Opening Program: March 14, 2026, 12:30pm
Click here to learn more about and register for the opening Pep Rally for the Trees.

Artist and programmer Amanda Lovelee presents Homecoming at MASS MoCA, an immersive environmental art project designed to remember a deeper connection between humans and nature while playfully addressing the urgency of climate change that is causing plants to migrate. The project envisions MASS MoCA as a symbolic micro field station for two trees-in-residence participating in assisted plant migration. Central to this installation are custom-designed bleachers to watch two trees grow and witness the time scale shifts of more-than-human beings. Joyful programming, pep rallies, and performances are employed to cheer on these trees while they participate in MASS MoCA’s assisted migration residency.

About Assisted Plant Migration:
Assisted plant migration is the intentional movement of plants — typically native and long living plants, like trees — from a warmer climate to a cooler climate. As temperatures in the northeastern US feel more like the southern states in the coming years due to climate change, northeastern forests may benefit from having some trees that are more comfortable with, and adapted to, these hotter conditions. This practice is currently being researched and implemented across the country to support climate-smart forestry.

Trees don’t operate in isolation. Through many different means, southern-origin trees will be in new-community with northern-origin trees. For example, trees are able to communicate with each other by the exchange of volatile organic compounds (VOCs, tree hormones) through the air.

In this project, MASS MoCA brings a red oak from the southeastern US to participate in a residency with a red oak from our region (ancestral homelands of the Muhheaconneok, Mohican people or Munsee Lenape people). They are placed in proximity to each other, in city planters, to share VOCs and communicate. This project is a symbol for plant resilience and an example of human intervention in, and care for, more-than human beings.

Homecoming is in collaboration with plant scientist, artist, and educator Jessica Gersony and members of the PLACE (PLant physiology, Art and Community Engagement) Lab at Smith College.