Join Herban Cura at Art Omi for a mushroom immersion workshop, led by Olga Tzogas of Smugtown Mushrooms.

Mushrooms and their underground network of cells called mycelium are often missing from our studies, culture and horticulture practices. During this full day immersion at Art Omi we will take a look at the role mushrooms play within our lives, the forest, and within food systems. We will learn basic concepts of mycology, explore their biology and ecology, and learn basic methods for growing mushrooms in your community garden or your kitchen.

This full day immersion will replenish our skills and senses to connect to our fungal relatives and their kin to truly get to know these intelligent beings that can feed, transform, and heal. Together we will explore the many ways we can integrate fungi into our systems. One of the easiest ways is by eating them and using simple teas to gain their nutritional value. Opening our senses, opening our hearts, minds and spirits to the world of mushrooms and fungi.

The aim is for participants to leave with a greater sensitivity to the mushroom world and feel excited and confident to continue diving deeper into relationships with our mushroom kin.

Advance tickets required. Purchase on Herban Cura’s website, here.

Scholarships are available for this workshop. For scholarships please email herbancura@gmail.com with subject “Mycelial Web.”

Facilitator Biography:
Olga Tzogas started her love affair with Fungi and plants over 15 years ago, with the help and guidance of family, teachers and students. In 2011, Smugtown Mushrooms was started, which provided cultivation supplies to grow mushrooms, indoors or outdoors, for food or for medicine. We also host workshops, organize events and bring community together for the love of mushrooms alongside the continuous path towards social + environmental justice. Olga continuously is eager to learn more and embrace the never-ending, vibrance of mushrooms, fungi and the natural world. Olga teaches workshops throughout the continent about wild mushroom identification, medicinal mushrooms, biology, and mushroom cultivation. Olga, alongside the collaboration of the collective, The Mycelium Underground, helped create the New Moon Mycology Summit in 2018. She was a core organizer for the 2016 Radical Mycology Convergence and the MycoSymbiotics Festival from 2015-17. Annually, Olga guides small groups immersing in land based and traditional knowledge of Northern Greece, highlighting the fungi and plants there.

About Herban Cura:
Herban Cura offers knowledge shares, immersions, & herbal remedies we believe are fundamental to building & supporting our collective resilience. We are an open-source, radical movement towards societal regeneration. We know that by simply coming together to move, breathe, share, make medicine, and create, we are planting the alternatives to uproot the systems that oppress us all.

Accessibility Information:
Check-in is at the Benenson Center, which is fully accessible for wheelchair users, and has no steps. There is a stone path from the gravel parking lot to the building, and ADA-compliant restrooms available in the building, open to any gender expression.

This program begins at Art Omi’s Education Pavilions, approximately 400 feet from the Benenson Center over a grassy hill. The Education Pavilions have bathrooms open to any gender expression.

The day will feature exploratory walks through the grounds which includes rolling meadows, hills, and wooded areas with dirt and mowed-grass paths. There are no paved walking paths, and occasionally the trails become muddy and sometimes even impassable. Ticks, poison ivy, mud, and other natural hazards may be present. Be prepared with appropriate attire to best enjoy your experience, including wearing closed-toe shoes.

Please bring your own packed lunch for the workshop. Water and snacks will be provided.

A six-person golf cart, driven by Art Omi staff, is available to navigate paths upon request. Please email tours@artomi.org with “Mushroom Immersion” in the subject line to request use of the golf cart.

For access needs or if you have questions about accessibility, please email tours@artomi.org.