Garden for the Environment x SFMOMA
Nature’s Knowledge aka Right Plant, Right Place: Patio pop-ups every other Thursday from April 17 through August 21, 2025, 1pm to 3pm
Art x Nature aka Yes, You are a Gardener! Yes, You are an Artist!: First Thursday, August 7, 2025, 4p to 8p
Well, this was cool as heck — truly, one of the most meaningful things I’ve had the honor and pleasure of being involved with.
As part of the (sublime) Ruth Asawa Retrospective, SFMoMA teamed up with my beloved Garden for the Environment to come up with programming that would complement Ruth’s dedication to her own garden, and the powerful role of nature in her work and life.
The project was two-fold, to run the length of the exhibition: regular pop-ups on a patio adjacent to the gallery, and a First Thursday event. It was also almost totally open-ended, with a few key limitations given its locations: no soil, seeds, compost, worms, plant matter, or any of the messy things generally used in garden education.
How might we facilitate folks to engage with plants, and urban nature, without literally getting their hands dirty? What were the core lessons we wanted to share, and how might we get those across in ways that felt fun and accessible, that visitors could dabble in or take a moment to dig deeper?
Nature’s Knowledge aka Right Plant, Right Place: Patio pop-ups every other Thursday from April 17 through August 21, 2025, 1pm to 3pm
Together with GFE executive director Maggie Marks and my garden mentor (and good friend!) Carey Craddock, we went heads-down on creating a zine (and accompanying signage) as the foundation of our pop-up programming — a takeaway that would offer visitors an introduction to GFE and gardening (in general, and in SF) through a creative lens.
Habitat Horticulture set up a fantastic raised bed on the patio with plants that Ruth and her husband Albert Lanier grew, which gave us a perfect place to start. Observation is a foundational gardening skill, so we came up with simple drawing and writing prompts to encourage everyone to sit and look: to notice, and to note, and translate from plant, to pencil, to paper. Volunteering is core to GFE’s mission, so we also wanted to provide motivation to opportunities to use their own diverse passions and talents to connect with others in communities that matter to them.
Once the pop-ups began, we were also doing our own observations — to see how folks were responding to the space, and the prompts, and the opportunity to write and draw. It was indescribably special to see so many people — all ages! — stop and spend time with us, sitting and staring intently at foxglove and hellebores, pineapple sage and lilies. Some people took their art with them, and some generously donated it to us.
It was also fascinating to see distinct patterns emerge. There were the people who would immediately pick up a clipboard and get to work. The people who would politely decline. And the people who would, reflexively and resolutely, shake their hands or head and say: “Oh, no, I’m not creative.” Or: “Oh, no, I kill plants.” It wasn’t that they weren’t interested; it was that they had told themselves, or been told by someone else, that they couldn’t. The truth is that every person is creative, and every person can garden; it just takes practice to get to the point where it feels comfortable, and authentic.
I kept turning this over in my head: How could we respond in a way that might flip, or at least reframe, their perspective about their potential?
Art x Nature aka Yes, You are a Gardener! Yes, You are an Artist!: First Thursday, August 7, 2025, 4p to 8p
Planning a First Thursday was a big freaking deal.
Our SFMOMA partners — Kathleen, Andrea, Chloe, and Anthony — were amazing, and gave us freedom to do pretty much anything in a white box gallery on the museum’s fourth floor. Maggie and Carey and I came up with the concept to capture GFE’s inclusive mission, and and a title that would immediately and enthusiastically neutralize self-doubt, and give a boost:
Yes, you are an artist! Yes, you are a gardener!
I was given the green light to plan literally every detail — overwhelming in the best possible way. The entire event felt like a joyous celebration, welcoming SFMOMA visitors to the GFE community with a festive, hands-on spirit. It was really beautiful and fulfilling to see it all come together.
• Ask a gardener, ask…:
We had over 30 volunteers from the GFE community, from so many amazing orgs, come to share their passion and knowledge with visitors.
• Write and draw!: A big art table welcomed visitors to sit down and spend some time drawing, collaging, writing, and generally making art of any kind.
• Projected slideshows: Images from the GFE archives, Get Up! classes, and plants, plants, plants ran on three walls throughout the evening.
• Contribute to our communal art project!: I made a big batch of ceramic California poppy tiles that visitors glazed in shades of orange. These will be installed at GFE.
• Make a Button!: A certified hit!! It’s official: People love making buttons. I drew something special for the occasion, and visitors also flexed their creativity, big time, coming up with all kinds of fun designs.
• Lonely Parrots live band: We were so lucky to have the Lonely Parrots set a chill vibe with their live sets!
Right Plant, Right Place: A Garden for the Environment Guide to the Art of Growing, Learning, Adapting, Creating, and Thriving
Zine written and illustrated by me and Carey Craddock, designed by me
Really really proud of how this turned out.
Patio signage
Written and illustrated by me and Carey Craddock, designed by me
Translating the zine into 8.5” x 11” and 11” x 14” signage to fit the frames and stanchions on-site at SFMoMA, as well as making new signs to offer clear prompts for visitors.
Artists everywhere!
It was so so so so so so so so so so so special to see people pick up a clipboard and a pencil, then make themselves comfortable and start to draw. Everyone’s art was unique, and amazing, and I’ll never get over how neat it was to see.
