Good Help

One of the nice things about this project is that it puts me in touch with so many great people. I owe tremendous thanks to Michael Burke, the boss lady at Tomato Head, Zach Stanley and Kent Priestly at Stanley's Greenhouse, Todd Witcher of Parrott Farms, Kat Campbell-Bike, my darling grandmother Julie Webb, my parents Russell and Susie, and my ever patient husband, Stephen. This is not to mention the many volunteers who helped install the show, staff the gallery, schlep things, cook food for the closing, and promote the project. In no particular order they are: Stephanie Untz, Charlotte Tolley, Dale Mackey, Joy Grissom, Emily Austin, Bud Ries, Russell Ries, Pamela Bishir, Nickie Bold, Allison Roberts, Beth Meadows, Karyn Adams, Liz Albertson, Liam Hysjulien, Crista Cuccaro, Lake Allen, Robert Birkholtz, Laura Sohn, Ronda Phipps, Jenni Bates, Sara Marie Miller, Sarah Bush, Emmy Lingscheit, and Jonathan Bagby. If you helped out and are not listed here, it is because I am unorganized and not because your efforts were unappreciated.




I am grateful to everyone for their good help, but I want to single out Jonathan Bagby and recommend him to anyone in town needing photography. Bagby is talented--his website will speak to this better than I can (I especially love this one). Talent and skill are important, but the man is also patient and kind. Those things are precious and worthy of recognition. So there you are, the Urban Land Scouts salute the efforts of all our volunteers and give our enthusiastic endorsement to Mr. Bagby and his photographic excellence.

Inaugural

These are the first Urban Land Scouts to earn their level three badges. Congratulations to them all!

FEAST

I would like to see a version of FEAST in Knoxville. This unique model is

"...a recurring public dinner designed to use community-driven financial support to democratically fund new and emerging artmakers."

Each guest to a dinner pays an small fee in exchange for a nice meal and the chance to vote for one of several projects proposed by area artists. The artist whose project receives the majority vote takes home the evening's funds for said project.

I like that the dinner and voting offers people a more reasonable cost of arts patronage, but I am especially excited by the proposed projects and grantees. This project proposed to tile a heavily used and continuously molding shower at the Metropolitan Pool, and this one documents a trail of Secret (urban) Gardens in NYC.

If you had a chance to design a project for Knoxville and receive up to $1000 to fund it, what would you propose?

Work Day

I heard from Liz Moniz, one of the folks working on the edible public garden at Tyson Park that there will be a work day coming up. I love work days: they epitomize for me the socializing of good behavior and prove true the adage of many hands making light work. More than that, this is a great opportunity to get out, learn some new skills, help Knoxville's community and land, and meet some new people in town.

The first work day is Sunday, April 18th, from 9 am – 4 pm, at the Community Nourishment Garden at Tyson Park, 2351 Kingston Park (between the tennis courts). They will be " laying the pathway, building a water catchment system, constructing trellises, and putting some plants in the ground."

Community Nourishment Garden at Tyson Park

2351 Kingston Pike, Knoxville, TN 37919

Parking available at the Kingston Pike and Concord Street park entrances

From the flyer promoting the work day:

We’ve developed plans to implement a charitable community garden with fruit trees, berries, and vegetables, cared for by a diverse team of volunteers to benefit refugees at the Bridge Refugee Settlement Services.

We need your help.

If you or your group/organization would like to get involved in this meaningful community initiative on April 18th through sponsorship or volunteer commitment, please contact us. Any time you can spare is appreciated! Tools and guidance will be provided!

Just come on down and bring your friends!

For more information contact:

Matt Butzlaff
Liz Moniz
Jake Tisinger

Poster for the gallery show. You can download your very own here. They are designed to print on 11" x 17" paper.

Please feel free to spread the word. Hope to see you all at the Downtown Gallery from April 16th – 30th.

Hooray!

Keeping Knoxville Beautiful

From the Keep Knoxville Beautiful blog:

Fueled by the passion of three AmeriCorps volunteers, the Knox County Community Action Committee and the City of Knoxville are bringing together a wide variety of community partners, including Keep Knoxville Beautiful to cultivate the Community Nourishment Garden at Tyson Park.

This exciting project encompasses their mission’s ideals of Community, Education, Productivity, Sustainability and Beauty by installing and maintaining a charitable garden of fruit trees, berries, and vegetables to directly benefit refugees at Bridge Refugee Settlement Services and community as a whole. The accessible location and undemanding design will be productive at different times of year and rely on volunteer commitment and sponsorship that they hope to gain from more areas of our community.

Some of the notable features of the design include:

Repurposed Building Materials: to build raised beds, a tool shed, and other needs as an example of raw resource reduction and material reuse
Water Catchment: to collect rainwater for responsible resource use in the garden
Productive and Edible Landscape Design: to provide food to the community and beneficiary throughout the growing season including pawpaw and apple trees, berries, hardy herbs and vegetables
Compost: to ensure that organic waste generated in the garden will be naturally recycled into compost and become a soil supplement for the garden
Rain Garden: to improve the water quality of Third Creek by filtering storm water as a model that community members can employ to lessen their household impact on our waterways.

To get involved with this landmark project, attend a public committee meeting or get in touch with the organizers listed below.

The first public committee meeting is being held tonight!
March 29th at 6:15pm
UT Conference Center Building
600 Henley St, Room 322
Parking available across the street, on the corner of Locust and Clinch (Free after 6 PM)
The directors of the project are very excited to meet with the community partners in one room and invite any interested citizen or new community group to join the conversation! They will be going over their plans and open to feedback, new ideas and opinions. If you can’t make it to the meeting, but you are interested in sponsorship or volunteer involvement, feel free to contact:

Liz Moniz: moniz.elizabeth@gmail.com :974-2049
Matt Butzlaff: mbutzlaff@cityofknoxville.org :755 3178

Crop Mobs

This article from the NY Times describes "crop mobbing," an event in which the "agricurious" and urban wannabes descend on a selected farm to help out with labor. In the photo above (credit: David La Spina, NY Times) the mob helps out at Okfuskee Farm in Silk Hope, N.C.

I wonder if some of the local area farms in Knoxville, like Organicism Farms or River Ridge would be down for this? Seems like an apt activity for the Urban Land Scouts. Maybe we could crop mob the field across 4th Ave. from the Birdhouse and put in an orchard? But then we'd have to keep crop mobbing the site for years to keep it up, and it seems part of the event's success is that it is an infrequent and novel action for the urban folks who participate.