A 200-acre urban oasis in Baltimore City, Cylburn Arboretum welcomes visitors to explore their beautiful gardens and trees and learn about the living world. Metcalfe was hired to help create exhibits in Cylburn’s new Nature Education Center.

Opened to the public in spring of 2023, the exhibits create interactive opportunities for visitors to learn about the natural world at Cylburn, from its old-growth forests to its cultivated gardens. Visitors are encouraged to move beyond their everyday encounters with trees and uncover a hidden world. They can gaze up at an exposed root system hanging from the ceiling, discover a “bird’s-eye view” of a tree canopy at their feet, and walk into the heart of a tree trunk, where they can listen to the beautiful words of a local poet and sounds of nature. The ultimate goal of the exhibits is to inspire visitors to explore the arboretum with a deeper understanding of the natural world.