Paradise on Earth  Durham, NC 2013

The Paradise Garden Project is a multi-media installation and community art project inspired  living botanical elements and art that speaks to the bounty and beauty of planet Earth created by artists with local roots and worldly aspirations.   It was be an exhibition the Carrack September 24 through October 5 and moved to Bull City Vineyard Church across the street at 118 Parish St Durham NC.   on October 6th and will be inter-activating the space until December 21 through The Durham Storefront Project.  It has been so wonderful to be able to   inspire a community collaborative of partnerships, ideas and exchanges inspired by the arts and we hope that this  can act as a prototype for other communities and future local events on similar themes about human impact on the web of life. 

 The installation at The Carrack explored the history of cultivation and imperialism, botanical recording, the age of the marvelous, nature in decorative arts, home grown produce , the loss of our paradise through non- sustainable practices and celebrates our own local paradise.  Artists had their own 2 and 3d work and also created an onsite Paradise Garden installation inspired by traditions of Persian, Ottoman and Elizabethan gardens through history combined with a contemporary infusion of local resources local artists, student intern’s and site specific inspiration.

(There will be more details about The Carrack exhibition in a future post.)  On October 6 part of the collaborators from The Carrack:  Lee Moore Crawford, Ben Greene,  Catherine Howard, Ann Marie Kennedy,  Jennifer Collins- Mancour, Tyler Nethers, Maryah Smith Overman and  Annie Spikes  transferred the installation to manifest in a collaboration with Bull City Vineyard Church led by Maggie Mraz and her members.  

The church has incorporated the themes of sustainability and Paradsie on earth and has embraced the Paradise Garden in their storefront cafe area.  They have also collaborated in the installation itself, making birds, butterflies and clouds and planting seeds.  We look forward to future communtiy collaborations with Bull City Vineyard as they tend their new garden and have a book club reading "Making Peace with the Land: Gods Call to Reconcile with Creation," by Fred Bahnson , a poetry reading and more art!

We would like to thank Laura Ritchie , The Carrack, Jessica Moore and The Durham Storefront Project for making it all possible!