World Garden Commons is featured in an exhibit highlighting 10 projects from across the country that address a local community need and, through a relationship with an artist or arts organization, “empowers residents, artists, and planners to creatively address local challenges and opportunities.”

Running from October 5th to January 1st, 2019 at the Maryland School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation’s Kibel Gallery, the “10 Sectors, 10 Solutions” exhibition highlights 10 creative placemaking projects across the United States (supported by ArtPlaceAmerica) developing human-centered, contextual, and adaptive solutions that can strengthen their communities from within.

This exhibition is organized by ArtPlace America, co-presented with the Kibel Gallery at the University of Maryland and curated by Adam Erickson, ArtPlace America and Ronit Eisenbach, University of Maryland.

Project List

Project Name: Appalachian Artisan Center of Kentucky, Inc.

Organizer Name: Appalachian Artisan Center of Kentucky, Inc.

Location: Hindman, KY

Geographic Context: Rural

Sector: Health

Artistic Discipline(s): Folk & Traditional Arts, Music, Visual Arts

Website: http://www.artisancenter.net/

Project Name: Chiyo’s Garden

Organizer Name: Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience

Location: Seattle, WA

Geographic Context: Urban

Sector: Immigration

Artistic Discipline(s): Design & Architecture, Folk & Traditional Arts, Visual Arts

Website: http://www.wingluke.org/

Project Name: Detroit Cultivators

Organizer Name: Oakland Avenue Urban Farm

Location: Detroit, MI

Geographic Context: Urban

Sector: Agriculture & Food

Artistic Discipline(s): Multidisciplinary

Website: http://www.oaklandurbanfarm.org/

Project Name: Eden Lives!

Organizer Name: Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs’ Activities League

Location: Hayward, CA

Geographic Context: Urban

Sector: Public Safety

Artistic Discipline(s): Multidisciplinary

Website: http://edennightlive.com/

Project Name: The Fargo Project: World Garden Commons

Organizer Name: City of Fargo

Location: Fargo, ND

Geographic Context: Urban

Sector: Environment & Energy

Artistic Discipline(s): Design & Architecture, Folk & Traditional Arts, Visual Arts, Other

Website: www.thefargoproject.com

photo credit: Jelena Dakovic

Project Name: New Hampshire Ave: This Is a Place To…

Organizer Name: Dance Exchange

Location: Takoma Park, MD

Geographic Context: Suburban

Sector: Transportation

Artistic Discipline(s): Dance, Visual Arts

Website: http://danceexchange.org/

Project Name: Rolling Rez Arts Mobile Unit

Organizer Name: First Peoples Fund

Location: Kyle, SD

Geographic Context: Rural

Sector: Workforce Development

Artistic Discipline(s): Folk & Traditional Arts

Website: http://www.firstpeoplesfund.org/rolling-rez-arts/

Project Name: Sipp Culture

Organizer Name: Mississippi Center for Cultural Production

Location: Utica, MS

Geographic Context: Rural

Sector: Economic Development

Artistic Discipline(s): Film & Media, Other

Website: www.sippculture.com

Project Name: Southwest Folklife Alliance

Organizer Name: Southwest Folklife Alliance

Location: Nogales, AZ

Geographic Context: Rural

Sector: Education & Youth

Artistic Discipline(s): Craft & Culinary Arts, Film & Media, Literature

Website: https://www.southwestfolklife.org/

Project Name: Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling

Organizer Name: Broadway Housing Communities

Location: New York, NY

Geographic Context: Urban

Sector: Housing

Artistic Discipline(s): Design & Architecture, Visual Arts, Other

Website: http://www.sugarhillmuseum.org/

One attendee said, “The event was fantastic! Lots of people and engagement and fun activities!”

A variety of ecological and cultural activities were planned characterizing prairie for the people and to show the importance of community connection, nature, natural resources and the creative expressions of cultures.

World Garden Commons is a newly transformed greenspace that reflects the cultural vibrancy of the Fargo community and serves as a stormwater collection basin.

Scroll through Amu Production’s images below:

Many thanks to the following for their contributions to the event:
NDSU Natural Resource Management
New American Consortium, Make Room and Kwaician
BUZZ Lab Hive & Photo Booth
Kindness Rocks with Dena Schultz and The Arts Partnership
Growing Together Face Painting & Garden Tours
River Keepers Scavenger Hunt & Water Adventure
Be More Colorful Virtual Reality Tours
Native American Commission Mini Pow Wow
Heavenly Hawg BBQ & Adibon African & European Cuisine, Daughters of the Earth Buffalo Stew, and River Keepers’ Catfish Bites
FM Ballet
Anytime Fun

View World Garden Commons stormwater basin during winter, after a rain event and during a full prairie flower bloom.

A variety of ecological and cultural activities are planned characterizing prairie for the people. The activities show the importance of community connection, nature, natural resources and the creative expressions of cultures as World Garden Commons is a greenspace that reflects the cultural vibrancy of the Fargo community.

WHAT: Prairie for the People Grand Opening Celebration

WHERE: World Garden Commons at Rabanus Park, 4315

WHEN: 5:00 to 7:00 PM, Sunday, August 5, 2018

SCHEDULE:

5:15 Grand Entry at the Mini PowWow

6:00 Music by Kwaician (shelter)

6:50 Closing FM Ballet performance

EVENT DETAILS:

Mini Powwow

Grand Entry will be at 5:15 p.m. where everyone is welcome to participate, with or without regalia. The Native American Commission welcomes the community to join dancers, singers, drummers and anyone who wants to dance to inter-tribal songs.

Food

(FREE) In addition to Buffalo Stew and Catfish bites, Heavenly Hawg (BBQ) and Adibon African and European Cuisine food trucks will be on hand for extra tasty samples of delicious food. Food trucks will have additional food for sale.

Ballet on the Prairie

To close the celebration at World Garden Commons, the FM Ballet will perform several dances choreographed by Matthew Gasper that demonstrate how water transforms the land and humanity can work in harmony with our natural resources.

Scavenger Hunt & Water Journey

River Keepers invite attendees to participate in a World Garden Commons scavenger hunt, be a part of an incredible water journey, and taste Catfish which is the most popular game fish in our Red River.

World Music & Birdhouses

The New American Consortium for Wellness and Empowerment is hosting world music featuring Kwaician (6:00 PM under the shelter) and an art project: attendees can make birdhouses.

The Mobile Hive

Plains Buzz Lab interns are helping to plan the event and will bring the Mobile HIVE to the Prairie for the People celebration. The Buzz Lab interns will host a photo booth to capture the fun and activities.

Virtual Reality Tours

Be More Colorful will offer 360° virtual tours of the World Garden Commons basin and feature views of the basin during winter, after a rain event and during a full prairie flower bloom.

Garden Tours & Face-painting

Growing Together volunteers will host garden tours, provide a short planting workshop, offer samples of produce and face-painting for children.

Kindness Rocks

The Arts Partnership is hosting Kindness Rocks Project with Artist Dina Schulz. The Kindness Rocks Project™, encourages people to leave rocks painted with inspiring messages along the path of life.

A variety of ecological and cultural activities are planned characterizing “Prairie for the People”. The activities show the importance of community connection, nature, natural resources and the creative expressions of cultures as World Garden Commons is a greenspace that reflects the cultural vibrancy of the Fargo community.

Celebration Activities at Rabanus Park, Fargo:

Be More Colorful will offer 360° virtual tours of the World Garden Commons basin and feature views of the basin during winter, after a rain event and during a full prairie flower bloom.

To close the celebration at World Garden Commons, the FM Ballet will perform several dances choreographed by Matthew Gasper that demonstrate how water transforms the land and humanity can work in harmony with the natural resources that surround them.  The troupe will include a selection from “Spirit Rising,” a ballet that honors Nimuué, a skeleton found in 1931 near Pelican Rapids believed to have lived about 20,000 years ago and may represent the oldest archaeological discovery in North America.

The Native American Commission’s Mini Powwow welcomes the community to join dancers, singers, drummers and anyone who wants to dance to inter-tribal songs. Grand Entry will be at 5:15 p.m. where everyone is welcome to participate, with or without regalia. The mission of the Fargo Native American Commission is to promote understanding, recognition and respect for Native American cultures and enrich the whole community.

Growing Together volunteers will host garden tours, provide a short planting workshop, offer samples of produce and face-painting for children. Growing Together is a community garden ministry that has been growing food and relationships at Rabanus Park for 4 years.

The New American Consortium for Wellness and Empowerment is hosting world music and an art project: attendees can make pinwheels to catch the prairie wind.  The New American Consortium promotes wellness and empowerment by building bridges among people, bonds between diverse communities, and links to organizations.

The Arts Partnership is hosting Kindness Rocks Project with Dina Schulz. The Kindness Rocks Project™, encourages people to leave rocks painted with inspiring messages along the path of life. The Arts Partnership is a dynamic umbrella arts organization devoted to cultivating the arts in our community.

Plains Art Museum Buzz Lab interns are helping to plan the event and will bring the Mobile HIVE to the Prairie for the People celebration. The Buzz Lab interns will host a photo booth to capture the fun and activities. Buzz Lab interns work with artists and teachers to learn and discuss the importance of pollinators, create art and serve as ambassadors for the Plains Art Museum.

River Keepers invites attendees to participate in a World Garden Commons scavenger hunt, be a part of an incredible water journey, and taste Catfish which is the most popular game fish in our Red River. River Keepers helps the community value the Red River through education, stewardship and leadership.

The World Garden Commons at Rabanus Park is the result of the community’s design that transforms an urban storm water basin into prairie, wildflower, and wet meadows with environmental learning labs, walking trails, gathering places for celebrations and cultural festivals, and nature observation areas.

With water as the vehicle for connecting people to the land, the approach and process for the design of the site activated a collective creative agency. Artists, neighbors, engineers, landscape architects, and ecologists, worked together to develop a solution to transform the neighborhood storm water basin to fit unique needs as a community.

World Common Gardens, the pilot site for The Fargo Project is underwritten by ArtPlace of America, the Kresge foundation National Endowment for the Arts, North Dakotas’ Outdoor Heritage Fund, the Plains Art Museum and the City of Fargo.

The Fargo Project, led by internationally renowned artists Jackie Brookner (1945-2015), incorporates community involvement through creative placemaking and a community-design process seeped in the arts, culture and belonging to enliven and enrich a community and to for the ecological restoration of a functional storm water basin.

The houses were designed to imitate the habitat of the targeted species- songbirds like tree swallow and wood ducks- and provide the best possible nesting space to ensure a healthy upbringing of offspring, with plenty of space, air and access to food. Meanwhile, The Fargo Project’s wanted to provide the citizens with an outlet for recreation and relaxation while being exposed to the natural prairie pothole wetland environments that exist in North Dakota.

Tree swallows compete with a variety of other songbirds for nesting territory including bluebirds, wrens, robins, starlings, and goldfinches. Tree swallows can nest in nearly anything. Tree swallows are classified by ornithologists as “cavity nesters”. It’s not uncommon to see tree swallow nests in mailboxes, drainage pipes, and small corners of buildings. However, these nesting choices for the birds often mean a shorter lifespan and even death for the young.

To ensure the greatest chance of a successful brood of young, the swallow’s houses are designed for the interior to be spacious (roughly the interior volume of a microwave). The entrance hole is drilled to a 1 ⅜-inch and includes foothold grips for the young to climb up to feed. The exterior can be painted or decorated, but the interior must be plain as the chemicals in paint can harm the young’s development.

The tree swallow houses must be installed away from water so the young will not drown if they fail to fly immediately after vacating the nest. The houses are typically between 3-6’ high above ground level. Tree swallows, along with many of the other songbirds listed, are migratory birds which fly to South America in the winter months, with their breeding range being in the Midwest in spring.

Wood duck houses were also constructed for World Garden Commons. The houses are similar to the tree swallows in volume, but are generally between 6-10’ high and have roughly a 2-inch borehole. The houses should be installed near water edges since wood ducks are classified as waterfowl, they tend to nest within a mile of a lake, shoreline, riverbank, or other bodies of water. The breeding range for the wood duck is in the upper midwest of the country including the Dakotas. They do short migrations from the woodland of Minnesota to the prairie pothole regions of North Dakota.

Both types of birdhouses share a slit in the upper half of the house about 1.5-inches long for air ventilation on hot days. Both houses must have tilted rooftops extending approximately 5-inches from the vertex of the house to prevent predators like fox, mink, weasel and feral cats from preying on the helpless young.

Having lived in Fargo while going to school, I have noticed a disconnect in the community with regard to natural resources. For many, seeing whitetail deer, turkeys, waterfowl, or even common songbirds like the state bird (the Western Meadowlark), is an increasingly uncommon experience. I feel both blessed and spoiled to be able to walk out my back porch in the summer and see all these creatures and more as I drive into Bismarck. If we want the future generation to care and manage their surrounding natural resources, we need to expose them to it.

That purpose of The Fargo Project and World Garden Commons is to eliminate the disconnect of natural resource exposure in Fargo by taking an otherwise useless concrete drainage pit and repurposing it into a small nature preserve and park, with native grasses, flowing streams and wetlands. Through our efforts, we will give the neighbors a place to come and enjoy time spent with family, in a place that truly connects the public with North Dakota’s natural prairie beauty.

About the Author:

Joshua Upgren is a 4th-year undergrad in the school of Natural Resource Management at NDSU. When not in school, Joshua is a state employee of North Dakota working as a historical interpreter at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. He is an avid outdoorsman and enjoys fishing, hunting, hiking and exploring and learning about all things history.

“The Red River used to be an enemy in Fargo, but now people are talking about it as a good thing. Without Jackie Brookner’s art-inspired thinking, we probably would have manipulated the water a lot more, or overdesigned it. By following an arts approach we can better manage the water on site and improve its quality. As awareness spreads, people think about the river and nature differently than they did before.” —Jack Norland, Associate Professor of Natural Resources, North Dakota State University

No matter who we are, where we live, or what we do, water is essential to our lives. It is life’s most precious resource, an indispensable ingredient for prosperity, progress, and well-being. Water challenges in the United States are vast and mounting—communities are suffering from poor water quality, drought, flooding, and more. Our water and wastewater infrastructure is aging and in urgent need of replacement and renewal. Our water systems are further stressed by increasingly unpredictable weather, sea level rise, and shifting populations.

The urgent and multifaceted nature of our water challenges calls for new ways of thinking, acting, and investing. Water leaders across the nation are embracing the One Water approach—managing water resources in a more integrated, inclusive, and sustainable manner in order to secure a bright and prosperous future for our children, communities, and country.

Brian Reinarts, a landscape architect at Land Elements, has been working on the design on the site for over 4 years. Today he lead a construction meeting at the site and noticed the increased activity in the basin. Brian says, “It was really great to see the kids funnel into the basin and just be immersed into the site. I have also noticed that any runners and walkers are taking advantage of the trail system.”

World Garden Commons, at Rabanus Park in Fargo, ND is a pilot project to demonstrate how holistic ecological restoration, socially engaged ecological art, and active community process can transform functioning stormwater infrastructure into vibrant and innovative green spaces for our urban community.  The site has become a multi-functional green space with restored native prairie, walking trails, and outdoor spaces for natural play, gathering and celebration.

and just be immersed into the site.

This final stage of construction wraps up years of community conversations and design collaborations initiated by Ecological Artist Jackie Brookner (1945-2015) and the City of Fargo Planning Department. Along the way, the project has involved hundreds of community partners, neighbors, children and even city bus drivers.

Since 2012 we have re-imagined how a storm-water basin could become a beautiful, common space for families and community members. During the WeDesign, neighbors were empowered to design and create some of the park elements. Through the design principles, we also prepared the area for an ecological rehabilitation of native prairie and birds plus a community garden.

We are humbled by all who have contributed their ideas, imagination and expertise to make the World Garden Commons at Rabanus Park a national example of how art, public space, ecology and community can come together.

Construction is due to be complete at the end of the month.

Natural play log spiral concept created by Westside Elementary 5th graders using clay and twigs (2016)

Community-driven design projects in underserved neighborhoods can not only change the built world, but also provide opportunities for residents to build their own capacities.

A new book by Barbara Brown Wilson, Resilience for All: Striving for Equity Through Community-Driven Design, features the World Garden Commons at Rabanus Park, the pilot site of The Fargo Project in a chapter called “Fargo: Playing in the Sandbox in The Fargo Project”.

The author began with a survey of the existing literature on resilience and reached out to a diverse group of organizers, researchers, planners, and other urban change agents, including Nicole Crutchfield, City of Fargo Director of Planning, whose experience with The Fargo Project’s approach is community-based design.

While it is a city-initiated project, part of The Fargo Project’s purpose was to create a methodology and process that embeds the project deeply and broadly within Fargo’s diverse communities—from concept through design, implementation, use and care of the spaces. A very different approach to traditional design.

Traditional design is usually client driven or a patron model, where a one or a few individuals determine the parameters, values, cultural image, and context of infrastructure design that may not align with how a community uses the space, how they interact with their neighbors, streets or neighborhood. In traditional design, public participation is a box to check. It usually consists of a meeting where concerned citizens select design option A or B.

Author Barbara Brown Wilson says, “Community driven design is taking design a step further to not only make it accessible to lower income communities that are undeserved because they can’t afford or have not been invited to the table, but to create a scenario in which these communities can be designing the table, can be leading the entire process.”

The Fargo Project’ focus was less on the project or product, but rather growing the capacity of groups, neighborhoods and communities, empowering the public to make and shape their environment including the infrastructure which supports them. The approach decenters the design process and encourages active participation from children, adults, and neighbors.

Check out Barbara Brown Wilson’s Resilience for All: Striving for Equity Through Community Driven Design at Island Press http://ow.ly/3RCn30k9lDm

Author Barbara Brown Wilson’s research and teaching focus on the ethics, theory, and practice of sustainable community design and development, and on the history of urban social movements. Wilson’s current research projects include understanding how grassroots community networks reframe public infrastructure in more climate and culturally appropriate ways across the U.S., and helping to elevate the standards of evaluation for community engaged design around notions of social and ecological justice.