Artists, Get Inspired by Plants
An invitation to look deeply and express what you see
Native Plant Trust's Visiting Artist Program invites local artists, creatives, movers, and makers from all areas of the creative sphere to explore their art practice while working with and among the plants and landscapes of our native plant botanic garden, Garden in the Woods, in Framingham, MA, and our Native Plant Sanctuaries across New England. At the conclusion of their time with us, the visiting artist will present the culmination of their work to the public in the form of an exhibition, performance, conversation, installation, and/or other means.
Applications to the Visiting Artist Program will be accepted on a rolling basis. In general, we will host one artist presentation per season, but this may vary, depending on the work generated by the artist and the time of year.
To apply to the program, please complete and submit the form via the green button below. We will follow up with you upon receiving your application.
If you have any questions about the program, please email us at education@NativePlantTrust.org.
Thank you for your interest in the Visiting Artist program. Our 2025 Visiting Artist has been selected. We will begin reading applications for our 2026 Visiting Artist in September 2025. If you have questions or need additional information from us, please write to education@nativeplanttrust.org.
*Please note, this opportunity does not include housing or a housing subsidy. Visiting artists must provide their own transportation and housing.
Our 2025 Visiting Artist: Skooby Laposky
Skooby Laposky is a film composer, field recordist, DJ, and sound designer based in Cambridge, MA.
In recent years, Skooby's work has focused on the practice of biodata sonification, which invites listeners into closer kinship with the natural world by translating the minute electric impulses of leaves into sound. Skooby’s commitment to deep listening techniques teaches us that being in relationship with New England’s native plants, and with our natural environments as a whole, involves a humble willingness to sit with the beings in front of us, allowing ourselves to be surprised by how much more of them we can hear and see.
Skooby's Visiting Artist year will include three offerings: a world premiere sound installation at our May 16th Twilight Trilliums event; an all-day sonification workshop at Garden in the Woods on August 17th; and an additional fall program, TBD. Please subscribe to our eNews to stay up to date.
Our Past Visiting Artists
Christine Southworth, 2023.
Christine Southworth, who inaugurated our Visiting Artist program, is a composer and video artist based in Lexington, MA, dedicated to creating art born from a cross-pollination of sonic and visual ideas. Inspired by intersections of technology and art, nature and machines, and musics from cultures around the world, her music employs sounds from man and nature, from Van de Graaff Generators to honeybees, Balinese gamelan to seismic data from volcanoes. Christine worked at Native Plant Trust in spring 2023. A portion of her photo assemblage 156 Mushrooms appears above.
Julie C Baer, our 2024 Visiting Artist, is a multi-media artist who created a body of work titled Regarding Nature, inspired by the changing forms of plants, algae, fungi, lichens, and more at Garden in the Woods. Her pieces focus on these natural shapes, arrangements, and patterns and encourage viewers to see features of a familiar space in fresh and surprising ways.
