This interdisciplinary project-based course is founded on the premise of combining art and ecology by immersion into an outdoor, constructed, natural park environment with an emphasis on developing creative ways to address environmental problems in Phipps Run, Schenley Park. Within this outdoor classroom both research about the park’s history and experiencing the constructed natural environment by walking, sitting, listening are essential activities. This combined with a tour by a Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy horticulturalist about the specific issues of invasive plant removal and soil erosion problems coupled with volunteer workdays to learn mitigation strategies forms a collaborative work ethic.

The emphasis of the student project is on brainstorming ideas and forming collaborative teams to work through a process that leads to professional project proposals. The proposals are presented to the PPC staff to acquire permission to implement projects. The goal is to implement projects into the park environment in a sensitive, quiet manner, an art that exists in an ecologically sensitive manner that may, or may not be noticed by the casual park user. Viewers that observe more closely receive a rich, quiet, unusual solution to how we perceive the world.