Adjacent to Cayuga Lake on 4.2 acres, Art faculty Jen de los Reyes and Oscar Rene Cornejo have established LAND, a "site of research, cultivation, care, and conservation" that is under development to support outdoor art and ecology studios, a local species-resilient, high-growth regenerative forest, and community-driven agriculture. The project's foundational work has been supported by a 2025 Creative Capital grant and a seed grant from the Cornell Mui Ho Center for Cities in 2024.
In parallel, during the spring 2025 semester and continuing this fall, de los Reyes has led the course LAND: Art, Ecology and Environmental Activism, which encourages students to examine the work of artists who have engaged in land-based practices and to develop their own skills through hands-on projects.
With a full growing season of class experience now complete, de los Reyes reflects on the lessons LAND has taught so far.
Molly Sheridan: What were the pedagogical goals of the class, and how did you instill these lessons?
Jen de los Reyes: A 2014 study conducted by the US Forest Service and the Ad Council shows that a North American child aged between four and ten years old can recognize more than a thousand brand logos at a glance, but cannot identify the leaves of ten regional plants. This is the generation that is currently in college, or about to start. For me, one of the biggest parts of this class is reconciling this massive disconnect from the natural environment and reconnecting students to local ecologies. We spend a lot of time outdoors and take advantage of over a dozen hikes on Cornell's campus, as well as regional field trips and site visits. I emphasize a sensitivity to the world around us and the other living beings who share it with us.
One of the ways I do this is through creating assignments that are centered in careful observation. An ongoing assignment is a "Curiosity Report" in which students present research and a visual rendering on either a tree species or plant, animal, or insect that they identified for the first time that week. In their reports, they share the indigenous and common names for what they identified, as well as lessons we can learn from these species. It is so incredible to see what students are paying attention to.
In addition to acquiring wide-ranging interdisciplinary knowledge about the local ecologies of the Ithaca area and its habitat through self-directed research and site observation, students expand their imaginative and aesthetic capacities to respond to climate crises through studying artists working creatively to address environmental concerns and incorporate these into their art making, as well as learning how to grow, ethically harvest, forage, and process plants to create artmaking materials.
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