Gardens make for wonderful places to meander and gather one’s thoughts, but one Durango woman, Kim Adams, wanted to take that concept to the next level. She came up with spinning installations that store written notes and has had more than 200 participants since the project went live in June.
Adams approached the Durango Botanic Gardens board with a proposal to install what she calls botanic inspiration wheels in the library’s Cindy Smart Arboretum. She was inspired by Tibetan prayer wheels that display religious mantras and spin atop rods stuck into the soil.
The inspiration wheels aren’t connected to anything religious, but they could be considered spiritual in that they give people an outlet to escalate an intention or to process and let go of thoughts or emotions, she said.
Adams and her colleague Jim Philpott wrote a grant request to Durango’s Creative Economy Commission; they were awarded a $900 grant that they used to gather materials. They crafted the ceramic wheels that are now installed on the west side of the Durango Public Library, she said. Philpott did the metal work and Chyako Hashimoto, owner of Yunomi Pottery Studio, gets kudos for fielding ceramics-related questions and encouraged her through the crafting process, she said.
Bill LeMaire, president of the board of Durango Botanic Gardens, worked with Adams to make the installation a reality. He said from a strategic standpoint, the gardens directly west of the library were seldom visited. They thought the inspiration wheels could be a way to change that.
“People come here for a lot of different reasons. Some people are kind of horticulturalists and interested in the kind of science that we’re doing. And then other people are just trying to find out what works in this area, they’re new to town and want to see what kind of plants work here,” he said. “And then there’s just a bunch of people who walk around.”
The gardens help people relax and are a nice place for contemplation, he said. The inspiration wheels complement that atmosphere.
The inspiration wheels are simple in design, Adams said. Several wheels rest along the west side of the library. They are accompanied by boxes containing pencils, crayons and paper. One simply writes an intention, scribes a poem or creates a drawing, then slips it into a slot on the wheel and spins it. And off it goes into the cosmos.
“The spinning is a way of sending it out,” she said. “And I like to think that wherever you’re thinking about is where it goes.”
The notes people have placed into the inspiration wheels have widely been heartfelt, she said. People have placed drafts of marriage proposals into the wheels. Children have submitted drawings of dinosaurs and whimsical wishes.
“I think people try to escalate an intention or let go of an emotion this way. When you stop doing your grind and you start walking it frees up your mind and things start coming to the surface,” she said. “Being next to the river in the garden, it definitely fosters a little bit of freedom in your head.”
The first inspiration wheel was installed in June and others followed, with the sixth and latest installation being the one placed in the children’s garden at the library in September. Adams said she isn’t sure what she will do with the project going forward but she is considering Oxbow Park for more installations in the future.
cburney@durangoherald.com
A earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Adams approached the Durango Public Library board about her project. Adams worked with the Durango Botanic Gardens board to get the project greenlighted.
