Earth Celebrations’ Save our Gardens Social Action Art & Preservation Project (1991-2005) was a 15-year community-engaged art and cultural organizing project that mobilized a creative grassroots effort and led to preservation of hundreds of community gardens throughout New York City. Felicia Young, an artist living on the Lower East Side, initiated “The Rites of Spring: Procession to Save Our Gardens” in 1991 to apply the arts and cultural strategies to build an effort to preserve the community gardens threatened with proposed development plans.
The project developed into an on-going and year-long community and cultural organizing process with three months of public workshops creating visual art, performance, music, dance and poetry highlighting the gardens, their history and their struggle to survive. The creative work and collaborative effort culminated in a 10 hour pageant, featuring a spectacular procession of giant puppets, mobile sculptures, ceremonial art objects, costumed garden characters and musical bands weaving throughout the neighborhood to visit the network of gardens. The diverse cultural traditions and history of the neighborhood gardens were honored with ceremonies and presentations by the gardeners and local artists at each garden site.
The Save Our Gardens project mobilized and built a coalition effort on the Lower East Side and then expanded a citywide in 1996, bringing together gardens from the Lower East Side, Upper West Side, Harlem, and the Bronx and Brooklyn. The grassroots effort led to the preservation of hundreds of community gardens throughout New York City.
More information:
Rites of Spring: Procession to Save Our Gardens – Lower East Side, New York City
EC Workshop Save Our Gardens Procession – 1991 (Green Oasis Garden – 8th St btw Aves C &D)
Rites of Spring: Procession to Save Our Gardens – 1991 – (procession 2nd street)
Rites of Spring: Procession to Save Our Gardens – 1991 – (procession 3rd street – vacant lot-future site of Orchard Alley Garden)
Rites of Spring: Procession to Save Our Gardens – 1992 (garden party dream tea ceremony – 9th & C Garden)
Rites of Spring: Procession to Save Our Gardens – 1992 (Butterfly Angel Flys – 6th Ave B Garden)
Rites of Spring: Procession to Save Our Gardens – 1992 (gardener Olean For speaking – All People’s Garden 3rd St btw Aves C & D)