Grief is a Garden: Collage and Meaning Making

An image to work with, not an outcome to promise

Denver Botanic Gardens describes grief as more than a sad state of mind, suggesting it can also be imagined as dark, fertile ground from which growth, meaning and beauty may emerge. That idea supplies a frame for the collage work, without promising a particular emotional result.

The Gardens presents this as a collage-based course for adults; the listing does not describe it as therapy. Participants use images to explore feelings, wishes and memories that may resist verbal expression.

Further reading: Grief is a Garden: Collage and Meaning Making | Denver Botanic Gardens ↗

Time in the Gardens, then work in the classroom

The format moves between the Gardens and a classroom. That pairing puts the garden setting alongside a visual practice, but the course description does not assign a particular garden subject, collage project or theme to each meeting. Some materials are supplied; the listing does not specify which ones.

Rebecca Peebles is the named instructor, and no prerequisites are required. The course is therefore presented without a prior-experience barrier, though the listing does not provide a biography or further account of her teaching practice.

Further reading: Grief is a Garden: Collage and Meaning Making | Denver Botanic Gardens ↗ · Grief is a Garden: Collage and Meaning Making | Denver Botanic Gardens ↗

Five Saturday mornings, with a late-November pause

The meetings fall on three consecutive Saturdays, pause for a week after November 21, then continue on December 5 and 12. Each session runs for three hours. That break is useful to note when planning around a five-part course; the Gardens lists one overall description rather than a week-by-week syllabus.

Further reading: Grief is a Garden: Collage and Meaning Making | Denver Botanic Gardens ↗ · Calendar | Denver Botanic Gardens ↗