the garden: A SPace of Symbiosis
IN LOVING MEMORY
PASTOR JAMES W.L. HARVEY JR. & EVANGELIST ALICE J. HARVEY
In loving memory of her parents Pastor James W.L. Harvey Jr., & Evangelist Alice J. Harvey, and inspired by their commitment to community uplift and the creative nurturing of all living beings, including in her mother's own garden, Nicole Harvey - partnering with Red Line Service - has given this property over for public use by the community of N. Lawndale.
Red Line Service is led by artists with a lived experience of homelessness. We know only too well what social isolation, stigmatization, exclusion from creative pathways, and a sense of unbelonging are like. We know first-hand the impact of the calculated and designed separation of people - one from another - through divestment, unequal distribution of resources, and lack of access that makes us unable to see our interdependence and to care for one another. Red Line Service: A Space of Symbiosis imagines a space in which people living with housing and food insecurity can pause, be nourished, engage in creative expression with others, and pause again.
Red Line Service: A Space of Symbiosis is a garden, but it also functions as a canvas wherein artists working together can transform a vacant lot into a thriving space: of people assembling and native plants growing, a space in which communities of care are created and recreated. Currently, Red Line Service: A Space of Symbiosis is a vacant lot on which artistic programming is taking place, seeds are being planted, community bonds are being forged, and meals are being shared.
We started programming in fall 2023 as our contribution to the Terrain Biennial. In summer 2024, in partnership with SAIC at Homan Square's Civic Engagement Program, Red Line Service elders and SAIC teens are researching, designing, fabricating and installing the first element of the garden.
Thank you to the Terra Foundation for American Art's Art Design Chicago Program, the Reva and David Logan Foundation, and Innovation 80.
A space of symbiosis: Programs in the Garden
Red Line Service Public Programs in the Garden (as our contribution to the Terrain Biennial)
Red Line Service Community Mural
Sunday, October 1, 2023
1-4pm
1332 S Millard Avenue
Join us as Red Line Service – in partnership with Studio WIP – creates a temporary community mural on a vacant lot in N. Lawndale as part of Red Line Service’s contribution to the Terrain Biennial. Light lunch will be available.
Red Line Service - Plant the Seed!
Saturday, October 14, 2023
11am-2pm
1332 S Millard Avenue
Decorate seed shakers and sculpt earth balls; plant seeds and share treats, as we lay the groundwork together for a beautiful, thriving community garden.
Space of Symbiosis - Civic Engagement
June-August, 2024
Learning together with teens enrolled in the School of the Art Institute’s Civic Engagement Program taking place in N. Lawndale at the Nichols Tower, 906 S Homan Avenue and on the vacant lot at 1332 S Millard Avenue, we'll research, design, fabricate and install designed objects for the future garden space. Included in the many skills we will learn are: Collaborative civic research and design skills and Intergenerational teamwork. We will do this by meeting together, hearing from landscape architects and gardeners, engaging in art workshops with teaching artists, and making art for the future garden.
Thank you to the Terra Foundation for American Art's Art Design Chicago Program, the Reva and David Logan Foundation, and Innovation 80. Thank you to Blick Art Materials for the supplies.
Donations help make this work possible, click here to cultivate indigenous plants, pollinators and people. Be a part of a community of care in a Space of Symbiosis.