San Diego State University Jewelry/ Metalwork Graduate Students
Exhibit runs May 23 to June 30

Opening Reception ~ Saturday, June 1st  6-9pm

Jewelry Sale* ~ Saturday, June 8th  6-9pm

     *View new pieces and purchase wearable art!

The Jewelry & Metalwork program at San Diego State University encourages and assists students in the development of a mature artistic statement based upon intellectual, aesthetic and technical capabilities in conjunction with career goals. The program is formulated to broaden understanding of the metals field and its historical and contemporary context through research, experimentation, and reading on critical issues in art and design. Creativity and technique are stressed equally. The students in this program are encouraged to explore cross-disciplinary work as well as take advantage of foreign study opportunities to reveal new perspectives. The diversity of work produced in the program is evidence of the multiplicity of concerns that can be addressed within the arena of jewelry/metalsmithing.

Participating Artists:

Alexandra Hopp
Amanda Packer
Carla Smith
Demi Thomloudis
Jessica Andersen
Tammy Young Eun Kim
Michael Rybicki
Tracy Black

Monroe Clark Middle School Student Art at Bread & Cie Bakery

Opening Reception ~ Friday, June 14th 5-7pm

Bread & Cie Bakery
350 University Ave. 92103

What to do with thousands of misprinted paper bags?  MAKE ART!

Students from the New Arrival Center at Monroe Clark Middle School have been working with Lynn Susholtz (Stone Paper Scissors) creating art that tells stories of their travels from their home countries. This spring the students visited Bread & Cie Bakery and Cafe in addition to several galleries, museums, & public art sites. Students created images and text in mixed media on unused recycled bread bags.

The New Arrival Center currently has 31 students, 11-15 yrs old, from 14 countries, including Burma, Vietnam, Cambodia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Egypt, Haiti, Guatemala, and Mexico. More than 20 languages are spoken amongst the students. Students work with their classroom teacher, Kristy Drake, to create a community of support, learn foundational English and math skills, fill in educational gaps, and understand American cultural customs with a common goal of preparing them to succeed in school and, ultimately, thrive, in their new lives here in the United States.

The New Arrival Center works with refugees and immigrants in the City Heights community to equip students with the academic and social skills necessary to navigate the educational system here in their new country. Students come from around the world and are often relocated to the United States as a result of political strife, warfare, or violence in their home country. Many have lived the majority of their lives in refugee camps, experienced extreme trauma, and had limited schooling. For some, this is the first time they have ever had any formal education. They are faced with the unique challenge of simultaneously learning English, acclimating to a new culture, and becoming a teenager. 

Green Public Art Consultancy
Exhibit July 8 to August 18

Parade ~ Saturday, July 13 7-8pm
Parade ~ Saturday, August 10 7-8pm

Green Public Art Consultancy has invited artists, performers and designers to create floats, placards, portable sculptures, kites, performances, art bikes, balloons and street spectacles for a Green Art Parade.  The parade route will begin at a location TBD in North Park and will conclude here at Art Produce.  To extend the ephemeral nature of the parade, Green Public Art Consultancy will exhibit a number of Green Art Parade entries in the Art Produce Gallery and Garden.

Check out the City Beat article about this event!

CHW offers residents a multi-purpose community room, after school classroom and computer center, providing both high quality rental homes and services to its residents.

The project was dedicated on May 17, 2013 with honored guests Mayor Bob Filner, City Council President Todd Gloria, and Assembly Majority Leader Toni Atkins. 

Read about the project and dedication in
San Diego Uptown News.

National public art magazine features Lynn Susholtz and Art Produce in its Spring/Summer 2012 “Food For Thought” edition.

Originally built as a produce market, Art Produce houses Susholtz’ art studio, Stone Paper Scissors, the organic garden, a new restaurant, a meditation center and a unique storefront gallery space and public art experience. Stone Paper Scissors has won 5 “Orchid” awards by the SD Architectural Foundation for public art and sustainable design, and both for Art Produce.  Art Produce’s outdoor garden space, which opened in 2010 and features an assortment of vegetables, herbs and fruits irrigated by a rainwater catchment system. The Art Produce garden is a gathering place for outdoor events such as dance performances, film screenings, art and cooking classes, food exchanges, and other community events.

The City of San Diego recently added Grandmother's Kitchen/Grandfather's Garden to the City's Civic Art Collection. This original art commission was generously funded by a donation from Niki de St. Phalle through the Niki Charitable Art Foundation. The artwork is on loan to the La Maestra Community Health Center in City Heights.

Grandmother's Kitchen/Grandfather's Garden is a digital cookbook, a cultural archive of the City Heights neighborhood and a visual poem tracing the rich history of immigration to this community. The photography, video and text featured in this wall-mounted sculpture were collected by the artist, Lynn Susholtz, from the residents of City Heights and the staff of La Maestra Community Health Center to present the diversity of the neighborhood through shared experiences and culturally specific stories of food. Susholtz was selected through a competition among U.S. artists by a panel of San Diego community members appointed by the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture. Susholtz responded to the Commission for Arts and Culture's request to create an original artwork documenting the community of City Heights. Funding for the artwork was donated to the City of San Diego by the late French artist Niki de St. Phalle, who moved to San Diego in 1994 and spent eight years creating and installing her iconic sculptures around San Diego County. Witnessing the geographical and social bifurcation of the City Heights neighborhood during the construction of Interstate 15, de St. Phalle developed a particular concern about the wellbeing of the community in this area of San Diego. She envisioned public art as a healing force for the neighborhood.

From Left- Amina Sheik, Lynn Susholtz, Marelin Rodriguez,

Ma Aye, Akram Abdelrasool, Zara Marselian, Dawt ii 

Opening Reception ~ Saturday, April 13 - 6-9pm

Conversation with the Artists ~ Saturday, May 11 - 7pm

North Park Arts Festival ~ Saturday, May 18th - 11-6

From two-dimensional works to video and installation pieces, seven artists from San Diego and Tijuana explore contemporary space and offer a bi-cultural glimpse of what the future might hold.

Artists; Qais Al-Sindy, Luis Alderete, Jennifer Bennet, Antonio Escalante, Lisa Hutton, Selena Marinello and César Vázquez each present landscapes altered by time, perception and man, in a variety of media. Alderete, Escalanate and Vázquez live and work in Tijuana; Al-Sindy, Bennet, Hutton, and Marinello in San Diego.

Appear at this important board meeting of the Port Authority:

Tuesday, June 11th at 1pm
Port Administration Building
3165 Pacific Highway

There will be a motion to cut the Public Art Program's budget and take $1.2 million from it's reserve. The Port already has $53 million dollars in the Port Operations Reserve. Should the financial shortfall of the Port be made up from the miniscule arts program budget? The Port commissioned and recently completed a public art plan that is funded and ready to implement. If the money is pulled from this budget it would likely kill the arts program entirely.

Read more about the issue...
"Port art program takes hit" - Union Tribune June 2, 2013

OPEN LETTER FROM PAC CHAIR...

David White 2:29 AM (9 hours ago)

Hi friends,

As you may or may not know I am currently the Chair on the Public Art Committee for the Port of San Diego. The port is traditionally not known for having the best public art, but in the last few years, under the leadership of curator Yvonne Wise a new curatorial strategy was introduced. This strategy, approved by the commissioners in late 2011 outlined projects that ranged from large scale interventions to small scale residencies in working areas of the Port. I was personally interested in these smaller projects. Overall though, I thought the new curatorial plan had the ability to be a seed change in Port Public art and that it could be an fantastic support structure for artists in San Diego; as well as bringing in national and international artists for the larger projects. These have been the reasons that I have stuck it out with the Port for three years. Some of the potential projects in the pipeline were by great artists such as Jose Parral, Margaret Noble, the Periscope Project, Randy Walker, Patrick Shields,Adam Belt and so on. These names give an indication of how far we are in changing Port Public Art. Just at the moment that some of these projects began to be approved and slated for production, the commissioners have turned on us.Currently there are changes being made that will in essence dismantle the Public Art Program at the Port. I believe that this is a political action. It is also a clear indicator that the commissioners prefer that San Diego remain a provincial backwater, culturally. They are proposing that Public Art's yearly budget be cut in half, that the Public Art office be dismantled i.e.public art staff be relocated under another department (meaning working on public art becomes secondary to the needs of the new department) and the reserves that the Public Art Office has accumulated over the last few years be tapped into to the tune of nearly 2/3 of the monies in this account. For the numbers people out there: Current yearly budget: $1.2million - proposed new budget $600,000. Current money in reserve: $2.4 million - proposed take to cover the general shortfall: $1.5 million (leaving Public Art with $900,000 in reserves) =$2.1 million from Public Art to cover an overall Port shortfall of $4.9 million. This is a very uneven distribution. Essentially Public art is being punished for being fiscally responsible while the overall Port is decimating the Public at fund because of their fiscal mismanagement. At the same time the Port's general fund is flush with $53 million in reserves. This is clearly a strategy to use the current shortfall ($4.9 million) dismantle public art for political reasons. Tuesday is a preliminary budget vote for the commissioners. If you, as an arts supporter in San Diego, could take the time to write the commissioners and let them know that GOOD pubic art is important to you and the City of San Diego it would be greatly appreciated. Please send any emails/letters by tomorrow night.(Monday 6/10) so that the commissioners get them before Tuesdays meeting.(early Tuesday could work too)The commissioners emails are below. Apologies for the short notice but these events have happened fast. Our only chance of some action of recourse is if there is a perceived groundswell of support. Personally I would like to see the above artist's projects go through. You can address letters/emails to "Chair Moore and Commissioners"

Link to commissioners page on the Port's website: http://www.portofsandiego.org/commissioner-profiles.html Chair Moore: Ann Moore - Chair amoore@portofsandiego.orgBob Nelson Vice Chair bnelson@portofsandiego.org danmalcolm@portofsandiego.orglousmith@portofsandiego.org rvalderrama@portofsandiego.orgrcastellanos@portofsandiego.org mmerrifield@portofsandiego.orgYou can email Chair Moore and CC the rest. Some important points to hit on: Economic impacts of good public art That they should honor the current contracts Public art as a public good (akin to libraries, parks and the like) How excellent the new curatorial strategy is (link: http://www.portofsandiego.org/public-art/2896-new-public-art-curatorial-strategy-will-reflect-special-nature-of-port-tidelands181.html) I will be attending the Commissioners meeting on Tuesday at 1pmif anyone would like to join me. Also make sure to use your credentials and titles on the letters to let them know who, and how accomplished, you all are. Thanks and all best,

David White

Saturday, April 13th- 4pm.

Inside the Artist Studio Tour is a new event sponsored by North Park Main Street that promotes passion for the arts.  Different from Ray at Night, you will get a chance to observe exciting demonstrations in nine studios and participate in discussions with 20 artists.  Along with the opportunity to see their respective art-making processes, you will also have the chance to sample various local foods and drinks at each studio. Participating studios include: Art Academy, Art Department, Art Produce, Cirello Gallery, obr Architecture, Pigment, Plus One Photography, Protea Gallery, Ray Street Custom Framing, and University Studios. Tickets are $25 each. You can also purchase your ticket at the pre-sale prices of $15 each or 2 for $20. The tour will begin at 4:00 P.M. Space is limited and the tour can only accommodate a maximum of 16 people. Don’t miss out on your chance to go on a Studio Arts Tour! Mark your calendars and reserve your tour now by calling 619.795.4850 or visiting Cirello Gallery.  All proceeds will benefit North Park Arts.

Opening Reception Saturday Feb. 9, 6-9pm

Feb. 9- March 24, 2013

Opening Reception Saturday Feb. 9, 6-9pm.  Community Chromosome, a crowd-sourced installation. You are invited to create the story, trade poems, share drawings, design/decode the DNA of a community and the history of Art Produce.

Please bring a canned food item to donate to Mama’s Pantry, a program of Mama’s Kitchen, providing nutritional shopping opportunity at no cost for men, women and children of San Diego County affected by HIV/AIDS. (Food donations accepted through March).

Saturday Feb.9th Reception is a fundraiser for Enrichment for Refugees, a program of the International Rescue Committee at Monroe Clarke Middle School & Women's Empowerment International, an all-volunteer nonprofit providing microfinance loans for low-income women locally and internationally

Come in and contribute to the ongoing discussion of what makes community.

International Women's Day- March 8, 2013

Mother Sela, a film by Sylvette Artinian. Screenings at 6:30 & 8pm in Art Produce Gallery.

Join us after each screening for a discussion with Seta Manoukian & Sylvette Artinian.

Mother Sela is a portrait of Seta Manoukian, a Lebanese artist who was active during the little-known cultural heyday of Beirut (once known as the Paris of the Middle East) and lived to witness its subsequent destruction during 10 years of Civil War. This documentary is a story about the convergence of war, art and spirituality through the insight of an artist who sought a transcendent vision from an early age. Through a series of interviews with Seta, we see how she matured as an artist and thinker. Seta’s quest for spirituality eventually brings her to Sri Lanka, where she becomes a Buddhist nun, dedicating her time to meditation and Dharma studies.

Manoukian, a celebrated painter in Beirut took a stand during the war together with various filmmakers, composers and musicians, by becoming the people’s conscience. They introduced fantastic realism, a new direction in art. Her work reflects the pains of a nation coming to self-awareness and provides a poignant view into the psychological turmoil of the state of war.

Sponsored by The San Diego Shambhala Meditation Center and Art Produce.

Mel Nichols & Rod Smith

Rod Smith is the author of more than 10 collections of poetry, most recently, Deed (University of Iowa Press, 2007). He is editor & publisher of Edge Books and is also co-editingThe Selected Letters of Robert Creeley (University of California Press). Manager of the famed Bridge Street Books in Washington, DC and curator of its renowned reading series, Smith is a central member of the vibrant DC poetry community. With an MFA from George Mason University, Smith has taught in the MFA programs at Bard College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
Mel Nichols’s most recent books are Catalytic Exteriorization Phenomenon (Edge, 2009) and Bicycle Day (Slack Buddha, 2008). Other recent work can be found in Poetry, New Ohio Review, and The Brooklyn Rail. She teaches at George Mason University, where she received her MFA, and at the Corcoran School of Arts and lives in Washington, DC. Her Flarf poem “I Google Myself” was recently featured on Huffington Post.

Event is Free and open to the public. (Donations accepted!)

To READ Click HERE in the San Diego Union Trib. and Click HERE

Since 1999, when Stone Paper Scissors, the design enterprise headed by Lynn Susholtz took over the North Park Produce Company on University Avenue and converted it into Art Produce Gallery, that space has been in a state of nearly constant transformation and invigoration....

SWOON  Dessert Bar

We are excited to welcome our newest neighbors.
Opening at Art Produce in late December!  Connect on FaceBook, check out some of the yummy treats. 

Grand Opening of Swoon and the Reopening of Art Produce Gallery Feb. 9th, 2013! Visit the Swoon page for more info.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE - SHOP LOCAL   Support local women-owned businesses in a beautiful outdoor community setting. Small Business Saturday is a national event supporting independently owned businesses, an alternative to shopping at the mall. In partnership with North Park Main Street Business Association, Art Produce will host local women owned businesses that make organic kitchen/bath products, hand-made jewelry, clothing & gifts from STAR and La Maestra micro-finance assistance programs.

La Maestra’s Microcredit Program for Women provides impoverished women in the San Diego area with the opportunity to be independent and empowered to better their own lives and operate sustainable businesses employing others. The program provides low income women with loans of $250, $500, or $1000 and helps borrowers establish credit and teaches the women the value of saving money with a built-in savings plan. In addition, borrowers meet weekly with the program coordinator and other borrowers to make their loan repayments and discuss their businesses’ progress. These meetings provide a forum for peer support, while encouraging the women to make their own decisions and learn firsthand about running a business.
Read the article in the Huffington Post | View photos

“What’s the Use?”

Saturday, November 3rd 2012

A day of programming organized by There Goes the Neighborhood collaborative in Art Produce Garden

“You Are What You Eat” -  6pm to 7pm
“Critical Postcards”-   7pm to 9pm
  Reception and Music-   9pm

“You Are What You Eat” is a free dinner hosted by TGTN in which the contents of your meal correlate to how you view yourself as an active community agent. After “You Are What You Eat” TGTN will host a second iteration of "Critical Postcards",  a series of three 20-30 minute interviews via Skype with artists and activists from around the country whose work engages public space in innovative ways.

"What's the Use?" will bring together a myriad of San Diego advocacy groups that work in areas such as housing, green space, infrastructure, education, transportation, arts and culture, and more. TGTN's goal is to create a forum for individuals and organizations that focus on bottom up planning to connect with each other about their most pressing initiatives and most difficult obstacles; and to see how the first can be accomplished and the latter overcome. We hope that by bringing all of you together and sharing these goals and struggles a productive delineation of issues will allow for all of us to tease out our collective interests, shared assets, and common barriers so as to eventually see our initiatives accomplished in the city of San Diego. 

What’s The Use?* is a neighborhood colloquium organized by There Goes the Neighborhood (TGTN) collaborative. (http://theregoes.org) TGTN is a group of artists that facilitates creative programming for activists, advocacy groups, artists and concerned citizens to discuss issues relevant to the organizational strategies of our cities; to rethink how this planning is done; and to make connections across individuals and organizations in hopes of finding solutions to some of our common problems. We do this by mixing the spontaneity and fun of community arts festivals with the probing analysis of academic conferences to produce an artful forum for discussion. 

Visit Chris Flores and Jennifer Anderson's POD in the Art Produce Garden. 

Open Daily 10-6pm, October 13th- 26th.

Around back of Art Produce in Garden

Jennifer Anderson: I am a maker of one-of-a-kind objects living in the 21st century. I am an artist. I am a craftsperson. I am a designer. While my work is multifaceted and constantly flows between disciplines, my focus is always on furniture.

My furniture is rooted in tradition yet fueled by experimentation. I find technology to be both seductive and repulsive. I create functional objects that people live and interact with on a daily basis. These objects not only serve the basic needs of people, but are also the primary vehicles for my self-expression.

My most recent work focuses on translating iconic pieces of furniture into mud. By taking a material that is otherwise thought of as worthless and translating it into highly regarded objects I am asking people to reconsider their relationships with domestic objects.

This issue explores the theme of Food for Thought and how what we eat affects public art (and vice versa) on a global scale. We'll cover the topic from a holistic lens of the entire food cycle - revealing how public artists address the topics of growing and raising our food within fragile ecosystems, the infrastructure of the global food business, the culture of eating and sharing food within our communities, and ultimately the politics that influence our food system - again, all from the angle of how public artists shape and communicate these processes to their audiences.

Learn more about Art Produce at our video channel.

Purchase this edition of Public Art Review Magazine online.

Download PDF

Grandmother’s Kitchen/Grandfather’s Garden is a stand-alone digital sculpture. The installation is a 38” x 31”ft wall sculpture/digital display containing 2 layers of clear acrylic- printed with images, of recipes, plants, names of dishes and an image of the world. It houses 4 video monitors mounted behind the acrylic, embedded in the layers of images. Each monitor has a looping 10 - 15 minute video/slide show mix.  Images include plants and food created by families in City Heights. Dishes include Bahn Xeo, Tamales, Enchiladas, Tostadas, Pupusas, Injera, Yogurt, Cous Cous, Pepian, Kenkey, Zigny, Agua Frescas, Matzo Ball Soup, Caldo de Pollo, Pasteles de Picado, Sambusas, Coffee, Black Eyed Peas, Chile Rellenos, Curries, and more.

Community members are invited to contribute personal drawings, stories and recipes of their favorite meals in journals provided.

La Maestra Community Health Center is an award winning LEED certified health clinic in the heart of the City Heights neighborhood. The mission and vision of La Maestra is to provide quality healthcare and support services to improve the overall well-being of the family, and to bring under-served, ethnically diverse communities into the mainstream of society in a caring and culturally competent manner that respects patients’ dignity. La Maestra Community Health Center serves 90,000 patients annually.

View more photos. Learn more about Stone Paper Scissors.

Justin Kramer
Crystal Thomas
Reuben Foat
Barrett Foat
Olivia Cyr
Hayley Stewart
Vincent Robles
Pat Clark
Erin Behling

SDSU graduate students in Furniture Design and Woodworking concentration were asked to collaborate in the design and fabrication of a new work.

North Park artist Lynn Susholtz’s latest work, “Grandmother’s Kitchen/Grandfather’s Garden,” is now up and running at the La Maestra Community Health Center. Commissioned by the City of San Diego with support from the Niki de Saint Phalle Foundation, Susholtz describes the work as “a digital cookbook, a visual culinary history and a cultural archive of the City Heights neighborhood.”

The digital sculptural installation includes four video monitors which show images of plants and food created by City Heights families. They range from Matzo Ball Soup to Pasteles de Picado, showing through food City Height’s rich history of immigration.

Susholtz is an artist, art educator and community activist who owns Art Produce Gallery on University Avenue. She operates her design business, Stone Paper Scissors, and an organic garden out of the same location. She and her endeavors have won five “Orchid” awards from the San Diego Architectural Foundation and she was recently featured in the journal, “Public Art Review,” in its Spring/Summer “Food For Thought” edition.

Read the full article online at www.utsandiego.com.

@ Art Produce:   Saturday June 2nd, 1-3pm-  Un-Photography workshop led by artist Andrew Printer.  Participants will stroll through North Park individually, in pairs or as a group and document local human interest "events" with pencil and sketch book (like a photo/journalist might).
Note: Cameras are not necessary but do bring small drawing pads and colored pencils, pens, or crayons. Participants will be walking through North Park, so consider wearing comfortable footwear.

Saturday June 2nd, 8:30pm to 9:30pm- Critical Postcards
Join Agitprop director David White for a series of short conversations with artists and activists from around the country to find out the strategies they use to produce the work that they do!
Begins at 8:30 pm after a stop at You Are Here and the opening of artist Shane Anderson's new show Hard Shoulder at Agitprop.

9:30pm to 11pm- Music by starvelab   Join us for the end of the night festivities with music by starvelab (Michael Trigilio, analog electronics) and computer music by Chris Warren. Music and festivities will commence immediately following the Critical Postcard conversations also happening in the garden behind Art Produce Gallery. Light refreshments provided.

www.starvelab.com     ahundredghosts.com

Sunday June 3rd, 2-4pm- The Daily Unusual'zine making workshop led by artists Andrew Printer and Chris Kardambikis.  Participants will document their observations by drawing on a single canvas using paint, charcoal, conte crayon and other materials. Participants can contribute to the Daily UnusualZine workshop as well.
 

For more info.  http://theregoes.org/

FREE   Music, Film, Dance, Art, Discussion, Gardening...

Eat Here Now - Imagining a community of very very local food
Thurs. May 3rd, 6pm - The Wheat Harvest Rock-Opera, music by The Brothers Gunderson & "The Real Dirt on Farmer John" film, 8pm. A story about a third generation farmer in Illinois who uses his land to build community, one CSA box and one feather boa at a time...
Thurs. May 10th, 8pm - "Dirt" film
Saturday- May 12th, 7pm - Panel Discussion "Under the Lawn - A Farm!" -with Urban Plantations, Spin Farming and NewSchool of Architecture thesis students.

Visual Art and Dance Workshops with Eveoke Dance Theatre

Thurs, May 10th, 5-7pm: Visions of Me -What do we value in ourselves?
Thurs. May 17th, 5-7pm: Mapping North Park - Celebrating community
Thurs. May 24th, 5-7pm: The Power of One: How will you take a stand in your community?

All ages - No dance experience necessary-   Learn more

Join us in Art Produce Garden as we use art and dance to explore ways to build more peaceful communities and more confident selves. 

Arts & Entertainment, Feature, North Park | Exhibit imagines urban landscape as a place to grow fresh, local food

By Monica Garske | SDUN Reporter

Imagine strolling through the bustling streets, alleys and parking lots of North Park. Now, imagine that same urban setting covered in orchards, fruit trees and vegetable gardens ripe for the picking that produce fresh food for your consumption.
That’s the basic idea behind “Eat Here Now,” the latest exhibit at the Art Produce Gallery at 3139 University Ave. in North Park.
The exhibit – which kicks off April 14 with an opening reception from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. – is truly a collaborative effort. It’s spearheaded by curator Leslie Ryan, chair of the Architecture Landscape Department at NewSchool of Architecture and Design (NSAD), and features graphic designs and artwork by various NSAD students and professors. The exhibit runs through May 15.
Ryan said the objective of the exhibit is to help people visualize North Park as more than an urban landscape, but rather as a neighborhood that can be repurposed into an area for fresh, local, sustainable food production.
Ryan said the graphic designs displayed at the Art Produce exhibit depict innovative ways of turning streets, vacant lots and empty rooftops in North Park into gardens and greenhouses where locally grown food can be produced. It’s the “farm-to-table” concept catered specifically to North Park.
“We want to open up our ability to imagine North Park as an urban farm,” Ryan said. “We want people to envision North Park’s 50- to 60-foot-wide streets as serving a dual purpose. Imagine orchards lining 29th Street or along 32nd Street or Illinois Street; think of community gardens intertwined throughout. It’s very possible. In some cases, this urban farming movement has already begun.”
In addition to dozens of graphic renderings of urban spaces-turned-green, Ryan said “Eat Here Now” will also display the testimonials and stories of locals who are already producing their own food.
“There are many people who are already doing this in the area – growing their own fig and fruit trees, [having] herb gardens and raising chickens in their yards. I’ve interviewed all sorts of locals who do it,” Ryan said. “This is what’s currently happening and we want the concept to continue to grow as a normal part of everyday life here in North Park.”
She said she thinks urban agriculture addresses several issues of living in urban areas. “Gardening helps us get exercise, helps us obtain fresh, nutritious food and helps us connect as a community. People stop to ask about someone’s garden. Also, selling locally grown produce at farmers markets can help give the local economy a boost. There are so many benefits,” Ryan said.
Lynn Susholtz, owner of the Art Produce Gallery, said Ryan’s exhibit goes hand-in-hand with what Art Produce is really all about: food, art and sustainability.
“Food brings people together. It’s a shared experience. If we can show people how local food production works, then they can begin to imagine it as part of their daily lives,” Susholtz said.
Susholtz knows about growing her own food in an urban setting. The Art Produce Gallery features a community garden in the back, which used to be an asphalt parking lot two years ago before she repurposed the space.
“Everything in the garden is edible. I have fruit trees, vegetables, herbs and flowers on raised beds out there,” she said. “The transformation over the past two years has been amazing.”
Read the full article online at the Uptown News.

Gallery and Garden Events April 14 through May 20
Opening Reception April 14, 6-9pm

Imagining a community of very very local food
FREE music, film, panel discussion -

Thurs. May 3rd, 6pm-  The Wheat Rock-Opera, music by The Brothers Gunderson &"The Real Dirt on Farmer John" film, 8pm.  

Thurs. May 10th, 8pm-  "Dirt" film

Saturday,  May 12th, 7pm -  Panel Discussion "The Business of Growing Food" by Urban Plantations, Spin Farming and NewSchool of Architecture thesis students.

Let’s start here, in North Park, an older, built-out community with a lot of asphalt. If we can grow food here, we can make something important happen, because the benefits of growing food locally are profound:

The average meal in the United States travels over 1500 miles from farm to table. What if we reduce that to 5 miles and the cost of transportation and source of fuel becomes irrelevant?

The typical food garden uses about 1/2 the water than a landscape of lawn and shrubs. What if our water consumption was more in tune with the water that falls naturally, and our front yards qualified for agriculture water rates?

Public health issues such as diabetes and obesity are strongly linked to the food that we eat. What if every resident of North Park had easy and affordable access to fresh food?

Philosophers – and marketing gurus – tell us that our ability to care about distant places and people depends on feeling it in our guts, and that our capacity to care develops first in the domesticated environment, here at home. What if our everyday environment helped us see and feel the human costs of rising corn prices in Mexico, and why North Korea would suspend its nuclear program in exchange for 240,000 tons of food?

eat here now is an investigation into how we can re-imagine our cities to be near food. Built-out communities like North Park have few open spaces waiting to become urban farms. But what if the capacity to grow our own food is hiding in plain sight? Because North Park does have extraordinarily wide streets, miles of public right-of-way along our sidewalks, football fields-worth of flat roofs, acres of front and back yards, and a future mini-park. What if the public reclaimed public space? What if streets + roofs + yards = food? And local food = fuel savings + water savings + healthier communities + social justice? We can start right here, right now.

Read about us in Uptown News

At Art Produce
Choreography by Ericka Aisha Moore
Visual Art by Lynn Susholtz & Araceli Carrera

A feast of movement and visual art intertwined, Reflections is a powerful portrait of 6 little known women who have affected history in a profound way.  Can we find our own reflection within the faces and stories of these courageous women? Read reviews, view photos and more at our Reflections page.

Explore the power of public-private partnerships with North Park Main Street, the district’s historic preservation-based economic development organization, and North Park Redevelopment Project. A tour of mixed-use, affordable and transitional housing projects will demonstrate infill that is compatible with the neighborhood’s design and demographics, starts at Art Produce art and culture hub.

Recent groundwork has been set for a sustainable community planning and visioning initiative that will benefit the local economy, environment and historic preservation—as well as reconfigure the main thoroughfare by replacing parking with bike caravans. Since North Park has a strong farm-to-table movement and artisan beer craft, the tour ends at a brewery for a toast to accommodating change that benefits all residents and the multiple colors of the neighborhood’s history.

Thank You Rosekind have crafted a unique set of art pop songs which they will perform in the Art Produce Garden. Following the live performance will be a short creative collaborative workshop open to all.

Thank You Rosekind - Personal Seasons tour is comprised of artists and musicians, Michael G. Bauer and Joel Chartkoff. Thank You Rosekind, developed from a concept by Bauer in 2009, performs an ongoing series of songs expressing
gratitude to people, places and things. Since adding vocalist Joel
Chartkoff in 2011, Chartkoff and Bauer have consistently strived to
create motivationally-based pop songs that brighten the spirit and
ignite the dance floor with high-energy live performances.

Thank You Rosekind highlights human achievement and positive functioning as a means to promote the continual thriving of individuals, families and communities. Bauer and Chartkoff express these ideas through the pop song medium and experimental workshops. Thank You Rosekind is strongly committed to expressing motivational ideas through music described as “restrained yet spaciously layered electro-pop dreamscapes that are simultaneously airy and watery, blissfully weightless and grounded in minimal bass lines. With titles
like DriveYour Dreams, Be Bold, and Emanation, this album [Attention Intention!]is effective for everyday happiness and enlightenment” (Sarah Renee Lehrer-Graiwer).

For more information visit www.facebook.com/thankyourosekind, and www.thankyourosekind.com.