Location: Riverside Community Garden

Time period: 4/3/2019-2/4/2019

Submissions to: Sorcha. Email lennico23@gmail.com

Overview

This residency will provide an artist with a working space inspired by nature and community action. Over the four-week residency the artist will work on a piece that is reflective in some way of the time spent in the garden. As well as working on their piece, the artist will participate in the gardening, engaging in activities that can range from woodwork to planting. At the end of the residency there will be a small showcase of the created piece. Any artists are welcome to apply, from poets to painters to musicians. Note: This is an unfunded residency, the idea being that the artist has the means and the capacity to create the piece and participate in the gardening on a voluntary basis.

Aims

The aims of this residency are that the artist will benefit from the experience of working in a community garden, and that the garden and local community will benefit from the piece of work created by the artist. It will probe the connection between art, community and nature, with the common link being the way in which we draw on and interact with the resources around us in a creative way.

Riverside

Riverside community garden is a beautiful space situated beside Bute Park. It has multiple plots, a pond, and a sheltered hub which includes a handbuilt woodfire oven often used for making pizza. People who participate in the garden activities include a regular core team and various volunteers. The garden is open Wednesday and Friday, and the first Saturday of the month 10am-4pm. The artist would not be expected to attend all of these time slots, but would be asked to spend at least four hours a week volunteering with the gardening activities, with the rest of the time spent creating the piece. Riverside can provide a sheltered space with a table and chair, but as this space is not insulated the artist should dress warmly! The resident artist should be enthusiastic about, or at least have a strong interest in gardening and the outdoors. If you are put off by mud and insects then this is probably not the residency for you!

To Apply

Submissions to: Sorcha. Email lennico23@gmail.com

Please submit an application of less than 250 words. The application should include the following information:

1.       Why you would like to participate in this residency

2.       Pictures, attachments, or at least a description of some of your work

3.       Your previous experience (if any) with community gardens (Not mandatory for the project)

This project is part of a larger project in sustainability. Here, the concept of sustainability is understood as more than just ‘avoiding depletion’ of resources, it means drawing on what’s around you in a way that has lasting benefits to you, the wider community, and your environment. In this way, the creative process, growing food, and community participation are all understood through a sustainable lens.

The Tyfu i Ddysgu (or Growing to Learn) project is based on the idea that Education for Sustainability or Sustainable Development should not be restricted to the lecture theatre but should be active, participatory and rooted in communities and places.

Tyfu i Ddysgu involves five community gardens around Cardiff and a small group of students at different levels of university study: our Community Learning Ambassadors. It operates as a pilot project to explore a participatory approach to Service Learning within Education for Sustainability. Service Learning is a teaching and learning method which combines community service with structured learning.

The different learning projects draw on students’ own skills and interests and respond to issues identified by the community gardens. In the participatory approach we take, the students and community gardeners collaborate to plan the projects, decide on learning objectives and evaluate them during and after. This design and evaluation process is carried out across four workshops (2018/19), whilst the projects themselves are implemented in February and March 2019. For more information go to Workshops, Learning Projects, and Community Gardens.