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Russel Wright's design philosophy reaches a new generation--through a summer camp.
By Julien Devereux
The Metropolis Observed
July 2002
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Walks through Manitoga, Russel Wright's upstate New York estate, help
instill an appreciation of nature in the urban children who attend the
design-themed summer camp there.
Photo by Courtesy Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center
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The Russel Wright Design Center at Manitoga (Wright's estate in Garrison,
New York) has for the last nine years been home to an unlikely project:
a nature and design summer camp for children ages five to twelve. The
words design camp might bring to mind unpleasant images of indoctrination
sessions in which children are trained to apply glaze to sleek Modernist
eggcups. But the Manitoga Nature and Design Summer Camp eschews design-object
fetishism for a fun hands-on exploration of Wright's philosophy of respect
for the natural world.
"We talk to the children about how Russel designed his house and the
lands," director Barbara Sarbin says. "But mostly we're using
his philosophy. His idea was that you couldn't just walk through nature,
you had to encounter it." In July and August the camp runs six five-day
sessions, each focusing on a different Wrightian topic, such as "Natural
Art and Design," "Living with the Land," or "Exploring
Earth Arts and Sciences."
Manitoga is perfect for such explorations, as it is a living example of
Wright's work and a spectacular natural setting in which to continue
that work. According to site coordinator Anita Pidala, "Sometimes the
crafts they do include making a piece of clay pottery and then taking a
native plant and embedding it into the artwork--similar to what Russel would
have done with his dinnerware. It gives the children an understanding of
how Russel thought about the land and how it influenced his work."
"The camp is focused on being connected with nature," Sarbin says,
"Not just mentally, but physically, by planting a tree or even writing
a poem or painting a picture for a rock or tree." Two years ago the
children created a "Peaceful Garden," in which arguments are not
allowed. Campers continue to design and plant it each summer: "They've
made streams and pathways through it, and little homes and villages, which
is really cool," Sarbin says. "They love it. It's really their
creation."
Manitoga is an Algonquin word meaning "Place of the Great Spirit."
Wright chose the name to reflect his interest in Native American beliefs
about the importance of respecting the Earth. "We teach the children
to respect everything at Manitoga," Sarbin says. "The Native American
people believe in saying 'hello' to the forest. The children love this and
don't think it's weird at all. When inner-city children come to Manitoga,
they put their hands on the trees and say, 'Whassup?,' or 'Sup, tree?' When
they leave the forest, I hear them giving advice to the trees: 'Take care,
tree. Don't get cut down.' They often tell me that the trees tell them things,
even sing them songs."
For Wright, design was about creating a whole way of life, not simply a
set of objects. The blueprint for suburban hospitality outlined in Russel
and Mary Wright's Guide to Easier Living evolved over the course
of his life (he died in 1976) into a philosophy of sustainable living in
harmony with nature. It's this understanding that the camp counselors try
to instill in their young charges. "One of Russel Wright's goals,"
Sarbin says, "was for urban dwellers to come to Manitoga to get an
experience of nature. At the end of the summer, when we ask the children
what one thing they learned was most important to them, many of them say,
'That everything is alive.'"
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