Fall ARC Seminar 2014
Binder #: 84
Major: Environmental Studies Major, Political Science Minor
Passion: Arts, Neighborhood Revitalization, Environmental Sustainability, Food Justice
Organization: IWU ARC, West Bloomington Revitalization Project
Project Title: “Adopt-a-Pot”
Project Summary: One of the six core areas of revitalization that West Bloomington residents are interested in seeing is Greening. Greening is beautification with an emphasis on planting community gardens, having beautiful street corners and plants that everyone can enjoy and take advantage of. My project is to build big community planters and put food in them. By creating big planters to put on the West Side, and having them available for adoption, these will contribute to the efforts of greening that are already taking place. The pots will be decorated and filled with beautiful plants and produce in part to help erase the negative stigma that is sometimes associated with the West Side.
Note from Kirsten: There a lot of things that can be done to continue this project. Continuing to build more pots and finding people willing to adopt them are really important for beautification efforts and bringing fresh food to the West Side. This information should also be shared with as many people as want to learn how to build them. Organizing a workshop teaching residents how to build their own pots or building pots to put in front of businesses is also key. It is much more important that community members want these Adopt-a-Pots in place and take ownership of them, because that is the only way that the project is successful. As long as there is a need for fresh produce and beauty on the West Side street corners, then the pots can fill that need. The futures of the pots will also need dedicated people to make sure that they continue to appear well cared for and that nice plants and vegetables are planted in them. This project has taught me so much, and I hope you will have as much fun as I did exploring building with cement and creating something lasting for the West Side of Bloomington.