This summer Backyard Growers are launching “Backyard Growcery” in Gloucester. Every Wednesday, beginning June 19th, from 2:30-6:30pm, local artisans and farmers will sell their food + wares at Burnham’s Field. In addition to traditional market vendors, we would like to offer “Backyard Growcery Eco Art Programming”: 8 weeks of placemaking that connects our market vendors, our farmers, and our Gloucester community together. Over the course of our 16 week “Growcery” season at Burnham’s Field, we will design and facilitate arts centered programming that culminates in a community-created public art installation built from bio materials.
This programming will be designed + led by Gloucester artist, Maia Mattson. Maia Mattson is a multi-disciplinary artist who focuses on the use of botanical material in her practice. Mattson will offer 8 weeks of eco arts programming exploring bio-materials made from local waste. Mattson will be partnering with Backyard Growcery vendors and local Cape Ann businesses, collecting their organic by-products and waste to use in a variety of all ages, art activations at Burnham’s Field. For example, we plan to partner with our local pasta shop, Pastaio- using the shop's organic waste to make paper and paper mache lanterns. We will also use the decaying flowers from our local farms to create colors for natural dyes. From a place of curiosity and play, participants will experiment with these materials asking: what can we make from this? How could we use this? From these essential questions, come exciting opportunities to practice methods of nature-based art making while learning about our local ecology, food systems, and waste streams.