Interview. Alice Austin (Bel Arbor Community Garden)
Subject
Bel Arbor Community Garden (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Austin, Alice
Community gardens -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
Kimball Street Community Garden (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Parker, Alexander -- Homes and haunts
Neighborhood Gardens Trust (Philadelphia, Pa.)
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
Description
Interview with Alice Austin, founding gardener at Bel Arbor Community Garden and visual artist, over Zoom. Austin discusses her youth gardening and creating visual art in Wilmington, Delaware with encouragement from her family. She describes her artistic education at the Philadelphia College of Art, artistic technique of linoleum printmaking, and move to the Bella Vista neighborhood.
Austin discusses her role in the creation of Kimball Street Community Garden, which went on to become Bel Arbor Community Garden, in 1994. She describes her research process for her visual history of Bel Arbor Community Garden's space, To The Garden (2019), which can be viewed on Austin's portfolio website: https://aliceaustin.myportfolio.com/. Austin discusses the landscape's use as Parker's Botanic Garden in the 1820s by Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) founder Alexander Parker, then a cemetery from 1830 onward, then a factory from 1900 onward. The artist describes the process of making drawings for her prints and for pairing text with illustrations in To The Garden, and the process of donating a copy to the PHS McLean Library. Austin's book Covid Year (2021) documents her experience from spring 2020 to 2021 (also viewable on Austin's website). The interview covers Austin's relationship with Temple University Special Collections Research Center, her work in Bel Arbor Community Garden with the City Harvest program and with occupational trainees from Ready, Willing & Able Philadelphia. The interview discusses the state of the garden's trees and different spaces and the garden's landscaping projects over the years, especially becoming a PHS Keystone Garden.
The interview next discusses raising children in the garden and concludes with hopes for new gardeners to join the garden, and with a discussion of Austin's book nesting (2022) on bird watching at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, including images from Bel Arbor Community Garden.
Austin discusses her role in the creation of Kimball Street Community Garden, which went on to become Bel Arbor Community Garden, in 1994. She describes her research process for her visual history of Bel Arbor Community Garden's space, To The Garden (2019), which can be viewed on Austin's portfolio website: https://aliceaustin.myportfolio.com/. Austin discusses the landscape's use as Parker's Botanic Garden in the 1820s by Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) founder Alexander Parker, then a cemetery from 1830 onward, then a factory from 1900 onward. The artist describes the process of making drawings for her prints and for pairing text with illustrations in To The Garden, and the process of donating a copy to the PHS McLean Library. Austin's book Covid Year (2021) documents her experience from spring 2020 to 2021 (also viewable on Austin's website). The interview covers Austin's relationship with Temple University Special Collections Research Center, her work in Bel Arbor Community Garden with the City Harvest program and with occupational trainees from Ready, Willing & Able Philadelphia. The interview discusses the state of the garden's trees and different spaces and the garden's landscaping projects over the years, especially becoming a PHS Keystone Garden.
The interview next discusses raising children in the garden and concludes with hopes for new gardeners to join the garden, and with a discussion of Austin's book nesting (2022) on bird watching at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum, including images from Bel Arbor Community Garden.
Date
2022
Coverage
Philadelphia (Pa.)
Interviewer
Makuc, Joseph
Interviewee
Austin, Alice
Collection
Citation
“Interview. Alice Austin (Bel Arbor Community Garden),” Philadelphia Community Gardens Memory Collection, accessed April 19, 2024, https://phillycommunitygardensmemory.omeka.net/items/show/67.
Comments