The Open Kitchen Sculpture Garden


About The Garden



MISSION



The Open Kitchen Sculpture Garden (TOKSG) is a living-visionary project that seeks to initiate a movement of collaboration, education, and sustainability through the use of art and food. It is currently revitalizing and enhancing the Norris Square community, through the creation of an innovative and artistic gathering space that promotes unity and well-being. The essence of the project is simple yet profound; it’s process is organic and concrete, literally and metaphorically. It is transforming not only the physical space, but also stimulating and motivating individuals to engage with their environment. It is an example of a direct and simple solution that is accessible in any community, demonstrating what can be done when people come together to share talents, resources, and skills.



Vision & Goals



Our over-arching goal is to further develop the project into a unique interdisciplinary learning environment where divergent interest can meet and interact. We plan to concentrate in the areas of food justice, sustainable urban farming, solar-energy, water-conservation, creative construction and do so continuously offering the space as vocational youth education experience. In five to ten years, TOKSG will be a strong, vibrant and united community having: rich and varied programming; attracting internships; a place that is a valuable resource for educational, social services and local institutions and businesses. TOKSG is a place maintaining a core staff of professional innovators and educators that will be a part of the fabric of how the project pollinates its core values, skill-teaching, ideas and sustainability. One that builds on their own resources as a self-sustaining place to educate others on well-being and nutrition. An environmental place to educate with vocational training, creative expression and science of farming. A space perpetually developing self-sufficient human beings in the community. In addition, TOKSG will be universally amplified, making the project international, travelling and interchanging, attracting cultural exchanges and people with resources and knowledge to share their strengths with the kitchen.



ORIGIN & DEVELOPMENT



Since 2015, TOKSG has proven to be a catalyst for transformation. Employing sculptural techniques, the original layout of the physical environment was altered using the very trash and construction debris that previously littered the lot. At the entrance of the space, a monumental Indigenous sculpture head with two faces greet visitors. The head is really a dumpster that was covered and sculpted with two tons of cement. The space now contains: an earth oven, tree house, green house, fire pit, two stages; a covered cooking area and a twenty-foot solar-powered off-grid woodshop shipping container. The vegetable garden is located on the outer perimeter along the street curb so that it can be accessible to anyone in the community at any time. In addition, it serves as a deterrent, preventing people from dumping trash on the sidewalk. The once abandoned lots have now become a visually unique space that demonstrates what can be done with what is readily available. It is a laboratory that thrives on creative expression, practical solutions and experience. Its simplicity and beauty gives it an essence that is open to constant change and collaboration. It allows and provides opportunities for interaction while attracting possibilities, resources, and people.



COMMUNITY APPROACH & RESIDENT ENGAGEMENT



Our approach with the community has been marked through the act of industrious presence and grit. Since the beginning, we have made it a point to invite and include the neighbors to participate in the creation of this space. By consistently being in the kitchen and implementing community-input, people in the neighborhood have begun to accept this space as their space. During these past years the space has collaborated with a wide range of groups and individuals. “Pig Iron” theater students have worked with children in the neighborhood, a mothers group “Justice for Alex Now” speaking out against violence, created a Healing Garden, St Joseph’s University MAGIS program has been vital in the construction and cleanup since the beginning, NKCDC has donated water tanks, building material and a green house, the boy scouts constructed a permanent stage, community members use the space to celebrate family gatherings, one grandmother makes smoked sausages for the holidays to sell, and many young people have showcased their talents to events that bring people together such as our Wednesday night pot-lucks every fortnight. The space is embedded with a collective positive energy that is just beginning to gain momentum.



ABOUT THE FOUNDER:
PEDRO OSPINA



Pedro’s work as an artist explores his search for identity and assimilation in the face of cultural change. Born in Bogotá, Colombia, but raised in New York City, his life’s path has been dedicated to the pursuit of simultaneously exposing himself to a wide range of learning experiences and cultures and then sharing that information and knowledge with those Pedro encounters.


To this end, Pedro has sought out and absorbed experiences from a variety of sources; from an academic arts education in the U.S to, apprenticeships with artisans in Mexico, Wales, Colombia, and Brazil, working in inner city public schools through out the states of Pennsylvania and New York, extensive work in marginal communities in Colombia and Brazil. These experiences have helped Pedro realize the importance and impact that art has in the life of an individual and how he as an artist may facilitate education, change and growth.


Pedro’s character thrives on change and is stimulated by challenges and new environments. It is this fact that in 1997 brought him to the American School of Sao Paulo, Brazil to teach high school art. While teaching Pedro became fascinated with the popular culture and decided to invest his energies in co-founding a community based art center in an under-developed neighborhood. After eight years, Casa Cultura de Santa Teresa is a three-story building consisting of art rooms, theater, library, computer lab and offers over 12 classes to the local community. Pedro presently give workshops, implement community projects and create his own work. Pedro’s time is divided between Sao Paulo, Brazil, New York and Philadelphia.



The Open Kitchen Sculpture Garden



Today’s creative, ecological urban laboratory for the future in underserved areas.




Email Us