Eden Unearthed Celebrates Inclusion and Accessibility

Why drive to Bondi only to not get a park?” asks Meredith Kirton, curator of Eden Garden’s Unearthed exhibition.  “We have 42 installations in beautiful gardens here at Macquarie Park.   It’s free, there are flowers everywhere in bloom, there’s great pram and wheelchair access, and loads of parking! Last time I went to SXS I had to fight for a carpark like a seagull after the last chip!”  Here, you can grab a picnic and find a spot under the trees for lunch, or dine in at the Dragonfly Café, where a few of the installations are literally right beside you.  They are all challenging and environmentally focused too, so you’re bound to be inspired after a visit…and don’t forget to vote for your favourite installation and go into the draw for a monthly free lunch for two. https://edengardens.com.au/pages/eden-unearthed

Eden Gardens is enormously proud to have a garden which is so accessible, and have deliberately kept this in mind with the installations. Many are wheel chair accessible,  others brightly coloured, tactile, and even some with  spinning and sound components to appeal to everyone.  This year we also included an accessibility award, which was sponsored by Royal Rehab, to award an artist for their work that was engaging and inclusive.  Claire Boyle, their Clinical Horticultural Therapist selected Alison Thompson’s work The Magic of the Garden, for the ease in which it engages all the senses.  Enriching People’s Lives with Plants is more than just a tag line at Eden Gardens; it is our reason for being.  We engage by contributing genuinely and without conditions in seeking to improve the quality of life of others through active participation with plants.  Art, its placement in the display gardens and encouragement of site specific artists as part of Eden Unearthed, is an extension of this.

 

The image attached shows local Chatswood artist Marta Ferracin's work Forget-me-not, which is a wonderful cooling work that talks about water recycling.  I have also pasted below an image of today’s group of St Edmund’s kids, in front of a work by Leanne Thompson that many of their school mates collaborated on, called Unravelled and Interwoven.  Eden Gardens has hosted St Edmund’s school at the Eden Unearthed exhibition for a very special curator’s tour.  St Edmond’s student Luca Weber has been involved for the last few months making Braille signs for the installations.  St Edmond’s school has been coming to Eden Gardens for 7 years of so on a regular basis, doing work experience in the gardens and retail area.  This year some year 8 student also collaborated with one on the Unearthed artists, Leanne Thompson, on her work Unravelled and Interwoven.    “To be able to share these installations with even more people, thanks to Luca’s work, is a real thrill and adds yet another layer of connection with the wider community”.  Community Development Manager Anna Ainsworth was so inspired she has also agreed for  Luca to create a Braille version of our new summer menu at The Dragonfly Café.  And they even do a great fish and chips there…if you’re still wanting to ‘taste the seaside’.