Research & Education
Cemeteries offer many ways to understand the relationships between people and place. Their stone, trees, paths, and memorials hold evidence of changing environments, cultural traditions, personal connections, and everyday acts of care.
Asphodel invites you to explore these landscapes through guided walks, research, and shared learning. Our approach grows from work as an artist, social geographer, and educator, bringing academic inquiry into accessible experiences shaped by curiosity and close observation.
Whether you want to investigate a family burial place, develop a community documentation project, or learn how to care for a gravestone, we offer thoughtful guidance and practical ways to begin.
Research & Tours
Stone and Root Tours
$25–$40 per person | Approximately 90 minutes
Our monthly Stone and Root walks explore cemeteries through the relationships between stone, ecology, weathering, and memory. Together, we learn to recognize materials, consider their origins, and observe how nature and human choices shape the landscape over time. These welcoming, conversational tours invite you to slow down, ask questions, and discover details you might otherwise pass by.
Private Group Walks
$250–$450 per group of up to 10 people | Approximately 90–120 minutes
Private walks offer a shared experience shaped around your group’s interests in architecture, materials, nature, or public memory. We develop a route and conversation suited to your goals, with opportunities for observation, questions, and reflection along the way. Ideal for friends, classes, and community organizations, each walk offers a thoughtful way to spend time together while learning from place.
Family & Burial-Place Research
$300–$1,000 for a focused project | Typically 3–10 hours of research and reporting
A name, inscription, or remembered place can open a larger story about family and belonging. We investigate agreed questions through available cemetery records, archives, maps, and other historical sources, connecting individual lives with the places around them. You receive a written account of findings with source references, clearly identified uncertainties, and suggestions for further inquiry.
Cemetery Mapping & Documentation
$250–$500 for a grave-location visit and photographic record; $750–$3,000+ for a small mapping project
Clear documentation helps families and communities maintain connections to burial places and plan for their care. Projects may combine grave location, photography, inscription recording, and interpretive spatial mapping, with methods selected to suit the site and your intended use. We agree on the area, level of detail, and deliverables in advance, with larger cemetery projects and specialist scanning quoted separately.
Research & Tours
Gravestone Care Workshops — In Development
Anticipated pricing: $65–$110 per person | Approximately 2–3 hours
Learn how to approach gravestone care with patience, material awareness, and respect for the memorial. These introductory workshops will cover identifying common materials, observing condition, recording changes, and understanding when cleaning is appropriate or specialist help is needed. Any practical demonstration will depend on site permission, suitable weather, and a marker assessed as appropriate for the activity.
Landscape & Material Workshops
$45–$85 per person | Approximately 2 hours
Explore how geology, ecology, and weathering come together in cemetery landscapes. Through guided observation and simple field exercises, we consider stone surfaces, vegetation, water, and the relationships between built and living environments. You leave with practical ways to read a landscape more closely and questions to carry into future walks, research, or creative work.
Research & Creative Practice Workshops
$60–$120 per person | Approximately 3 hours
Discover how mapping, drawing, archival inquiry, and field observation can deepen your understanding of place. These workshops introduce accessible research methods through guided exercises, making room for individual interests and different levels of experience. You will develop a small body of observations or creative studies and consider how to build them into a continuing practice.
Talks & Custom Programs
$300–$600 for a 45–60-minute talk; $600–$1,500+ for a custom workshop or half-day program
Asphodel offers talks and learning experiences for schools, community groups, cultural organizations, and cemetery stewards. Topics may include cemeteries as living landscapes, public memory, material care, creative research methods, and the relationships between grief, ecology, and place. Each program is developed around your audience and goals, with options for presentations, facilitated conversations, and practical activities.
We’re excited to support your research and education needs
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