Category: Learn

Greenacres is the place to be – be green that is! Being green is one of our 4 values that help guide our mission. We strive to recycle the best we can, and that means taking extra steps to ensure we are reducing as much waste as possible. Here are our top five tips for being green.

Tip #1: Educate yourself! You cannot recycle correctly if you don’t know what can and cannot be recycled. Learn what your local municipality (Rumpke-Cincinnati, OH) accepts for curbside recycling. There are 5 categories of curbside recycling: paper & cardboard, glass, metals, cartons, and plastics. You can always check out Rumpke’s website for more information. They even offer free tours of the Material Recovery Facility (MRF), which can help you gain a better understanding of why they collect what they do and where these things ultimately end up. Ask questions! Find some good resources that you can ask questions to get specific answers. Feel free to email us at lnichols@green-acres.org to get some answers.

Tip #2: Start composting! According to a Hamilton County Solid Waste Composition Study (2018), 14.9% of landfill waste is food waste. Some of the food waste are food scraps that could be composted and turned into usable soil, instead of sent to the landfill. In addition to food waste, the study also showed there was another 16.9% of landfill waste that was yard waste, which also could have been composted! Looks like it’s time to start your own compost bin in your backyard. If you don’t want to start a backyard bin you can look into a compost service. There are several composting services in the Cincinnati area, including Go Zero, which lets you drop off compost to a station!

Tip #3: Reduce your overall consumption! How would you like to help the earth and save money? Try doing a spending freeze for a month. Limit yourself to only buying necessities such as food, transportation, and bills. You’ll quickly notice that you buy many things that you did not really need and can survive without. For example, maybe try buying a reusable water bottle (which is a one-time purchase) instead of a case of water each month. You might even become creative and start reusing things that you wouldn’t normally reuse. An old cardboard box is now a kid’s fort! Those old takeout containers are now what you can pack a lunch in. You’ll be surprised how much waste you reduce. You’ll not only have a fatter wallet at the end of the month, but a better appreciation for what you already have. And when you do buy, try to buy local. Hint, hint: the Greenacres Farm Store is a great place to get fresh produce!

Tip #4: Remember that this takes time! You will not be able to make all these changes overnight. Being green can be challenging to start. If you use a plastic straw one day, don’t kick yourself over it. Just try again next time. We can’t always plan for everything that life throws at us, and sometimes convenience of single use plastics gets in the way-and THAT’S OKAY! Just remember that you are trying, and will get better with practice and effort.

Tip #5: Look for other recycling avenues! There are several organizations out there who love to recycle as much as you. If your general curbside recycling (see Tip #1) won’t take it, you might still be able to reduce your landfill footprint with a little extra effort. See below for a handy list of common items.

I know some of this information can be a little overwhelming. Don’t you just wish you could drop off all of your non-curbside recycling without multiple stops and with minimal effort? You can! Each year in Washington Park, Keep Cincinnati Beautiful hosts a One Stop Drop event where all of these items and more (that are not normally processed in your curbside bin) can be dropped off! Be sure to check their calendar to see when the next one is.

Thanks for recycling and watch our video to learn more about how you can help be green too!

Time and time again we’ve seen it. A group of students gather around the instrument that is before them. They may even be talking to their neighbor, unsure of what is about to happen. But the instant the organ begins to play, eyes shoot forward and everyone falls silent. All you see are the mesmerized faces of students and teachers alike, listening to the mighty sound of the organ. As a musician herself, Mrs. Nippert would have loved those faces of wonderment. The grandeur of the organ is truly magnificent, and the Greenacres Aeolian Pipe Organ is no exception.

Organs produce sound by pressurized wind flowing through pipes, making it a wind instrument. Built in 1926, this organ has 1,531 pipes ranging in size from as tall as 16 feet to as short as just a few inches.

Each set of pipes, known as a rank, represents a different instrumental sound. Some of the many different sounds it can produce are trumpet, flute, and string. It is similar to an electric keyboard, where you can select the sound you want and the instrument plays in that particular style. Except with an organ, you select a specific sound by pulling out a stop. You can use as many different stops at the same time as you would like- one, or two… or all the stops! This is actually where the phrase ‘pulling out all the stops’ comes from.

It wasn’t until the 1500s that organs began taking the form we know today. But this instrument’s earlier forms actually date back to around 200 BC! Ctesibius, a Greek engineer, invented the hydraulis, which used water pressure to change the pressurized wind that made sound as it traveled through pipes. The hydraulis, or water organ, was well received for hundreds of years until people began replacing water pressure with large bursts of wind formed by bellows, which became popular in the 6th century. Since then, the organ has been re-engineered to become more and more intricate. This technology really took off in the 1800s when roll playing organs made their debut.

With all of its different bells and whistles, the Greenacres’ organ is capable of playing an endless amount of musical literature. By using the Duo-Art roll player, our organ can essentially play songs on its own, like an old fashioned YouTube! When you want to play a song online: you search for the song, select it, let the computer translate the information, and enjoy the song! When using a roll player: you look for a scroll, select one by placing it in the proper chamber of the organ, turn it on, the tracker bar translates the holes in the scroll into organ commands, and again the outcome is beautiful music!

We have a large collection of scrolls, giving us the ability to play many wonderful compositions at our fingertips. It is exciting for all who witness it and is an amazing tool as we teach students about different composers from the past.

In addition to our organ, we have a 1925 Steinway Grand Piano that is also equipped with a roll player. By using our state of the art digital playback system, we can actually have the organ and piano play together at the press of a button! One song we can play this way is ‘Louise’ by Richard Whiting, one of Mrs. Nippert’s favorites, you can hear some of it in our video below. When the Nipperts bought what is now the Arts Center back in 1998, they saw the value in the organ, and decided to repair the incredible instrument. Before it was restored, the last time it was played was probably in the 1940s. But now, thanks to the Nipperts, we are able to share it with so many students and maybe one day, with you!

In the meantime, please enjoy our brief video featuring the Greenacres Aeolian Pipe Organ in all of its glory. Follow along with the handout and fill in the blanks as you learn about the different parts of the organ. Enjoy!

The mandala is an ancient art form. The word mandala is from Sanskrit and literally means circle. Mandalas are circular designs filled with geometric or organic patterns with a radial symmetry. They can be simple or complex. They are used in architecture as exemplified in several features found at the Greenacres Arts Center. For example, the decorative wrought iron window grille works added in the 1930’s. The ironworks radiate from the central design which are children’s nursery rhyme characters. More symmetry can be found at the central entry courtyard’s garden. Original plans from A.D. Taylor shows beds of annuals in a modified plaid fabric design, which includes a grouping of 4-block patterns with walking paths in between thereby creating horizontal and vertical pattern of a plaid (see an example below).

The first mandala carved into stone dates back to the 1st century BCE. Mandalas are found in many cultures and religions around the world. One of the most recent archaeological finds happened in 2013 when someone reported seeing a giant mandala while using Google Earth! How exciting to discover that this ancient eight petal flower shape (Bihu Loukon), discovered in Manipur, northeastern India was one of the world’s largest mandalas made entirely of mud in a paddy field. The ancient star shaped structure could only be visible via Google Earth satellite imagery because of its huge size. The walls of the triangular arms of the star are approximately 15 feet thick and 5 feet high, with length of about 156 feet. Wow! Now that’s what I call a successful mandala hunt!

Just going outside for a walk is a way to relax, but incorporating that with a purpose: to search for radial designs in nature, made my walk so much more fun. You can even extend your search of radial symmetry to architecture that you pass. My dog may not have appreciated the slowed pace as much as I did, but now I see them everywhere I look! The mandala has been used for centuries as a way to meditate, relax and relieve stress. If you’d like to learn more about mandalas, see some examples from around the Arts Center here at Greenacres, or even learn how to draw your own, watch this video.

–Sandy Harsch

Tune in with nature by doing a simple activity called a sit spot. Find a comfortable spot out in your backyard, front yard, park, at a window or a parking lot. A sit spot can be done anywhere! Sit for at least five minutes and observe the natural world around you. Share your nature findings with each other. Nature is everywhere, you just have to look!

Having something to sit on: like a tarp, old cushion or jacket is a nice addition and helps keep everyone clean.

A sit spot is a special time for you and your family to connect with nature in a deep way. During this chaos, it is important to remember to slow down, that nature is healing and that we need nature in our lives. Sit spots are a great way to attain stillness, give space for curiosity, and connect to the world around us.

Begin by allowing each household member to find a place to sit in the yard, porch, park or wherever you choose. Let your children know that this can be their special spot, no one else’s. Try to spread out in the space to limit distractions. Be sure to set boundaries so your kids don’t end up in the neighbor’s yard. And now you simply just sit. No talking between each other. No letting your child show you something. I know this part might be hard, but it is important to be patient. Allow stillness and calmness to flow over you as you sit. Ask your children to make silent observations. These could be things they see, hear, smell or touch. We find it’s best to avoid taste when it comes to observing.

Start your first day with just 5 minutes. I recommend using a timer so you can make your own observations without worrying about the time. After the sit spot time is over, get together and let each person share their experience and tell their sit spot story. This is where the magic happens. Kids will notice infinitesimal things that us adults tend to overlook or have stopped noticing. As each observation is shared, ask guiding questions, such as “What color was the bird?” or “Did this smell a certain way?” or “What did you enjoy most about your sit spot?”

Try to do a sit spot every day for a week. Then gently increase the amount of time each day you do a sit spot. You’ll increase observation skills and curiosity. Kids will begin to look forward to the routine and familiarity. And as a bonus, you’ll also have a few minutes of calm each day to look forward to as well!