We’ve already begun to activate the Library Field as a site of knowledge creation through our fall hikes and spring stewardship workshops, and we’re eager to add some more formal programming — events that likewise take advantage of our wooded setting — in Spring and Summer 2026.
While the “stump speech” has been reduced to a political campaign pitch, we aim to reclaim the phrase’s etymological root by reanimating the tree stump as an apparatus for gathering and learning together. Starting in late Spring 2026, METRO will invite small groups of our members and neighbors to pull up a stump and join visiting authors and artists in the woods for a series of open-air book readings, artist’s talks, and other en plein air presentations and discussions.
In addition, we’ll launch a multi-year series exploring the elements — earth, water, fire, and air (plus wood, drawing from the Chinese tradition) — through their various seasonal manifestations and via a range of disciplinary perspectives. Small, multifarious groups of scientists, humanists, artists, designers, policymakers, knowledge workers, and others will join us both amidst the trees and online to help us cultivate prismatic perspectives about the stuff that composes our world — and curate capacious collections of ecological resources to serve our broader communities.
