With its plethora of summer programming for kids and adults alike, Atlanta’s Oakland Cemetery is so much more than just a final resting place.
“We’re much more than a cemetery,” Oakland Cemetery Director of Education Ted Ward said. “We’re a botanical garden and urban green space, a youth learning lab, a repository of Atlanta’s complex history, and a venue for arts and culture.”
In an attempt to showcase the many facets of the cemetery, Oakland recently replaced an “a” in Oakland with an ampersand (Oakl&nd) in its branding to visually reference everything the historic site has to offer, including summer camps for kids.
Each week of Oakland’s summer camp is built around a unique theme, like gardening and cooking, machine science, or outdoor art. These themes are meant to represent Oakland’s identity as a historical site, green space, and more.
“I always tell the kids that this isn’t school and there are no tests, but we’re still learning,” Ward said. “Last week we ran a simple machines camp, and the only time we mentioned headstones was to demonstrate how a pulley system might move one.”
Ward works to make the camp curriculum fun, hands-on, and applicable to the real world. He wants to ensure that campers learn and grow, but without the fear of failure.
“I want the campers to feel no pressure about grades or rubrics and have the freedom to try, fail, and then try again,” Ward said. “I think schools often penalize failure. But camp should be a lab for learning and failure is a part of that. If something doesn’t work, we just move on, and it’s no big deal.”
In addition to its camps for younger kids ages 6-11, Oakland also features programming for high schoolers. Its Youth Landscape and Hardscape Team (YLHT) is a paid summer workforce development program for high school students where participants work alongside gardeners and preservationists , allowing them to learn hands-on skills to understand what civic action looks like.
“I always describe YLHT as somewhere between an internship and a job,” Ward said. “We pay them to come and learn, but we really want them to see how their work fits into something bigger than themselves.”
This fall, Oakland plans to expand this program through a new endeavor called Oakland Roots Academy. The academy will be a year-round program for YLHT participants to familiarize themselves with green space development, historic preservation, and community development in Atlanta.
Outside of its programming for kids, Oakland also features year-round events that highlight the cemetery’s history and purpose. One such event is Illumine, which features light installations throughout the cemetery in the spring. During Capturing the Spirit around Halloween, actors bring Oakland’s history to life.
This past weekend, Oakland hosted its annual Juneteenth Family Festival, honoring the lives of the African American pioneers who are buried on the grounds. Ward said that many of these people were formerly enslaved or newly freed citizens who charted the course for the later Civil Rights movement, including Bishop John Wesley Gaines and Selena Sloan Butler. Through music, storytelling, and talks by local leaders, the event sheds light on their enduring legacy.
“These people buried here made contributions that make Atlanta what it is today, but they are often not given the light that the latter people in the civil rights movement receive,” Ward said. “They laid the foundation for there to be an African American community that was focused on uplift and resiliency, even during race massacres and the solidification of Jim Crow oppression in this city.”
Oakland recently opened the Oakland Visitor Center, which Ward calls an opportunity to broaden the cemetery’s impact and connect with a wider community.
“The new visitor center will expand our impact beyond the walls and gates of the cemetery to deepen our engagement with the broader Atlanta community and the diversity of people that call it home,” Ward said. “We continue to welcome partnerships with individuals, communities, and organizations from a variety of viewpoints and backgrounds to help us realize this goal.”
Oakland Cemetery’s full list of events can be found on the cemetery’s website.