supplement healthy, organic and super-local food to what else is already available. They will also inspire many families to convert their own yards and balconies into food producing gardens.

Roughly 14,000 out of the 19,500 square feet of vacant land of the Whitley property will be used for growing organic food. Permaculture methods will be utilized to do so, as they have shown to combine soil health with high yield of crops due to the intelligence of the polyculture design methods. The only downside because of the temporary nature of the project is that we will not be able to grow large trees. Still, an intelligent polyculture design can combine tall shading vines and plants with short ones and focus more on perennials, creating a new genre of short term permaculture designs for this very application.

The process of food growing on the vacant land will go through several stages:
- Creation of a healthy, nutritious soil
- First planting season
- Replanting perennials (for as many years as the site remains vacant)
- Moving the healthy soil and as many plants as possible to a close by new project at the close of this site.

In a sense we are creating a nomadic food production that takes advantage of all the left over land in our cities.

Community

The Whitley Gardens will host regular weekend workshops engaging community members to gain hands-on experience in gardening, composting and other practical environmentally beneficial skills.
During the week, the Whitley Gardens will welcome school classes for the active participation in workshops and garden tours.

The Whitley Gardens will also host special benefit events and a harvest barbecue on site.

Furthermore, a 1000 square foot plot will be set aside benefiting the local homeless shelter. Homeless from the shelter will be admitted for gardening training, a practical skill that may help them improve their circumstances, and the harvest from their crop will go to their own food bank.

The Whitley Gardens is an IBU project that brings together FOOD, ART and COMMUNITY. It will utilize the vacant, privately held land located at 1800 N. Whitley Ave. for this undertaking and demonstrate how this scenario creates a mutually beneficial situation for the landowner, the community, the operator and the environment.

Food

Growing food is a culinary, an economic and an environmental act. It has thoroughly transformative potentials.

Healthy local food awareness has been on the rise, especially fueled by First Lady Michelle Obama’s White House Edible Garden program. Yet for the awareness to really disseminate, we will need to dot our cities and suburbs with many small and medium organic farms. Nothing helps educate people more than first hand contact with a place where their food is grown. It’s this very experience that has been missing from our food culture and has caused industrial food production to become as unsustainable as it has. If people had a direct contact to their source of food, it would most certainly feed a most powerful shift of consciousness related to nutrition, health and the environment. Moreover, it would give each community a base for a thriving local economy surrounding food that is independent of fuel costs and other external factors. It is not to say that these small farms could suffice to feed the whole community, but they could

Art

The Whitley Gardens Project is creating an environment for bringing art into urban life. It is creating a bridge between the art institution (the museum) and the people, connecting and engaging the two sides in new ways.
To do so, the Whitley Gardens Project is collaborating with the EAT LACMA exhibition and will host an art installation on site. In conjunction with the EAT LACMA exhibition the project will also host a special event. The art/artist is yet to be determined, but will be chosen for its power of communication to the community viewing it and also for its ability to be installed outdoors.