September/October 1984 RAIN Page 27 by Paul Winkeller Each spring for the past two years, members of Capital District Community Gardens in Troy, New York, have undertaken a public art project at one of our garden sites. The experience has convinced us that public art and community gardening work well together, conveying a sense that self-reliant activities such as growing food are not just practical and mundane but are also joyous and creative acts. We are excited about incorporating dramatic public art projects into neighborhoods usually lacking such visual amenities. In addition, we have found that the association of an art project with a new garden site has helped ease the transition into neighborhoods where our program is not so well-known or understood. A new fence around a site begins to define the space and its intended use, but a mural or a bold three-dimensional sculpture does more to draw attention to the garden and articulate its purpose. The Public Art and Community Gardening two art projects we have sponsored speak in an immediate and provocative way about their respective gardens, demanding that the viewer think for a moment not just about the piece of art but its setting. Art provokes and at the same time induces contemplation; a garden does the same, and although the effect is more subtle, it is no less powerful. Not coincidentally, our first public art project is located at our first permanent garden, at Eleventh and Eagle Streets, a spectacular half-acre site where an abandoned, overgrown lot has become a showcase of 11 family plots; herb, market, and demonstration gardens; a sitting area; a glass recycling center; and an assortment of edible perennials. A dramatic sculpture, built by a local artist in spring 1983, stands on a sloping grassy area outside the fence, on city-owned property. Even though the sculpture is massive—16 feet long and 10 feet high—it
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