Artist Notes
Creating Commons Collective
Native Plants Reparation Projects, Advocacy, Public Art
The Giving Meadow at Blackburn Circle (7,500 SF), route 128 Rotary, Gloucester, MA, 2020-ongoing
Educational Meadow at Burnhams Field (2,000 SF), Burnham’s Field Park, Gloucester, MA, 2023-ongoing
Cape Ann is one of the few service stops in the vast Gulf of Maine on a migration superhighway north and south. Research has revealed that the resting and feeding habitat for migratory birds is dwindling rapidly and that the need has never been more urgent to address the loss of biodiversity. For example, bird populations have declined by almost a third in the past half century, according to a 2019 study. Despite this grave news we can all pitch in and do something to help.
The Creating Commons Collective’s goal is to create more diverse habitats for migrating and non-migrating species to attract a myriad of bugs that they can feed on and food sources through plants. In 2020, I partnered with the Department of Transportation to adopt the Blackburn Circle and transform it into a better ecosystem. The Blackburn Circle rotary is a parcel of land which consists primarily of turf-grass that requires mowing and fertilization. In September and October of 2022 ten community volunteers gathered to help plant out a 7,500 square foot meadow in the middle of the rotary. Over half of the plants were donated by these avid native plant enthusiasts who are growing and sharing these plants to the community free of charge minimizing costs and plastic waste and making it easier to say yes to planting natives. The plants were put directly into rototilled turf. This minimized labor and the need to haul material off-site and maximized using the decomposing turf as mulch for the planted meadow. Because Blackburn Circle is inaccessible to the public, the CCC has partnered with Backyard Growers, a community food justice organization and the City of Gloucester to establish an educational meadow at Burnhams Field Park in downtown Gloucester. These projects will expand and evolve over the next two to three years and will create a model for collaborative, cost efficient, sustainable habitat building that anyone can implement in their own back yards, towns, and cities.
Thank you to our supporters and partners for this ongoing effort:
Essex County Community Foundation
The Puffin Foundation
Massachusetts Cultural Council
Awesome Gloucester
Backyard Growers
City of Gloucester
Massachusetts Department of Transportation