Free Mini-Tours of Washington Park offered on Three Wednesdays in August
Once again, free mini-tours will be offered as special programming during Washington Park Wednesdays. The tours will be led by Virginia Small, a landscape historian and award-winning journalist. They will be on the first three Wednesdays in August. A rain-date tour will be offered on August 28, if need be.
The format will differ slightly this year. Each interactive tour will feature a theme for thinking about and exploring the park. Tours will begin at 5:30 p.m. at the Goethe-Schiller Monument, which faces Washington Park’s bandshell and is near food-truck vendors. Tours last roughly 45 minutes and participants are invited to ask questions and share observations. Special guests will co-lead some tours.
Tour themes will be as follows:
- August 7: Enduring Legacies in Washington Park
- August 14: A Park for All People
- August 21: Lessons from History
Virginia Small writes often about environmental, urbanist and parks topics. The Wisconsin Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects honored her in 2019 for “increasing public awareness” of their profession. She volunteers her time for these tours to help build appreciation of Washington Park, and long-standing legacy of serving community needs including recreation, cultural enrichment, and public health.