will build upon the ideas of one another to co-create a deeper sense of place.

This workshop will be led by seasoned educator and environmental education researcher, Lindi Shepard. Whether you are brand new to the practice of nature journaling or a long-time practitioner, every participant will find new lenses to frame their experience, expand their practices, and reflect on the wonders of our shared place within the Jones Falls watershed.

*Participants should bring their own journals (preferably with unlined paper) and desired writing implements (pencils, erasers, pens, watercolors, pastels, colored pencils). A limited amount of extra supplies will be made available for anyone who needs it.

Lindi Shepard is the Teaching Fellowship Director at Words in the Wild, an organization dedicated to improving early literacy through joyful, nature-based experiences. She is working towards a Ph.D. in Education at Johns Hopkins University, where she conducts research on how people learn in and about the natural world at the Social Psychology in Education and the Environment (SPiEE) Lab. Lindi developed a keen interest in the learning sciences as an early childhood and elementary school teacher, inspired by watching children play and co-construct knowledge in community. She is particularly interested in how we learn in collaboration with the more-than-human world, leveraging curiosity and play to build place-based connection and an ethos of collective stewardship. Lindi holds a B.S. in Special Education from the University of Georgia and a M.A. in Cognitive Science in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Host or Publisher The Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture