The Arboretum at Penn State is seeking hundreds of volunteers to help with the planting of more than 100,000 flowering perennial plants and grasses around the new Palmer Museum of Art ahead of its opening next month.
The new Palmer Museum, located on the Arboretum grounds, is scheduled to open to the public on June 1. The “Palmer Plant-Out” began this week and will continue through June.
Volunteers don’t need gardening experience and can sign up here.
“We’re trying to get as many folks out here as possible during the month of May to plant as many of these plants as we can before that grand opening,” Aubrey Tallon, the Arboretum’s volunteer program manager, said in a news release.
Volunteers are needed now through May 24 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings from 8:30 to 11:30, as well as one shift on the morning of Friday, May 24. Volunteer shifts will resume June 5, after the museum’s opening
The “Palmer Plant-Out” got underway Tuesday, with volunteers planting grasses in front of the museum after Office of Physical Plant workers bored holes in the soil with an auger.
Nationally recognized landscape architecture firm Reed Hilderbrand designed the landscape, selecting plants in partnership with the Arboretum’s horticulturists.
“Most of the plants we chose are native to North America and include sedges, ornamental grasses and other perennials that bring together art, nature and beauty,” Arboretum Director Casey Sclar said in the release. “This is a great chance to be a part of something big as we build a living tapestry that will greet our visitors for many years to come one small plant at a time.”
Designed to integrate art with nature, the new $85 million, 73,000-square-foot museum building nearly doubles the footprint of the museum’s former longtime home on Curtin Road.
It includes an exhibition wing with 20 light-filled galleries, and an educational/administration wing with new educational and event spaces, as well as a museum store and café, a sculpture path and outdoor terraces.
Construction for the new museum began in July 2021. University officials have said the museum’s former building, which will retain the large the bronze lion’s paws that flank its front steps, will be repurposed as a student-focused space, but have not yet announced specific plans.
