Ridgefield's Talk of Our Town

Come to the Aldrich and Play in the Dirt

Johanna Vail of Kent, NY gets into the dirt at The Aldrich’s sustainable garden, designed by artist, Fritz Haeg.

by Priscilla Matthews

Families are invited to swing by The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum any Tuesday or Thursday morning this summer to dig, play, draw, and explore in Fritz Haeg’s sustainable garden.  Bring your children, pack your lunch, spread out a blanket, and come Play in the Dirt.  An educator will facilitate sustainability related outdoor explorations and projects for all.

Fritz Haeg’s exhibition, Something for Everyone, encompasses a series of projects integrated into the existing landscape and architecture of the Museum.  Each project facilitates some sort of activity for humans, animals and plants.  They all explore the possibilities of repurposing places we have inherited in order to provide adequately for everyone.

Haeg’s Edible Estate has turned a six-foot-wide strip along the front sidewalk of the Museum into a garden filled with vegetables, herbs, fruits and grains, planted and tended by The Aldrich’s staff.  Animal Estates takes place where the Museum’s ash tree recently died.  With the assistance of local urban wildlife experts, Haeg has designed new homes for some of the animals that lost their habitat.  All the projects will be accompanied by instructive materials, so that visitors can create similar estates on their own property.

The family Play in the Dirt hours are free and will take place between 11 am and 1 pm, weather permitting, on Tuesdays and Thursdays between June 29 and August 19.

For more information, please call the Museum during regular hours, 203.438.4519 or visit www.aldrichart.org

Aldrich education programs are funded, in part, by the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism, the Cowles Charitable Trust, Estate of Ruth I. Krauss, The Lumpkin Family Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Newman’s Own, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and Target.