July 16-21, 2013
Festooning is honored to offer children’s programming at Golden Rule Honey’s 2013 Northeast Treatment Free Beekeeping Conference. Join us at the Fraternal Order of Eagles, 456 Litchfield Street Leominster, MA 01453 for several levels of events. Register for Beginners Intensive, Field Day, Main Conference, and Childrens’ Programming at the link above. Confirmed Speakers include some of the most progressive and natural beekeepers from across the country: Dee Lusby, Michael Bush, Les Crowder, Dr. Paul Arnold, Sam Comfort, Dean (deknow) Stiglitz, Laurie (Ramona) Herboldsheimer, and more!
Topics to include Treatment-Free Models, Bee Breeding, Queen Rearing, Langstroth Management, Top Bar Hive Management, Honeybee Microbes, Flower Nectaries, and more!
June 9, 2013
The Boston Beekeepers have just launched tickets to participate in their 3rd annual Tour de Hives, a biking tour of honey beehives in Boston scheduled for June 9, 2013. Festooning will host picnic festivities in and about the beehive including tastes of delicious treatment free honey courtesy of Golden Rule whose community hives are situated in the Victory Gardens. More information and a schedule of events may be found at the facebook and meetup event postings.
Meet us at the Fenway Victory Gardens from 12:30-3pm for Picnic Inflation!
March 20, 2013
We are pleased to re-present Kathryn Spilios PHD as part of Festooning programming this Wednesday at 1pm. We were sad that she was lost from our lineup during wintry mix-ups, but the BU Beekeepers will host her wonderful presentation on Waggle Dancing inside of our installation. Come visit us at 808 Commonwealth Ave on March 20th!
1pm // Life of the Party // BU Beekeepers invite Kathryn E Spilios Ph.D
The social life of bees is quite complex, but beautifully organized. Through a series of dance steps, the bees are able to communicate complicated information about their environment and encourage other bees to visit the flowers and bring back more food to keep the party going. Boston University’s very own Kathryn Spilios joins us from the Department of Biology to share her research focused on colony-level organization and communication in bees.
March 17
This Sunday, March 17, we invite you to huddle inside of the inflatable beehive for a performance and reading circle. Join artists Hermione Spriggs (UK/San Diego) and Susan Sakash (Providence, RI) in a creative cross-pollination and conversation combining respective projects Telling the Bees? and Where’s Your Honey?
We’d like to keep some surprise but as we muse upon Hermione’s Birth of the Apiary, Heather Kapplow will be the subject of an intimate stick and poke. If you are so inspired Spriggs has provided a participatory element that’s a bit more temporary. We will engage in a discussion with the artists on the issues from trust to corporeal/psychological control, economic objectification to invested gratification, pain to sweetness and beyond in this durational performance. To learn more about their projects view the text below!
View more info about the artists and their projects here: Telling the Bees? & Where’s Your Honey?
FEBRUARY 2013
Please observe the new and improved schedule for our February 23rd Apisocial Saturday, 11:30am-5:30pm at Boston University’s 808 Gallery (808 Commonwealth Ave, Boston). Last week’s blizz put a damper on our buzz, but allowed us to consolidate both events into one! Both of our special out-of-town guests will be presenting with a handful of amazing local beekeepers. We have added a reception where you may sip some local meade and nibble at home-made treats. Check out our poster below and invite your friends!
As the chilly season approaches don’t succumb to brainfreeze or anti-socialites. February 23rd you are called to cluster, honeybee style, in Boston University’s 808 Gallery to learn a little something new about beehavior, community, and contemporary environmentalism. Keep the energy and ideas circulating as you rub elbows and antennae with an exceptional array of beekeepers, designers, community builders and apicultural experts.
12-2:30pm // Urban Hex: Honeybees & Community in the Urban Landscape
As troubling news of Colony Collapse Disorder sweeps the planet, there is not only a rise in environmental awareness, but an effort to encourage fewer hives in the care of more individuals. In an attempt to restore the potential for biodiversity and refocus beekeeping from a dominant industrial realm, urban beekeeping has taken the spotlight with an array of innovative solutions. Today you’ll hear about the importance of community, urban agricultural spaces, and mentorship in cities stretching from Massachusetts to the Netherlands!
12pm // Bees over Boston // Golden Rule Honey
12:30pm // Herban|Urban Honey Flow // Leland Street Community Garden
1pm // Banks of the Charles & Tour De Hives // BU Beekeepers
1:30pm // SKY HIVE // SPECIAL GUESTS The Bee Collective
*2pm // Urban Hex Panel Discussion // Honeybees and Community in the Urban Landscape*
3-5:30pm // Teachers’ Pets // An Introduction to Apiphilia
Ok Cupid, your classic pick-up “Save the bees!” only got us so far with environmentalism. We’re ready to take our relationship to the next level. Today’s speakers offer a drop of science, pinch of art history, and spritz of classic sex-ed – an intriguing brew that may leave you hooked on Apis mellifera. Learning to understand these ladies may help us identify our own needs. A mere teaser will introduce us to the world of honey beehavior, social (super)organisms, api-architecture, and communication as it may be perceived by and reflected in human nature.
3pm // Love Stings // Dean Stiglitz and Ramona Herboldsheimer of Golden Rule Honey
4:30pm // The Double Decker Dodeca // Beekeeper Ron Breland
5:30-7pm // Reception // We invite you to stick around after lectures. Meet the presenters, pick some bee brains to celebrate the end of our series. Special guest musician Borey Shin will set the tone with experimental DRONE!
I am a beekeeper and a visual artist who has done a lot of work with printed images of bees in both installations and in artist books and prints. Alas, I have to bee in NY this weekend. I hope this is a great event. I am really sorry to to be able to attend. Loved the ideas of the people from the netherlands.
best,
annie