ArtGardens of Pittsburgh facts for kids

The ArtGardens of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is an outdoor gallery of installation art where the medium of the art is growing plants. Bringing garden installations together at one venue is unique to The ArtGardens, which aims to promote gardening as a contemporary art genre.

The ArtGardens was conceived and developed by Stephanie Flom at Frank Curto Park, a highly visible public green space along Bigelow Boulevard in Pittsburgh. The park runs for one mile along a well-traveled roadway near downtown. Although the gardens in this phase are viewed primarily from the road, the goal is to introduce this art concept to the public and build interest and support for the development of a larger venue that will allow the public to stroll intimately among the installations.

Artists are invited through a curatorial process. Garden artists include environmental artists, artists who garden, artists who work with growing plant materials, community gardeners, and backyard gardeners. While sculptural forms may be introduced, growing plant materials must be used as the primary medium. Generally the installations will be on the scale of an average backyard garden. Some gardens may only span a season; others may require maintenance plans for multiple seasons.

In the summer of 2002 artists Lily Yeh and Daniel Ladd created the inaugural installations at Frank Curto Park. In 2003, Stephanie Flom and Delanie Jenkins made additional ArtGarden installations.

The ArtGardens is a part of The Persephone Project, a resident program of the STUDIO for Creative Inquiry at Carnegie Mellon University and an activity of the Tides Center of Western Pennsylvania.