GROW
May through November 2011
South East False Creek
Lead Artist: Holly Schmidt
GROW will act as a public forum, teaching tool and creative laboratory for ecological and social sustainability practices. The objective of this program is to explore Vancouver’s expanding identity as a sustainable city through the site of SEFC.
GROW will be led by Holly Schmidt an emerging artist who has a participatory art practice and an extensive background in public programming. Her work involves a range of research activities that overlap with the natural sciences, sustainable food systems and agriculture.
The first phase of GROW will focus on research and dialogue through a series of walks in the SEFC area. These walks led by Holly Schmidt and invited guests from the natural and environmental sciences and urban planning will focus on the dynamic interactions between built and natural environments. Particular attention will be paid to where those boundaries blur, reinforcing the shared responsibility for these spaces.
The second phase of GROW will focus on a series of generative workshops engaging people directly in activities around urban design and sustainable growing practices. Through design charrettes and hands-on workshops, participants will be invited to co-create a number of inventive prototypes to support the production of food in the urban environment.
A range of containers utilizing recycled materials will be built and used in a collective garden located on the bulkhead beside Habitat Island in SEFC. A range of vegetables, fruit, herbs and mushrooms will be grown and distributed with the support of interested communities invested in contributing their time and skills to a summer of growing experiments. Because of its highly visible location along the sea wall, these experiments would become a kind of teaching garden where people can share their knowledge through workshops, demonstrations and dialogue.
The third phase of GROW will focus on a series of lectures about ecological and social sustainability. These lectures will encourage a dialogic rather than didactic format using the open spaces of the Creekside Community Centre to best advantage. At the lectures, people will be welcome to share the bounty of the summer’s yield and ideas around social and ecological sustainability.