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Award-Winning Landscape Architect Topher Delaney on the Healing Power of Gardens

Free Public Lecture September 24th by Environmental Designer and San Francisco Arts Commissioner

Berkeley, CA. (Sept. 15, 2009)—Environmental artist and landscape designer Topher Delaney understands the power of a garden—as an art form, a sanctuary, and a healing environment. She has spent her thirty-five-year career designing a wide variety of projects from residential and corporate rooftop gardens, to public art installations and award-winning sanctuary gardens for medical facilities.

Delaney will discuss her work at a free public lecture, “Focus on the Garden,” September 24 at UC Berkeley Extension’s Art and Design Center in San Francisco.

From a roof garden sanctuary for employees at Bank of America to medicinal healing gardens at UCSF, the Marin Cancer Institute and other hospitals, Delaney’s work offers an alternative to bleak institutional surroundings.

“Everything I do, whether for a hospital, a business, or a residence, is about comfort, healing, and faith,” said Delaney. “When I was beginning my career, landscape design appealed to me as a form of sculpture and as a way of showing my commitment to the environment. It seemed to be the perfect combination of art and civic responsibility. What I have realized along the way is the tremendous power gardens can have on people’s psyches.”

Delaney will also teach a new course this fall at UC Berkeley Extension, “Value: The Exploration of Cultural and Spiritual Meanings in Landscape Design.” The course, which begins September 28 in San Francisco, offers lectures by Delaney and other experts on the fundamental concepts of the history, aesthetics, and spiritual and political implications of garden and landscape creation. Guest speakers will include Father Tom Lucas, Professor of Art at USF, and Ms. Jonie Palmer, Ph.D. candidate at University of Colorado, and others.

Topher Delaney’s new public art exhibit, “Westward Ho!” is currently on display at UC Berkeley Extension’s Art and Design center in San Francisco.

The free public lecture,  “Focus on the Garden,” will be held on September 24 from 5:30–6:30 pm at UC Berkeley Extension’s Art and Design Center, 95 Third Street in San Francisco. For more information or to sign up for this free event, please visit extension.berkeley.edu/cat/course2121.html.