The Art Garden
The Art Garden - 2012
The Art Garden is our original outdoor creative space. This once vacant lot is located on the direct walking path between the neighborhood school (Cornerstone / Lester Prep) and the major housing development ("Red Oak" apartments).
Children gather at the picnic tables every Tuesday afternoon for drop-in art programs. These free classes offer opportunities to create, build relationships, and experience performances after school. Everything you see in the Art Garden (stage, murals, mosaic, play set) has been built by Binghampton youth under the guidance of local artists.
In 2012, there was no plan beyond this single lot. Afternoons were spent in conversation at these picnic tables, where the idea of what an "Art Garden" could be was planted. Young Binghampton artists have utilized arts-based community development to build a program that reflects the desires of the neighborhood. A single garden box turned into a community vegetable garden. From a single mosaic deer to a sculpture garden. A painting on a wood fence to a mural training program. The Art Garden gives creatives a space to connect.
In the past decade, CAG has hosted hundreds of local and national artists, leading small group art classes or performances on our stage. The Art Garden is also where we celebrate holidays and traditions annually, inviting any person who has ever had an experience at the Art Garden to re-connect.
CAG shows the great need for long-term connections and building relationships over time. Many participants who started coming in 2012 are still visiting, now with their brothers and sisters. Older teens say they wouldn't have known each other, even though they live in the same neighborhood, if not for the Art Garden.
