{"id":1619,"date":"2009-04-28T09:02:45","date_gmt":"2009-04-28T14:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/?p=1619"},"modified":"2017-06-20T10:07:25","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T15:07:25","slug":"urban-garden-brings-art-downtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2009\/04\/28\/urban-garden-brings-art-downtown\/","title":{"rendered":"Urban garden brings art downtown"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Garden station is an urban garden located on the corner of E. Fourth St. and Wayne Ave. The site features artwork generally constructed of "found materials" such as wood pallets and used tires. photos by Frank Coleman and Rusty Pate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Current and former Sinclair Community College students are doing their part to help beautify and revitalize Dayton’s urban core. Garden Station, an art park and community garden located in downtown Dayton, has become a haven for creative individuals looking for an outlet.<\/p>\n

But it took a lot of hard work to get there.<\/p>\n

“This area was a mess,” says Lisa Helms, project co-manager of Garden Station. “We probably took 30 or 40 bags of trash out of here.\u00a0 We had to haul out old couches, mattresses, clothing and tents.”<\/p>\n

The lot, located at the corner of Wayne Ave. and E. Fourth St., had been vacant for 40 years before the Dayton Circus Creative Collective leased the area from the City of Dayton in June of 2008.\u00a0 The Dayton Circus is an organization designed to nourish community artistic collaboration, according to Helms.<\/p>\n

David Kenworthy, a Sinclair graduate, was involved with the project from the beginning and helped transform the two-acre site into what it is today.<\/p>\n

“Last year, it was a wreck,” Kenworthy says. “I thought this would be a great opportunity to help beautify the property.”<\/p>\n

The former Sinclair Community College visual communication major currently has two pieces in the garden.\u00a0 He utilized his expertise in graphic design and fine arts to create a shimmering metal sculpture, which stands near the entrance of the garden, and a seven-foot tall milk carton made out of discarded fence wood.\u00a0 Kenworthy’s next project will be an 18-foot tall arch for the corner of the garden.<\/p>\n

“It’s a nice place to come and eat your lunch,” says Audrey Isabelle Malhotra, a current engineering student at Sinclair. “It’s very relaxing.”<\/p>\n

Malhotra discovered Garden Station through the Dayton Circus Web site.\u00a0 Her contribution to the garden is a five-foot tall mandala sculpture she constructed out of wire, fabric and twine.\u00a0 In addition to working on her art piece, she is committed to “regularly coming by on the weekends” to plant flowers.<\/p>\n

Malhotra is a performer as well as an artist.<\/p>\n

“I hope to sing here,” she said.\u00a0 “I’ve seen some pretty awesome performances (at Garden Station).”<\/p>\n

Richard Lober, a 1999 Sinclair Alum, has known about the abandoned lot for years and hoped it could one day be converted into a useful space.<\/p>\n

“One day, I noticed people in the lot moving stuff around,” Lober says.\u00a0 “I talked to Lisa (Helms) and she said \u2018We can always use volunteers.'”<\/p>\n

Lober, who describes himself as a “garden artist”, erected a massive art easel that stands approximately 16 feet high.\u00a0 The wood structure, completed last September, has been used to display six different pieces of art.\u00a0 The wide canvas also doubles as a movie screen during garden events, which include burrito jams, bonfires and music festivals.<\/p>\n

Aside from the art pieces, there are additional fixtures in the garden including a performance stage, a lily pond, wooden benches and a flower box.\u00a0 All of these items are in various stages of completion and are generally constructed of \u201cfound materials\u201d such as wood pallets and used tires. Any additional materials are donated, according to Helms.\u00a0 The site is partially surrounded by a brick wall which serves as a showcase for commissioned murals.<\/p>\n

Lober urges Sinclair students to come by and contribute to the park\u2019s continued development.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeveral former Sinclair students are involved,\u201d said Lober. \u201cI invite more students to come by\u2026and become friends of the garden.\u00a0 It\u2019s a relaxing place.\u00a0 We hope that the students will come out more this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additional information about Garden Station can be found at:<\/strong><\/p>\n

www.myspace.com\/gardenstation<\/strong><\/p>\n

www.DaytonCircus.org<\/strong><\/p>\n

Students with art ideas for Garden Station should contact Lisa Helms at 937-610-3845.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Current and former Sinclair Community College students are doing their part to help beautify and revitalize Dayton’s urban core. Garden Station, an art park and community garden located in downtown Dayton, has become a haven for creative individuals looking for an outlet. But it took a lot of hard work to get there. “This area […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[393,69,401,1985,402],"class_list":["post-1619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-add-new-tag","tag-arts","tag-downtown","tag-frank-coleman","tag-garden"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-q7","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1619"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15392,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1619\/revisions\/15392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}