Sunday Sessions

11–12:30 PM

Roundtable: Labor and Ecology

With Mary Mattingly, Todd Eick, and Kari Conte

This roundtable discussion brings together curator Kari Conte, artist Mary Mattingly, and agricultural educator Todd Eick to discuss the often-unseen work that underpins art, gardens, agriculture, and communities. The conversation will explore care as a cultural, ecological, and social practice—spanning the tending of living systems, the stewardship of shared spaces, and the daily labor that holds communities together.

Drawing from their diverse fields, the speakers will consider how ecological sustainability, artistic production, and community life converge. They will also examine the politics of invisible labor—who carries it out and how it is valued.

4–6:30 PM

Floating Garden Orientation

Neighbors and volunteers are invited to join artist Mary Mattingly at The Hub to begin planning the infrastructure of the artwork Floating Garden. This is a chance to learn, participate, and contribute to the early stages of a project that brings together art, ecology, and community life.

Mattingly’s commission for the Medina Triennial transforms an industrial barge into a mobile sanctuary for people, plants, and water. Now docked in Medina after its August journey along the Erie Canal, Floating Garden will be collaboratively built with local groups and neighbors this fall. The project features medicinal gardens, biochar-based water filtration systems, and sculptural elements that trace tidal cycles. Currently in production and fully unveiled on June 6, 2026, Floating Garden is Mattingly’s most ambitious project to date. Rooted in the landscapes and civic rhythms of Western New York, it is designed as a living artwork that supports ecological learning and community participation.

Guidance on planting will be provided, and light refreshments will be offered as we gather.

Participant Biographies

Todd Eick is an agricultural educator with a long-standing career in the local area. A Medina native, he spent over a decade as the Medina CSD Ag Ed instructor and FFA advisor. Most recently, he joined the ON BOCES Team at the Niagara Career and Technical Education Center as an animal science teacher, where he aims to shape students into global citizens with a program enriched by real-world, cross-cultural learning experiences. He is also the “Creates” program manager for the Global Teach Ag Network where he and his team help educators incorporate art and agriculture to promote food security.

Mary Mattingly is an interdisciplinary artist whose work spans large-scale public sculpture and collage-based photography, imagining adaptive futures shaped by ecological interdependence. Best known for sculptural ecosystems that inhabit civic space—from floating food forests to tidal water clocks—her work brings attention to water, food, and shelter. In parallel, her photographic collages offer intimate, symbolic reflections on these same questions, transforming documentation into speculative diagrams and visual poems.