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.
Supported in part by a grant from the Newburyport Cultural Council, GAL collage artist Pamela Perkins will conduct five weekday workshops during April school vacation. Students will work in teams to create four large Art-Pots which will later be planted and installed in a shared community garden. This is the beginning of GAL’s “Articulture #3”—a series of ongoing projects.
Called “Flower Power,” the workshop utilizes drawing, painting, decoupage and collage techniques. Participants will visually explore the world of “plant guilds,” permaculture and edible flowers, and upon completion, each pot will represent the horticultural science of the plants growing in them–how they’re working together to create and sustain a healthy environment.
