Tickets
FREE, with RSVP
Please note, we will try to accomodate as many walk-ins as possible.
Learn how to transform your landscape into a welcoming home for biodiversity with Edwina von Gal, founder of Perfect Earth Project, April Gornik, co-founder of The Church, and Frank Quevedo, Executive Director of the South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center. Join three eco-minded institutions in the spirit of collaboration, creativity, and conservation as we host a conversation designed to uncover the simple ways we can cultivate healthy eco-systems in our own backyards! Those in attendance will have the opportunity to present questions to the speakers. Join us for a Saturday afternoon centered on giving back to Mother Earth through knowledge, insight, and botanical creativity.
EDWINA VON GAL
FOUNDER OF PERFECT EARTH PROJECT
Photo by Inez & Vinoodh
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A leading voice in sustainable gardening and landscape design, Edwina von Gal founded Perfect Earth Project in 2013 to promote ecological, toxic-free land care for the health of people, their pets, and the planet. As principal of her eponymous landscape design firm, Edwina created landscapes with a focus on simplicity, sustainability, and beauty for private and public clients around the world. Her work has been published widely, including in The New York Times, Vogue, and Architectural Digest, and her award-winning book Fresh Cuts. In 2024, she was named one of the top 50 Creatives in America by Wallpaper* magazine. She has served on boards and committees for a number of horticultural organizations and currently serves on the board of What Is Missing, Maya Lin’s multifaceted media artwork about the loss of biodiversity, Longue Vue’s National Council, and is a member of the Native Plant Trust’s Council. Her awards include the LongHouse Visionary Award from LongHouse Reserve, the New York School of Interior Design’s Green Design Award, the Isamu Noguchi Award, and Guild Hall's Academy of the Arts Lifetime Achievement Award for the Visual Arts.
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Founded in 2013 by Edwina von Gal, Perfect Earth Project is a nonprofit dedicated to educating, engaging, and inspiring individuals, land care professionals, and decision-makers to adopt toxic-free, nature based, and climate-responsible landscaping practices necessary for a healthier, more sustainable—and beautiful environment for all.
The core of Perfect Earth Project’s mission is ecological land care, which means working with nature and its beauty, not against it. When we use these simple methods, our gardens become a feast for the senses, hosting a healthy and vibrant ecosystem that is safe for us, our kids, and our pets.
FRANK QUEVEDO
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, SOUTH FORK NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM and NATURE CENTER (SOFO)
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Born in the Bronx and raised in Yonkers, New York, Frank has been the Executive Director of the South Fork Natural History Museum (SOFO) located in Bridgehampton since 2010. He is a graduate of Long Island University, Southampton with a B.S. in Marine Biology and a degree in Business Administration from Iona College. Prior to his current position as the Director of the Museum, Frank worked for the Town of East Hampton for 12 years as a Bay Management Specialist restoring and enhancing shellfish populations on the east end of Long Island. The Museum produces over 250 nature education programs annually, including environmental and marine science summer programs, environmental clubs for children and various scientific research initiatives, including the SOFO Shark Research and Education Program.
Frank is passionate about sustaining the natural environment and educating people on becoming stewards of our planet. He also writes nature articles for local publications and enjoys wildlife photography. He is a co-founder and board member of the South Fork Sea Farmers Organization, advocating and educating the community on sustainable shellfish farming. He lives in Sag Harbor, New York.
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The South Fork Natural History Museum & Nature Center is the only state-of-the-art natural history museum on the South Fork of Long Island. Founded in 1988 by a group of South Fork naturalists as The Nature Clubhouse in Amagansett, the museum opened at its permanent location in May 2005 in eastern Suffolk County at 377 Bridgehampton/Sag Harbor Turnpike in Bridgehampton, NY. A place for children and adults of all ages to discover, explore, learn, and engage, the South Fork Natural History Museum & Nature Center is open seven days a week (except on Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day) from 10 AM to 4 PM. For more information please visit Sofo.org
APRIL GORNIK
CO-FOUNDER, THE CHURCH
Photo by David Benthal
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Artist April Gornik’s paintings and drawings of land, sky and sea are anchored in observed reality and a world synthesized, abstracted, remembered and imagined. They offer the viewer an opportunity to explore dichotomies between past and present, expanse and its circumscription, intimacy in immensity, stillness and the inexorable momentum of atmospheric change. Her canvases – roiling seas, brewing skies, mountains and endless plains – internalize and engage nature’s proscenium. In these captured moments, the natural world triumphs and the mirror of time stares back.
Her work may be found in the public collections of the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; Cincinnati Museum, Cincinnati, OH; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, OH; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA; Fisher Landau Center, Long Island City, NY; Fort Worth Museum, Fort Worth, TX; Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, IN; Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY; Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; The Jewish Museum, New York, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C.; New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ; Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY; Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, FL; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA; United States Embassy, Beijing, China; United States Embassy, Moscow, Russia; University Gallery, and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, among others.
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The Church was established in 2019 by artists Eric Fischl and April Gornik. Housed in a deconsecrated 19th-century church, its doors were opened in April 2021. Our mission is to foster creativity and to honor the living history of Sag Harbor as a maker village. The East End represents an exceptional artistic legacy, spanning the practices of indigenous art of several centuries ago, Abstract Expressionists of the mid-20th Century, and the many celebrated writers, makers, musicians, and visual artists of the recent past and current moment. Core programming includes visual art exhibitions, concerts and events, educational programming, workshops, lectures, and an artist’s residency.