A big thanks to Jeff Hnilicka, Transformer Gallery and Fathom Creative for making this all happen. Here’s a rundown of the weekend ahead:

• Thursday, June 3, 1 – 3:30pm: “InCUBATE Discusses ARBS (Artist Run Benefit Society)” – a conversation with Jeff Hnilicka and InCUBATE members Abigail Satinsky and Bryce Dwyer at Transformer Gallery
  6 – 8:30pm: FRAMEWORK Panel #13: BUILT TO LAST? truths & myths of sustainable cultural production at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. *see below
• Friday, June 4, 5 – 7pm: “Seeding the City” with Brooklyn-based artist Eve Mosher at Fathom Creative
• Saturday, June 5, 1 – 7pm: “A Day of Dischord,” featuring performances by Andalusians and The Aquarium

Framework Panel #13:
BUILT TO LAST? – truths & myths of sustainable cultural production
June 3, 2010, 6:30 – 8pm

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
1779 Massachusetts Avenue NW
In the Choate Room on the 1st floor

Presented in tandem with Sustainability Lab & Cornfield, this panel will look back and look ahead at the ever-evolving Do-It-Yourself ethic and inherent aesthetics as it relates to cultural production. Timed with the 30th anniversary of Washington DC’s Dischord Records – an internationally recognized independent record label supporting punk rock music that has been artist run since its inception – this panel will examine the DIY organizing model that grew out of punk rock subculture and is tied to punk ideology and anti-consumerism. How is DIY being redefined as aspects of that culture shift from being an underground mantra to a cable TV station slogan and Urban Outfitters commodity? What can cultural producers learn from sustainable food producers? How can a volunteer-run operation be sustainable?

Panelists: Nancy Bannon, artist, DC & NYC; Bryce Dwyer, InCUBATE, Chicago; Ian MacKaye, co-founder of Dischord Records, DC; Eve Mosher, Seeding the City, NYC; Abigail Satinsky, InCUBATE, Chicago

Moderator: Jeff Hnilicka, cultural worker, Member of Hit Factorie and organizer of FEAST, Brooklyn

Those of you who are on my general mailing list (if you aren’t already, sign up here: http://evemosher.com/gallery2/page/contact) know about the inventory loss that we suffered in February. Due to some mis-communication completely out of our control, half of our modules (they were awaiting spring installation) were thrown out. It is reported that the plants were replanted, so that is good – but it is a loss of a lot of materials, labor and the time that it took for them to get established. (The modules that we have still have mostly done really well – the sedum spreading and the grasses growing anew).

So… we are starting a fundraising campaign. We’ll be launching a campaign (complete with donor gifts) in a couple of weeks. This fundraiser will allow us to collect money to both continue the original network of green roofs as well as plan and produce workshops with communities around the city who are interested in either creating a green roof for their community (schools, institutional organizations) or hosting a green roof workshop day for their constituency (community organizations, neighborhood and block associations).

If you are a current proud host of a module, watch for an email soon, we want to come check on the plants and do a quick soil acid test to make sure everything is growing well!

As always, if you are interested in participating as an individual or if you think you might like to host a workshop – email me!

p.s. i will try to get some photos up of the herbs right away!

The plants are growing now!

I was lucky enough to spend part of the last week working with the fabulous staff and kids at Covenant House New York. We were on the roof of their building in midtown Manhattan on two gloroous afternoons mixing the growing medium and planting all of the grasses and sedum. It went beautifully!

We used a mixture of potting soil (3 bags), grorocks (10 bags), sand (4 bags) and pea gravel (10 bags) to plant 646 little plants in 100 trays. The kids mixed their own growing medium, picked out the plants they wanted to use and designed and planted their own modules. Some of them did four or more modules!

One of the participants expressed his gratitude and said that he had never done anyuthing like it before. I had to agree – neither have I! He also promptly signed up for as many watering times as he could fit in his schedule! (I would too if I were a resident – it’s going to be fun to watch them grow!)

My gratitude to those helping with the planting, Huong Ngo & Colin McMullen (who will oversee the growing throughout the summer), my assistant Meg Whiteford, the amazing Tricia Martin who stepped in at the last minute to provide consulting and who so carefully figured out the plant mix for me and then showed up to help with the planting. And my deepest gratitude to Athana Kontinos who contacted me from Covenant House with her interest in working together, the kids at covenant house who volunteered their time to work on the project and the other staff who came out to help, especially Bret who is working with Athana on a much larger scale project to green Covenant House.

It is thanks to fresh ideas, a willingness to experiment and the support of a great staff that good organizations become amazing organizations.

They even got to boast about it on the international website!

MEC's green roof by 416style on Flickr

Over the course of the summer, I will be working with Covenant House to put together and grow the green roof modules. In a couple of weeks we will build the modules and plant the plugs with the help of the kids in the long term program. Over the course of the summer the kids will be nurturing the plants through monitoring, watering and feeding. In the fall some of the kids may join us to install the modules.

Through this partnership I hope to inform the kids about urban environmental issues through and interesting process in which they take on the care and responsibility of the plants. We also hope to give them knowledge and experience that aids in their own continued growth and development. Through the partnership we hope to introduce the kids to alternative art forms and methods of building and empowering community. We are all looking forward to a great season of growing!

Your support of the project is needed to ensure its success.
Just $25 will cover the costs of building and caring for a green roof module over the course of the summer.
$50 covers the cost of building and growing as well as the installation with the flag & signage.
All donations are tax deductible.

Please donate today!

In addition to that I have finished the rough draft of the LMCC grant application. I will wrap that up this weekend and finish the draft of the letter to Ben & Jerry’s Foundation. If you want to volunteer to read any of these for me, let me know!

After that I will work on the Jerome Foundation and a couple of others. I also want to plan an event around a planting of a sample plot this spring. If you have a rooftop on which you would like to place a few square feet of green at no cost to you, and are open to letting me access it bi-weekly, and could host a small party, well let’s talk! If you don’t have the space but want to help anyway, I will be looking for sponsors and in-kind donations. And if you just want to come to the party – make sure you are on my mailing list!

I also decided that I would like to launch the project in a few neighborhoods simultaneously – Lower Manhattan, Bronx and Brooklyn. If you are interested in being one of the initial recipients of a green roof module and either own your own building, have a good relationship with your landlord or are interested in working with me to get approval from your landlord (or are a landlord/developer with a public roof space), please email me and we can set something up.

I’m excited – can feel the momentum building – how about you??