What We Did This Summer!
August 2017
This summer the Garden Club of Michigan raised the $150,000 needed for the design phase of the Piet Oudolf garden.
And, we are closer to getting approval for the site on Belle Isle.
We presented our vision and the proposed site to the Belle Isle Advisory Committee at their August 17 meeting. The committee was very positive about the idea and voted unanimously to support it. While an advisory body, we view this support as very significant.
Yesterday, we met with Michigan Department of Natural Resources Director Keith Creagh and his team in Lansing to review our progress and ask for guidance on working with them to get the official DNR stamp of approval for the proposed site and garden. They were very helpful and we will keep you posted on our progress during the coming weeks.
We also met with the DIA’s head of projects Larry Baranski in August and are very excited to ask you to mark your calendars for Thursday, January 4, 2018. That evening the DIA will host a screening of the documentary of the film about Piet Oudolf: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall in the Detroit Film Theater. Working with all of you we want to fill the theater with the rich diverseness of the community so that together we can learn more about Piet Oudolf’s amazing work and hear directly from Piet and filmmaker Tom Piper. Both Piet and Tom have confirmed they are coming. We have also been in discussions with professor MaryCarol Hunter from the University of Michigan about conducting a Piet Oudolf workshop and lecture – she has taught a graduate course on Piet Oudolf at UMich for five years
We are thrilled that the DIA, under Salvador Salort-Pons leadership, understands the incredible opportunity we have to be able to work with Piet Oudolf in Detroit and are very moved by the support they are showing us. We have had such great support too from the Belle Isle Conservancy, The Detroit River Conservancy, the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, the City of Detroit and many others. We also want to say thank you to friends of Piet’s like Scott Stewart, Ph.D., who runs the Millennium Park Foundation in Chicago, who have been so generous with their time and expertise as we work to bring Piet’s work to Detroit.
Happy Labor Day!
-Piet’s Detroit Team