This year, the annual Veblen Birthday Bash was devoted to unveiling a Community Collage on the outside wall of Veblen House in Herrontown Woods.
Conceived and developed by FOHW's board member and artist in residence, Hope VanCleaf (wearing a hat in the photo), this work of collective art brings together many individual hand-crafted tiles contributed by community members, combining forest photography, natural materials, and original artwork. As described in
an article in the Town Topics, the collage "celebrates the wonders of nature and serves as a token of appreciation for the woods and the Veblen House renovation."
After a bit of ceremony and a speech or two, some of the artists posed with the Collage, including Herrontown Woods neighbor and volunteer, Lisa Boulanger, who contributed several tiles.
People lingered in the ideal weather, clustered around handhewn tables in many different conversations, well beyond when the fireflies made their presence known. Mathilde Burlion and Andrew Thornton gave tours of May's Garden, and Sustainable Jazz with Phil Orr on piano and Steve Hiltner on reeds sent all-original music wafting across the grounds. A new term was coined, "treeverb", referring to the complex enrichment of tones caused by each tree reflecting back sounds at a different pace.
Lead organizer of the 2026 Veblen Birthday Bash was FOHW board member Inge Regan. The Community Collage will be made waterproof and then exhibited on the Veblen House outside wall as part of an "Inside-Out Museum" featuring art and Herrontown history.
