The Green Artists League (GAL) is an interdisciplinary artists' collective
that creates public art addressing the
global environmental crisis. GAL is a forum of contemporary artists exploring
art and ethics in an era of ecological degradation. GAL engages
the public through interactive art experiences and hopes to raise awareness
and inspire environmentally healthy behaviors and attitudes. Find
out more ->
Become a co-creator in our community articulture project by joining our Alchemical Garden Work Party this Sunday, May 22nd from 12:00 – 3:00 .We will be sculpting serpentine mulch pathways and sprucing up the garden. Wear work clothes and, if you can, bring along a wheelbarrow, pitchfork or metal rake. GAL will provide light refreshments, eco and permaculture tips and levity.
As part of the Clipper City Rail Trail Birthday celebration, GAL will offer the rail trail celebrants the opportunity to “sow seeds for our sustainable future” through planting black Kabuli garbanzo beans, and soy beans in the Alchemical Garden. These legumes will nourish the depleted soil and provide an edible crop for the community.
The Alchemical Garden is located at the south entrance of the Clipper City Rail Trail, 40 Parker Street Newburyport, MA 01950 and straddles the Haley’s Bike Spur.
GAL is turning a desolate field of weeds into a visually compelling garden that will educate and engage the community for years to come. Located on a 160′ x 25′ site near the south entrance of Newburyport’s l Trail, the Alchemical Garden is a richly layered evolving art and horticulture experience that is accessible on many different levels to the public.
Alchemical Garden Plot plan
Alchemical Garden is designed to become a model for a sustainable, interactive public garden through the use of symbiotic, low maintenance plantings and recycled materials.
The ancient discipline of Alchemy marries art and science and is famously known for transforming a common material into gold. The Alchemical Garden will lead the community to transform on a number of levels :
Alchemical Garden with Spring Wheat "Crop Circles" June, 2011
BUILD COMMUNITY: The Garden creates a gathering space for individuals to form a more intimate relationship with their community. The space is designed with visual features and seating areas to compel passers-by to pause, reflect, and have a multi-sensory interactive experience ( sight, smell, touch, taste, smell) with the garden and the community.
On May 3rd 2010, the City of Newburyport received a grant from the Fund for the Arts at the New England Foundation for the Arts in support of the Alchemical Garden –an art park and edible public garden being installed on the southern gateway to the Clipper City Rail Trail by the Green Artists League (GAL). This prestigious award of $20,000 is the result of a request submitted by the City and co-written by the Planning Office and GAL. Letters of support were sent by both Transition Newburyport and the Coastal Trails Coalition.
Part science, part art, Alchemical Garden will remediate the remaining toxins in the soil while honoring the long legacy of agricultural and industrial history at the site—from farm and brick factory, to rail corridor and 20th century industry–to the products and services of the more than 100 businesses currently residing in the Industrial parks surrounding the garden.
