24 JUNE 8-14, 2023 westword.com WESTWORD | REAL ESTATE | RENTALS | HEALTH WELLNESS | SERVICES | EMPLOYMENT | ADULT | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | FIND MORE MARIJUANA COVERAGE AT WESTWORD.COM/MARIJUANA Class Action BY THOMAS MITC HELL Most of us were told the same thing about wild mushrooms when we were growing up: Don’t touch! Times are changing, however, and so is our connection to fungi. As Coloradans come around on the power of mushrooms — magic or otherwise — the Boulder Museum of Con- temporary Art is stepping up on both the arts and educational fronts, partnering with an expert fi eld guild and botanical illustrator for Marvelous Mushrooms, a weeks-long class to promote the upcoming exhibit agriCUL- TURE: Art Inspired by the Land. Participants in the Marvelous Mushrooms classes will learn how to identify, forage, sketch and paint various mushrooms found in Colo- rado, according to BMoCA outreach educa- tion manager Melinda Laz, who coordinated the class with marketing director Jennifer Chaparro. The organizers are hopeful that Colorado’s current mushroom boom will help drive people to the agriCULTURE exhibit, which celebrates the connection between art and rural farming in Colorado. To learn more about it, we caught up with Laz and Chaparro. Westword: Is this the fi rst time the mu- seum has held adult-focused classes? Melinda Laz: We have always done chil- dren and youth classes, but this is the fi rst time that we are making a concerted effort to do a multi-week art class program for adults. We do one-off programs that are aligned with our different exhibitions, which are a three-hour workshop or weekend workshop. But this is the fi rst time that we’re taking on workshops and classes that are four weeks long and targeting adults who want to learn a particular skill or technique. So we’re pilot- ing that this year to align with our summer exhibition, which is called agriCULTURE. AgriCULTURE is a bigger initiative between BMoCA and the Longmont Museum. It sounds like these classes help people understand the art exhibitions more. Jennifer Chaparro: There are new classes to help people identify the mushrooms when they’re out in the fi eld, with the added compo- nent of the drawing, so it’s kind of a two-fer. Ba- sically, you’re going to identify the mushrooms, but also do a little sketching, and you don’t have to be an artist to do it. It’s just nice to have those sketches — and you can take a few photos for references when you’re back out in the fi eld. Maybe a fi eld guide, as well, then? Laz: Yeah, for sure. The way we’ve struc- tured it, we have the forage workshop, which is a one-day workshop on August 31, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. And that is out in the fi eld, walking on a trail. We’ve connected with a gentleman named Zach Hedstrom; he runs Boulder Mush- room, which is a mushroom farm and resource center. He’s a farmer by training, and he goes on these forage workshops with the public, and he’s worked with our drawing instructor in the past, as well. So that’s the fi rst component. It’ll just be a three-hour easy hike some- where in Boulder County. And then folks can sign up for the three-week drawing class that we’re calling Drawing Mushrooms, which runs on September 7, 14 and 21 — three Thursdays in a row. That drawing class will be taking some of the knowledge that folks have learned in the forage workshop and delving more specifi cally into looking at the mushrooms, talking about botanical illustration and techniques that are used to accurately draw those specimens. Our instructor for that is Marjorie Leggitt. Marjorie will enhance the different speci- mens with what can be purchased locally, also. I think she’ll have students go to Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s or other places where they can buy a variety of mushrooms and bring those to class, and they’ll also have their mushrooms that they had collected the week prior. Chaparro: The group is going to do a little bit of hiking, so we defi nitely want people to know that. But we’re going to be supplying them with the notebooks, pencils and stuff, so they don’t really need to bring anything for the actual sketching. Laz: These are for all skill levels. We’re targeting adults, but our instructor is open to teens taking the classes, as well, so they’re welcome to register, too. We’d love to just get a diverse sampling of folks coming to BMoCA to see the exhibit and participate in the classes. Was hemp or marijuana considered for the agriCULTURE exhibit? Chaparro: I don’t think so. One of the artists is working with dirt, and another one is working with fl owers, and another one’s working with the fl ow of water, like fl owing from one to another. We honestly have not seen the fi nal pieces yet, because the artists are still working on it. The pieces these artists were commissioned to do are in conjunction with the farms, and we’re very anxious to see them. For more information on agriCULTURE or to sign up for BMoCA’s mushroom classes, visit bmoca.org or email [email protected]. Mushroom guide Zach Hedstrom will lead BMoCA’s fi eld adventures. ZACH HEDSTROM MARIJUANA T O K E O F T H E T O W N
