A Living Library – Archive Site » Bernal Heights Living Library & Think Park

Apr '19

Update On Transformation Of Seneca Avenue Streetscape In San Francisco

A generous grant awarded to Life Frames, Inc. in January 2018 by the California Natural Resources Agency under Proposition 1 – California Urban Rivers Grant Program – is helping the ecological transformation of Seneca Avenue between San Jose and Cayuga Avenues in the Islais Creek Watershed. As planned by Bonnie Ora Sherk and Life Frames, Inc. in conjunction with hydrogeologists from Ramboll, the long, wide, currently barren street of Seneca Avenue will be developed into a series of Rain Gardens to help address climate changes and mitigate flooding in the Cayuga Valley from storm water overflows in the sewer system and the historic, flooding, Islais Creek under Balboa High School and along Cayuga Avenue.

This Seneca transformation will also expand the OMI/Excelsior Living Library & Think Park at the campuses of the local schools, by planting hundreds of California native trees and understory plants. This work will also expand the A.L.L. Nature Walk linking schools, parks, public housing, streets, and other open spaces in the Islais Creek Watershed, the largest Watershed in San Francisco.

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Posted by Pushpanjali Roy in
Art, Landscape Architecture, & Systemic Design, Bernal Heights Living Library & Think Park, Islais Creek Watershed, OMI/Excelsior Living Library & Think Park

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Aug '18

Summer Plantings In A Living Library Gardens In New York City & San Francisco

Students from Roosevelt Island Public School

Summer is going to end soon ! Before green leaves turn dry brown and red, here is an update about the work A Living Library accomplished through the summer season in our Gardens in New York and San Francisco.

In the Roosevelt Island Living Library & Think Park Gardens in New York City, students from Roosevelt Island School Beacon (PS/ IS 217) enjoyed various garden activities while learning about science and ecology during their after-school classes. Here are a few pictures capturing their enthusiasm in the RI Living Library Gardens:

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Posted by Pushpanjali Roy in
A.L.L. Pedagogy, Bernal Heights Living Library & Think Park, Bernal Heights Living Library Nature Walk, OMI/Excelsior Living Library & Think Park, Roosevelt Island Living Library & Think Park

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Jan '18

A Library Library Goals for 2018

A.L.L.'s Goals for 2018

2017 was another remarkable and productive year for Life Frames, Inc., non-profit sponsor of A Living Library, with relentless efforts to bring ecological greening across many environments of New York City and San Francisco while educating children, youth, and adults about natural systems and the importance of integrated diversity through Learning by Doing. For those who missed our 2017 In Review Enewsletter, click here to know more about all the work we accomplished last year.

As the first month of the brand new 2018 goes by, Bonnie Ora Sherk, Founder & Director of Life Frames, Inc. & A Living Library, shares A.L.L.’s Goals for this year: (more…)

Posted by bonnieora in
A.L.L. Pedagogy, Art, Landscape Architecture, & Systemic Design, Bernal Heights Living Library & Think Park, Bernal Heights Living Library Nature Walk, International Branch Living Library & Think Parks, Islais Creek Watershed, OMI/Excelsior Living Library & Think Park, Roosevelt Island Living Library & Think Park

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Dec '17

Bernal Heights Living Library & Think Park Nature Walk Update

As we were finishing our planting and plant establishment activities with our California Strategic Growth Council Grant, the Bernal Heights Living Library & Think Park Nature Walk continued to grow and thrive, as we planted, weeded, and watered, thus accomplishing much more to beautify the diverse parks, schools, and street environments of the neighborhood. This Grant has made a huge impact on this community by transforming formerly disconnected and uninteresting areas into new places of beauty and health for all species.

Bernal Heights Living Library & Think Park Nature Park

During this period, we had the great support of San Francisco Recreation & Park Department Apprentices – very hard workers - who were able to make many additional California native drought tolerant understory plantings as well as accomplish other plant establishment activities including mulching many areas in St. Mary’s and Holly Parks.

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Posted by bonnieora in
Art, Landscape Architecture, & Systemic Design, Bernal Heights Living Library & Think Park, Bernal Heights Living Library Nature Walk, Islais Creek Watershed

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Sep '17

Bonnie Ora Sherk and A Living Library Receive International Recognition at Venice Biennale 2017

Venice Biennale 2017

Bonnie Ora Sherk and A Living Library (A.L.L.) have been recognized and featured in one of the most prestigious contemporary art exhibitions in the world, The Venice Biennale 2017. The 57th edition of La Biennale, also known as the Olympics of the Art World, opened on May 10, 2017 and will continue through November 26, with an estimated attendance of more than 500,000 visitors. A Living Library is exhibited as a part of Bonnie Ora Sherk’s installation Evolution of Life Frames: past, present, future, in the Arsenale in the Pavilion of the Earth, dedicated to the environment, ecological, and communitarianism movements — one of the nine themed sections of the exhibition curated by Christine Macel, also Chief Curator of the Pompidou in Paris, France. Additionally, Bonnie Ora has been invited to return to Venice and La Biennale to give a public talk on her work on October 7, and then will give another public talk and workshop on A Living Library in Zurich, Switzerland on October 12 and 13th at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste / ZHdK.

Her two-part installation in La Biennale also features Crossroads Community (the farm) — a pioneering collaborative artwork involving urban agriculture, multi-arts, and environmental education — that resulted in Potrero del Sol Park, adjacent to the Chavez/ 101 Freeway Interchange. From 1974 to 1980, Sherk was the Founding Director and President of Crossroads Community (the Farm) which has been recognized as one of the first Alternative Art Spaces in the United States. Her installation includes the original drawings she made for the Park. A video featuring her and her way of working has been published on the official website of The Venice Biennale 2017.