On Saturday, September 20, 2025, the USC U.S.-China Institute hosted the K-12 Educator Saturday Workshop: Teaching with the Chinese Garden at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, CA. Thirty-three teachers and five docents, including participants from both elementary and secondary schools, joined the full-day program to explore the history, symbolism, and teaching potential of Chinese gardens.
The workshop featured presentations, peer-to-peer learning, and hands-on activities in Liu Fang Yuan 流芳園, The Garden of Flowing Fragrance. Participants engaged in discussions comparing Chinese gardens to other traditions, discovered Huntington resources introduced by Kristin McNutt, Program Specialist for K–12 Education, and joined immersive group activities such as drawing, poetry writing, and interpreting garden paving patterns. By blending scholarship with creative exploration, the program offered teachers fresh strategies to integrate Chinese cultural resources into classrooms across subjects ranging from art and language to history and literature.