City staff will take a look at the prospect of creating garden space at Powell River Recreation Complex.
At the September 1 committee of the whole meeting, resident Karen Skadsheim said she was appearing to talk about a community garden she would like to instigate in Powell River. She indicated it would be a garden that grows art materials.
Skadsheim said Powell River has an amazing number of artists and she has spoken with quite a few of them. She said she has talked about the idea of a space that grows fibre plants and other art materials and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
Inspiration for this project comes from a garden in Vancouver, according to Skadsheim. She said in 2002 the garden space was waste ground in East Vancouver.
“It was a slope of brambles used mainly as a place for people to fling trash,” said Skadsheim. “It began as an eco-art intervention that took several years for crops to be established, but today it’s a bustling garden full of life and activity.”
She said the artists’ collective is very active in the Lower Mainland community, leading workshops, conducting community projects and hosting annual artists’ residencies. The garden operates on a partnership between Vancouver Parks Board, which owns the land, and a society that manages all aspects of garden operations, programming, et cetera, according to Skadsheim.
“I reached out to one of the main artists involved and she was extremely forthcoming with information and advice on how to move forward with a similar project in Powell River,” said Skadsheim. “She’s even written an entire book called Common Threads, which is essentially a how-to manual to do this type of project. It’s apparently used in many post-secondary programs as a model for creative engagement in shared green spaces.”
Skadsheim said when she brought the concept of an artist material garden to Powell River Council for Arts and Culture representatives, they were on board immediately. Since then, she’s spoken with city staff to see if there is city-owned property that might be suitable for a pilot garden.
“An area we’ve identified for the project for a pilot is the land that was partly cleared at the Powell River Recreation Complex,” said Skadsheim. “I’ve walked the area and it has grown up quite a bit since it was partially cleared. There’s lots of blackberry and alder, but also some huckleberries, some nice evergreens and all kinds of interesting plant materials in there.”
Skadsheim said her Vancouver contact advised that some infrastructure should be required for the project in addition to the garden. Items such as a tool crib, material storage, washrooms, and especially a covered area for materials processing, workshops and other community programming are required, according to Skadsheim.
She has also looked into the Powell River Creative Economy and Innovation Initiative report, which came forward in March 2019. She said it stated that only the tip of the iceberg is being seen in terms of the creative economy’s potential.
“Supporting the creative economy by growing raw materials that artists require, in a sustainable manner, will also have a knock-on effect of feeding the economies that were mentioned in the report, once these economies start rolling again,” said Skadsheim. “I believe the ingredients for this project are all here and that it will be very well received in the community.”
Skadsheim said at this point, what is required is council’s approval and direction for staff to work with her and the arts council to move this project forward at this location.
Councillor Cindy Elliott asked Skadsheim if she foresees any funding requests.
Skadsheim said working with the arts council, several funding options have been examined. She said, however, she cannot move forward unless city council knows the garden is going on city property, so she wanted to get the blessing to move forward with the concept. Then, funding would be identified and some applications could be made. She said she’s already had some discussions with Powell River Community Forest.
Councillor George Doubt said he thinks there would be lots of community support for the project until there are discussions about money and where it is going to come from. He said there had been a report earlier in the year about community gardens and one of the questions council had was about the amount of funding required.
Doubt said he’d like to see the parks and recreation department look at this, combined with the community garden idea it has already identified, and take a close look at possible funding sources and what could be done with the two ideas combined.
“We would need a much more thorough business plan,” said Doubt.
Councillor Rob Southcott said he’d like to see a business plan. He said the principle was strong for him in terms of resilience and self-reliance.
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said she liked the project and asked if staff could be directed to come back with a report on what is involved with Skadsheim’s project, combined with a community garden.
The committee directed staff to produce a report.
