This class will explore the garden as an urban site that integrates subsistence production with the cultivation of ecological literacy, social justice, and regenerative design. Where diversity is the key indicator of the health of an ecosystem, how can artists and designers work with and in gardens as both a form and tool to educate and empower communities, to grow food and create social spaces for gathering, communication and integration. Emphasizing the skills, craft and ethics of sustainable design and "slowness”,  students will research how they connect to place, through cultivating presence working in gardens and performance based inquiry.  How does connection to place and land shape the practice of aesthetics and inspire creative experiments and collaborations? What are the conceptual and practical skills needed for developing site specific and socially engaged projects?Looking at a range of local and international gardens as models, we will research how specific cities, schools, neighborhoods, prisons and immigrant communities garden to reorient human economies, to heal, restore and awaken our interdependence with the natural world. Using the CCA Edible and Dye Garden on the Oakland campus as our home base and classroom, we will grow food, curate events in the garden and join forces in organizing a communal meal on campus. We will potentially visit the San Quentin Insight Garden project and make one overnight field trip to visit inspiring art and ecology centers along the northern coast. 

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