Socially Engaged Artwork Adds 100 Trees to Mason

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On Saturday, October 1, 2022 Mason Exhibitions, with the support of Mason Facilities, the Patriot Green Fund (PGF), the Office of Sustainability, and community volunteers, planted 100 native hardwood tree saplings on the Fairfax Campus. This event was part of Atlantika Collective’s  current exhibition  at Mason Exhibitions Arlington. The tree planting event on Saturday was part of a socially engaged artwork,  200 Trees: A Performance Action, presented by visiting artist, Katie Kehoe. 

Artist Katie Kehoe, a white woman with light brown hair wearing tortoiseshell glasses, wears a rain jacket and gloves, holding a tree seedling towards the camera.
Artist Katie Kehoe and a group of volunteers planting 100 native trees on Fairfax campus. This project is a socially engaged performance action, accompanying several artworks by Kehoe in the public art exhibition, Approaching Event Horizons: Projects on Climate Change, presented by Mason Exhibitions. Photo by: Sierra Guard/Creative Services/George Mason University

"The Patriot Green Fund thrives on collaborations and this project was a wonderful demonstration of this as it explored the intersection of art and sustainability. The event brought students, staff, faculty, alumni, and community members together to enact change that benefits sustainability at Mason. It was a truly mutually beneficial partnership between the Office of Sustainability, Mason Exhibitions, and Facilities Management, which made it an ideal initiative for funding support," said Sarah D’alexander, Sustainability Program Manager.   

The trees will benefit the Mason Arboretum - a nationally accredited collection of trees and woody plants, which can be spotted on Mason’s campuses with labeled signs that include scannable barcodes to its online catalogue.   

Learn more about this action and see images from the event here.