THE FIRST OF A SERIES ON LESSER-KNOWN ON-CAMPUS ASSETS—
The longer you stay on campus, the more you discover about the college and its grounds that won’t be mentioned on any brochure, website or campus tour. Upcoming issues of the Old Gold and Black will start featuring some of these secret gems so you can investigate for yourself.
For example, did you know that Wofford has its own version of “The Secret Garden” in the Black Sci- ence Annex (BSA) courtyard?
If you know where the Sam O. Black Science Annex building is, you’re already ahead of the game. For those of you who don’t, the BSA is the building beside the greenhouse that sits behind the Milliken Science Center, next to the Row and the auditorium parking lot. The courtyard can be accessed from both within the building and by walking around the back.
This courtyard is special because of its concept. Wofford’s Secret Garden was created by Katherine Aul ’10, who designed and implemented the garden aspect of the courtyard as a project for her graduate degree. The year that environmental studies moved into the BSA, “several professors looked at its bleak and virtually abandoned courtyard and recalled Burnette’s novel [“The Secret Garden”],” according to the archived Gold Black and Green article featuring the newly revealed courtyard.
As the garden pulled together thanks to Aul’s work, the stark white walls above the greenery were addressed. Professor John Lane and Dr. Kaye Savage decided that a mural was the perfect solution for the blank canvas, and so they contacted Estaben del Valle to paint a mural encompassing the essence of the environmental studies program.
“It was the summer of 2009,” says Lane, “and del Valle had just finished his year as a Hub Bub artist-in-residence. We told him we wanted a mural to fill the old courtyard that depicted the history of environmental studies through some of its most important figures – we just gave him material about them all and he came up with the narrative.” Some environmental students in 101 classes read through the five key pieces of literature and then are taken to the courtyard to better appreciate the system of thinking as a whole. Sophomore Alex Hoots, a 101 student this semester, thinks that the courtyard “provides a good area that demonstrates wildness.”
“I like the atmosphere it provides,” says Hoots, “and I think it’s a really unique thing to have in the BSA building.”
Del Valle’s work with the five authors tells a story, says Lane.
“The narrative starts with Henry Thoreau, high on the back wall, and flows through John Muir, Aldo Leopold, then through Rachel Carson, and on to Vandana Shiva in the walkway. The bird covered with oil is on the other wall because the summer del Valle painted it was the summer of the Gulf Oil Spill,” explains Lane. “My favorite detail is the fierce blue wolf head. I like that del Valle did not feel obliged to make the ‘fire’ from the wolf ’s eyes ‘green.’ It’s blue instead.”
Over the past years, says Lane, the murals have weathered and “become shabby,” much like the garden itself. Fierce Green Fire, campus’ sustainability group whose name stems from Leopold’s literature, has plans to restore the neglected plantings at some point in November, says President Lena Williams.
“We’d like to get del Valle back to restore the mural,” says Lane.
Once again, the courtyard has become a blank canvas, ready to be restored. The courtyard was once a welcoming place to hang out, tell stories and study outdoors, and former Wofford College President Benjamin Dunlap told Gold Black and Green at the unveiling of the project that he hoped “[the] secret garden would become a model for the enclosed green spaces that are tucked here and there around the campus.”
With this in mind, Old Gold and Black encourages you to visit the courtyard in all its shabby glory and also to keep an eye out for a call for volunteers from Fierce Green Fire.
Note: Tune in next issue for another installment of “Places and spaces you wouldn’t know about unless I told you.” Got an idea for a place or space that needs to be shared? Let Old Gold Black and Gold know by emailing the editor at [email protected].
— Sarah Madden
