Join the Arboretum’s 2026 Native American Artist in Residence, Maggie Thompson, for a community- and land-engaged collage workshop!
This all-ages, hands-on workshop invites participants to explore Ojibwe floral design through drawing, cut paper, and collage. Maggie will guide you to observe flowers, plants, soil, and ground patterns around the Snyder Building and the MacMillan and Morgan Terrace gardens. With the Arboretum as a shared point of reference, you will use your observational skills and think about your relationship to the land. This process mimics Maggie’s own, larger process and plan for her Residency.
Light lunch will be provided.
In this class you will:
- Learn about Ojibwe floral design: its visual language, cultural context, and role as a living, evolving practice.
- Practice close looking skills by drawing your own “ground” on paper, inspired by the textures, colors, and forms of earth, dirt, and soil found in the Terrace Gardens surrounding the Snyder Tea Room. This ground will be the foundation for your design, echoing the project’s focus on intergenerational teaching and the idea of growth emerging from shared foundations.
- Make collages inspired by Ojibwe aesthetics: Using pre-cut and hand-cut paper shapes, create your own floral motif, informed by Ojibwe floral design, adapting your patterns through your own interpretation. Pasting the floral forms onto the drawn ground will layer the compositions to reflect land and plant life.