Garden Muse : North Texas Artists & Master Gardners Lecture Series
Garden Muse is an ongoing lecture series for those inspired by nature. In collaboration with the Dallas County Master Gardeners and local DFW artists, Garden Muse aims to pair a Master Gardner garden lesson with a creative activity led by practicing local artist or art educator.
Garden Muse
Lecture Series with North Texas Artists and Master Gardeners
Saturday, November 1, 2025 10:00am-12:00pm Bath House Cultural Center 521 E. Lawther Dr. Dallas, TX 75218 Classroom
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS:
10am: Nancy Wilson, “Preparing Your Yard for Winter”, Dallas County Master Gardner
11am: Cynthia Mulcahy, Artist Talk, Conceptual Artist and Independent Curator
MORE ABOUT OUR SPEAKERS:
ABOUT THE ARTIST: Cynthia Mulcahy
Cynthia Mulcahy is a Dallas-based conceptual artist, independent curator and farmer. Her intermedia works range from large-scale public interventions to small quiet gestures and often defy categorization. Be it a community square dance, farming as street theater, historical markers for public parks created during Jim Crow segregation, or an evening of musical performances to recognize a city park’s forgotten history, Mulcahy’s research-driven practice reflects her training as an historian and often begins in the archive or in her community with a desire to re-investigate the historical record for the present moment. Questioning the divisions between various forms of art-related practice, the artist’s work also promotes the concept and practice of art as activism. Mulcahy’s commitment to platforming the work of others through organizing exhibitions has focused on pressing contemporary subjects such as modern warfare and American militarism.
Since the fall of Roe v. Wade in 2022, Mulcahy’s most recent works have addressed issues of reproductive justice and bodily autonomy including her major piece, Abortion Seed Library, which has been touring the country in exhibitions in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Houston and Dallas.
Cynthia Mulcahy’s work has been reviewed in The New York Times, The New Yorker, New York Magazine, NPR, The Art Newspaper, CNN, The Dallas Morning News, D Magazine, and Glasstire. The artist is represented by Talley Dunn Gallery in Dallas, Texas.
ABOUT THE GARDENER: Nancy Wilson
Nancy describes herself as a proud, long-time student of the University of Trial and Error. She got into serious gardening after attending the City of Dallas Water Wise Landscape School and learning about Texas native plants in 1998. Nancy began adapting her yard to drought tolerant native plants. In 2008, she ripped out almost all of her expansive lawn and began planting and propagating her own plants which now provide habitat for birds, bees and butterflies.
Nancy got into vegetable gardening after a retreat at Heifer International Learning Center which led to involvement in community gardening to provide food to people who would not otherwise have access to fresh vegetables.
Her grandfather was a rancher and her father and brother were avid nature lovers and outdoorsmen. Nancy’s grandmother was a gardener who believed in fresh food and helpful grandchildren. Both parents worked hard to fill their yard with a variety of plants. And as a result, Nancy grew up learning to love nature and all creation—and all things out of doors.
Nancy gives talks on native plants, birds, bees and butterflies and the need for native habitat.
CERTIFICATIONS
TEXAS MASTER GARDENER, Dallas County (2016)
Advanced Vegetable Specialist
Advanced Entomology Specialist
Native Plant Society of Texas, Levels 1-4 Certification
Native Plant Society of Texas, Landscaping for Birds
North Texas Master Naturalist (2018) (New Class Director 2020-2021; Secretary 2023-2024)
RECOGNITION & AWARDS
Yard is recognized as a Certified Monarch Waystation, National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat, Advanced Bird Friendly Habitat and Texas Parks and earned Wildlife Best of the Backyards Award
Butterfly/Pollinator Gardener since 2008
Yard on City of Dallas Water Wise Tour or Master Gardener Tour 2010 – 2018
Continually developing Texas Native drought tolerant landscape for benefit of birds, pollinators and other animals since 1998
