The Blau House and Gardens Preservation Internship
The Blau House and Gardens History internship
Check with your school's Internship Coordinator BEFORE accepting the hiring offer to determine if this position satisfies the criteria for receiving academic credit
Please note:
- We will consider part time internship periods that will not fall within the academic year.
- Check with your internship coordinator BEFORE accepting to determine how you might complete this internship for credit.
“This garden is a very living place, responding readily to new ideas, new people, new circumstances. Perhaps this is because it carries so securely the imprint of those who have loved it ever since it began.” Neva Goodwin https://www.gardenpreserve.org/abby-garden
The Blau gardens internship will help foster the love of the garden to take place with careful stewardship solutions. We hope you can assist with your research and contribution to develop
documentation and transition ideas and approaches to consider. The internship will take place remotely with a regular communications and weekly meeting to monitor your progress and guide you in the right direction. You will have online access to the current Blau garden files collected over 50 years.
The Blau Gardens are formal and informal gardens covering a 2-acre property developed over 50+ years, and surround a mid century modern house (featured on the Westport Historical Society Hidden Garden Tour and on several Garden Conservancy open days:
featured in the magazine article link here:
The internship will take place in two phases:
Phase 1 : Blau house and gardens Documentation
Documentation will refer to the Blau archive collection of digital files for a proposed house and Garden Conservancy documentation project. Documentation of the plant collection especially recording the unique variations of Rhododendrons with the assistance from the Connecticut Rhododendron Society and their location in site plans, would be one of several documentation steps.
Final documentation will support a National Register (NR) nomination draft that can be completed with the consultation of a professional with experience in writing NR nominations.
The final documentation will be the coordination and completion of a short video that will combine drone aerial photography and videos with still images and other videos something like: https://youtu.be/BLcsOeiadls, https://youtu.be/BIIsjlscgDY, https://vimeo.com/130033620 . This may include depending on funding: interviewing individuals who played key roles in the evolution of the garden, archiving info on the garden history and current coordination with film makers, photographers, and others to assist in crafting as complete a story as possible.
Phase 2 : Blau Gardens Transition and stewardship solutions
a) You can use the Garden Conservancy (GC) “Bringing a Garden Pubic” handbooks , volumes I and II, and other documents provided the GC such as “general guidance for private owners stewarding noteworthy gardens” and “Multi-organizational partnership models” and other references you will research. Please see the preliminary impact statement attached that will be revised and updated after a strategic transition solution has been identified to the preferred one to developed.
b) assistance in the development of business plan as one step to foster supporting partner organizations and individuals and granting foundations to form a steering committee and advocate effort to secure viable transition solutions quickly.
Please send your resume and any portfolio examples to Robert Cohen, steward of the Blau Gardens: r@robertcohenarchitcet.com