50/50 Garden of Resilience
24 May - October 2025
Organized by KWAG Curatorial + Public Programs Departments
The Garden of Resilience is the newest addition to the KWAG Sculpture Garden. This hybrid model explores the model of the community garden as a platform for radical sustainability and mutual aid on a community level. In a place where 10% of our neighbor’s face food insecurity on an annual basis, the Garden of Resilience will be a refuge of direct action, grounding the possibilities of small-scale, urban food production and community strength through intergenerational exchange and learning.
KWAG understands the garden as site, model and gallery. As a site, it is a functioning community garden that will grow organic fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers. As a model, it is a decolonial gesture that inverts capitalist expectations of land value and outdated conceptions of aesthetic value and landscaping. As a
gallery, the garden will be regularly programmed, activated and cared for, just like our internal gallery spaces. KWAG seeks to learn from the garden and understand how we can best position ourselves to care for our immediate neighbors and local ecologies.
We will also be launching a unique Gardener-in-Residence opportunity for a local artist to steward one of our plots for the summer. If you would like more information on this program and opportunities to get involved, please message Darryn Doull, Curator: Exhibitions & Programs, at ddoull@kwag.on.ca
RELATED PROGRAMS:
Garden Information Sessions
Thursday, 17 April, 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, 27 April, 2:00 p.m.
These sessions are an opportunity to learn more about the project and add your name to a first-come, first-served list for folks who are interested in participating as gardeners in 2025 or to be a part of our Garden Committee.
Official Garden Launch Celebration
Saturday, 24 May, 12:00 p.m.
Celebrate the first full day of gardening and activation of the Garden of Resilience during our launch weekend!
Images: Feature and header from - Ron Benner, Trans/mission: 101, 2013. Photographic /garden installation. Installation view at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery. ©Ron Benner. Photo: © 2016 Scott Lee.
The 50/50 Garden of Resilience is funded by WRCF’s Community Grants program and the TD Friends of the Environment Foundation.
