Hanging Gardens Collaboration with Xavier Cortada

For Immediate Release:

January 9, 2010
Urban Paradise Guild (UPG) and Miami artist Xavier Cortada announce a new collaborative partnership

As the project’s coordinator, UPG will implement Hanging Gardens, Cortada's participatory eco-art project that creates demand for removal of Invasive Exotic Plants by inspiring their use in artistic installations and as building materials. During 2010-11, UPG volunteers will remove Invasive Exotic plants and trees to protect and restore Native Habitat, develop techniques that create new building materials from them, and use the materials to create artistic and utilitarian objects. UPG will coordinate Workshops to demonstrate and teach these techniques to the public at Libraries and other locations. During Spring 2011, Cortada will install selected pieces in his exhibit at Miami-Dade Public Library System’s Main Library Gallery..

Websites:
http://www.xaviercortada.com/?page=Hanging_Gardens
http://www.urban-paradise.org/HangingGardensAnnouncement

UPG Partners are supporting Hanging Gardens with Volunteers, tools, materials, and inspiration. ECOMB (Environmental Coalition of Miami and the Beaches) has already brought planning and creative resources to bear.

On January 16, 2010, Miami Dade College will help us launch the Project on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. The Center for Community Involvement (MDC CCI) requested a project where Students could learn while they improve the Community we share through S-L (Service-Learning). Corrine Lockamy initiated the Day of Service, and MDC Hialeah is leading the way with a large contingent.