Workshop: Building a Manoomin Protection Dome
September 26 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Join artist and educator Sara Alsum-Wassenaar for a hands-on workshop exploring how design, engineering, and ecological restoration can work together to restore wild rice (manoomin). Participants will collaboratively build a lightweight protective dome and sew the netting used to shield young manoomin from waterfowl during establishment. Along the way, we’ll discuss restoration strategies, material choices, and why the process of making together can be just as important as the structure itself, strengthening the human relationships that healthy watersheds ultimately depend on. No prior construction or sewing experience is necessary.
For this workshop we’ll meet at the Prentice Park pavilion. There are only 25 available spots in this workshop.
About the Project
This workshop is connected to Plant Relatives and Communities Healing Fish Creek Slough: A Community Led Approach to Restoration. We are removing aggressive non-local cattails who have overcrowded and outcompeted native species. Removing cattails provides more room and resources for native plants remaining in the seedbank to grow and thrive. As part of the project, we’ll be seeding manoomin in the slough and the domes will help protect them.
About the Instructor
Sara Alsum-Wassenaar is currently on staff and teaches at Grand Valley State University. She received an MFA in New Media Art at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Sara was recently nominated for the Sustainability Champion Award, selected to conduct programming at the MDW Fair in Chicago and presented work at the CAA Conference in New York City.
Within the broader societal context her creative practice offers hope in a landscape marked by disparities. It centers on reimagining the historical extractive lens that has measured the value of the land and invites collective participation. At stake is the pursuit of spatial justice, policy reform, and community empowerment, achieved through strategic and participatory design interventions that promise to redefine the academic and societal landscape. (Co-written with collaborator Ramya Swayamprakash)
