Planting 20,000 daffodils in the Arb sounds like a great way to get a master’s degree to me! That is, actually, exactly what artist Susan Skarsgard has done – but there’s not much to see until the flowers bloom sometime in “late April.” See the University Press release, the project’s webpage, or a Free Press story on the project that seems to think she only planted 10,000. From the Freep story:
” … The path of Susan’s career is not a straight line.
She is 49. She grew up in Detroit, first visiting the Arb as a teenager when she and friends from Cody High School used the park as a safe place to drop acid, although she never did. She went to college in New Mexico, majoring in music history, lived in Louisiana and eventually returned to Ann Arbor, where she took up calligraphy during slow times at the U-M Medical Center, where she worked as a clerk.
She slipped into a book design job and eight years ago went to work for GM’s Design Center as a lettering expert. Among other things, she is in charge of corporate identity for Saturn, and designed its new emblem.
These days, the Arb is where she goes with her husband and sometimes her 22-year-old son, Dan, who helped plant bulbs as a birthday gift for his mother. They stroll or have blanket picnics.
But, she never had never gone alone until she began working on this project.
Like many women, she grew up feeling vulnerable — unsafe — in unpeopled places. … “