Photos by Chris McIntosh and Dave Green

CFA Faculty

CFA in Bloom

New on-campus color garden allows student-artists to sustainably grow their own pigments, dyes, and fibers

Over the summer and fall of 2024, a team of School of Visual Arts (SVA) students-turned-gardeners took on the challenge of growing, planting, monitoring, and harvesting a host of vibrant plants—coreopsis, indigo, aster, and chamomile—at a sunny, 92-by-45-foot plot just east of the CFA building.

CFA’s color garden features mainly native, drought-resistant perennials, as well as a few annuals that will be replanted seasonally. Part of its purpose is to introduce homegrown, natural dyes to the school’s curriculum. Left: Students Lauren Boysa (from left), Anthony Venturi, and Julia Cheung (’25). Right: Nerissa Cooney, programming and media manager for the School of Visual Arts, mentored the group.

“We really wanted to emphasize native plants, because they help to re-enliven the natural environment and natural ecosystem,” says Natalie Seitz (’25, CAS’28). “We wanted to bring native pollinators to the garden, like bees and moths and butterflies, and we’re seeing a lot of them as well.”

Seitz is the initiative’s outreach coordinator and flora and fauna researcher. She’s part of a five-person team of seniors who met weekly in the summer and fall to discuss signage installation, upcoming events, and coordination between the garden and the various parties who sought to use it. Each team member has a role to play, and all were expected to take turns visiting the garden for daily watering and upkeep. They had one setback—some hungry bunnies, which they’ve managed to keep out with rabbit-proof fencing. Otherwise, their oversight was quick to pay off—in the form of ochre, magenta, violet, and crimson blooms.

The garden grows mainly native, drought-resistant perennials—plus a few annuals that will be replanted seasonally—and is meant to achieve multiple goals at once. It’s designed to introduce homegrown, natural dyes to the school’s curriculum; to create more serene green space on campus; to educate passersby about the plants and their uses; and, perhaps most important, to serve as a model of sustainability and self-sufficiency. While the project is still in its early phases, the color garden team will research and experiment with the dyes and hold community workshops where all are invited to share in the bounty. The garden has also been used by SVA classes for drawing exercises.

“The ethos is to slow down, and I think the natural dye process emulates that,” says Lauren Boysa (’25, CAS’27), the color garden team’s communications representative. “The reason we’re choosing to create dyes this way is to slow down the process of buying materials, to learn that there’s an origin to everything. It starts here.”

How to grow a seedling

1: Select a small container with adequate depth and drainage. Fill with seed-starting soil that has been moistened until crumbly.

2: Follow seed packet instructions for planting depth. Sow seeds, re-covering with a thin layer of soil.

3: Position somewhere warm with strong sunlight, like on the sill of a south-facing window.

4: Keep moist with a spray bottle, allowing soil to completely dry between mistings.

Breaking Ground

Before the students began germinating their seeds, before they got a location approved, before they began fundraising, there was an idea.

Dana Clancy (’99), an associate professor of painting, was faculty mentor for a 2021–2022 Campus Climate Lab (CCL) grant proposal from graduate students Emily Manning-Mingle (’09,’22) and Sohyoung Park (’23). The grant didn’t pan out that year, but after Manning-Mingle graduated, she and Clancy held on to the notion that the color garden could one day be a reality. In fall of 2023, they approached Boysa and Anthony Venturi (’25, CAS’25), the group’s primary groundskeeper and landscape planner, because of their shared interest in “environmentally oriented” art.“We jumped at it, and slowly we recruited our friends,” Boysa says with a laugh, “because that’s what you do.”

Clancy mentored the students throughout the year, helping secure the site, and submitted another proposal to CCL that linked its mission statement to the BU Climate Action Plan’s pledge to add more campus green space. Students also received lots of faculty support, from E. Tubergen, an assistant professor of sculpture; Rebecca Bourgault, an associate professor of art education; Richard Ryan, an associate professor of painting; Nathan Phillips, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of Earth and environment; and Nerissa Cooney (’08), SVA’s programming and media manager.

The student team was responsible for outlining an ecologically conscious mission to underscore the garden’s artistic aims, which netted them a Campus Climate Lab grant in the spring of 2024. They got a big assist from Greg Limerick, the University’s trucking and grounds manager, who helped them prepare the garden’s home between CFA and the foot of the BU Bridge and advised them on which native plants were likely to thrive in the area. They also consulted with Emmanuel Didier, a Colorado-based landscape architect and an acquaintance of Clancy’s, to vet the designs.

How to keep a plant alive

1: Water at least once a week, taking care not to over- or under-water the plants.

2: Check for signs of pests and rot. Weed your garden frequently. Prune and deadhead as necessary.

3: Feed your soil with mulch, compost, worm castings, or other nutritious fertilizers.

4: Support your garden by protecting it from animals, staking plants, and planting companion plants to encourage more growth.

“When he met with us, we talked through all these things we had no idea about, like drip lines and tree canopies,” says Boysa. “We became cognizant that we’d have to understand the sun’s pattern and know where it hits at certain times in the day. There was a lot of preplanning.”

In early April, a crew led by Limerick helped prepare the garden bed and secured its first plantings. Later in the month, on Earth Day, students, faculty, and a number of project supporters completed their first planting: sunny marigolds, a symbol of new beginnings.

Perennial Favorite

After the growing season comes the harvest. Next to the marigolds went sunny asters, purple black-eyed Susans, and a riot of other colors; when the plants were ready, the garden team organized a program of fall and winter events for the BU community, including do-it-yourself dyeing workshops. Each event began by dyeing fabric squares in vats of plant pigment, a roughly 45-minute process. In the intervening time, the team facilitated activities like flower ink painting and community education sessions. When 45 minutes was up, the dyed fabric was collected.

“Our idea was to turn these dyed fabric squares into a book, which will be a record of the certain species we used at a community event, the process we did,” says Boysa. “The [fabric from] community events will be in the pages alongside our own group research, and as this garden grows older, we’ll see the progression of our skills and methodology.”

How to Make Dye with Flower Petals

1: Gather a large handful of colorful flowers, discarding stems and leaves, in a coffee mug or other small, heat-resistant container.

2: Pour boiling water over petals, until just covered. Using a stick, mash petals to release pigments.

3: Acids and bases, such as lemon juice and baking soda, will lighten or darken the color, respectively. Add if desired.

4: Steep for at least half an hour; the longer you steep, the more vivid the color will be.

The School of Theatre costume department has also expressed interest in using the plants for fabric dyeing and potentially growing their own fibers. “So this will truly be a CFA garden,” Clancy says.

Although the five seniors who make up the garden team will graduate in the spring, they want the space’s oversight and upkeep to be as sustainable as the garden itself. Seitz says that they’re looking for rising juniors and first-semester MFA students to take over; that would give the newcomers two full years to get their hands dirty.

In October 2024, the garden team held a DIY dyeing workshop. Participants dyed fabric squares with flowers from the garden and made small paintings using flower ink. The event was also an opportunity to educate attendees about the garden and its goals.

One of the most important things for future gardeners to keep in mind, says Boysa, is that while the color garden is designed to be used by BU artists, it’s meant for anyone to enjoy.

The founding team considers the garden an outdoor community classroom. “That means two things,” says Boysa. “The first is a literal classroom for students to sit, observe, and draw,” she explains. “The second is a more abstract, community classroom, where anyone passing by can go in and learn something. Our garden is a piece of art, and everyone is contributing to it, whether they know it or not.”