My residency at Studio 468 began in November 2006 for 9 months. I moved into the artist studio situated in St Andrews Community centre, Dublin and while there confronted my ideas on art, participation, activism and ownership.

I was part of the initial group of activists that set up Dublin’s first community garden on the canal in Dolphins Barn in 2005. This was the first time that I grew my own food. That year I learnt so much on the environment, food, gardening, collective organising, the creation of a positive space, trust and on how important community gardens are for our contemporary cities. There was no teacher it was non hierarchical, merely learning by doing and skill sharing.

Community Gardens are collectively organised sites concerned with food production in a city. The community garden is about relationship with neighbours, with land use, with food and with nature. It is a space where skill sharing and learning can take place.

This squatted garden acted as a locus and knowledge sharing point for a number of activists and people living within the community wanting to respond to the direction that Dublin’s development was heading in.

During my residency in Studio 468 the gardeners were evicted from the site on the canal. I called a meeting in Studio 468 and through the art residency managed to get permission from a local landowner to use a wasteland site for free. The studio in St Andrews with its glass fronted doors acted as an incubation space for vegetable and fruit seeds in April 2007.

The site that we used and are still using to this day is on loan from St Salvage. They kindly gave us permission to use the site up till the planning application for apartment blocks had been approved and building on the site can go ahead. Even though we knew the site had planning permission on it, we decided to go ahead with the project anyway. We could at least create a prototype project that other community groups could be inspired by and Dublin city council could see how they work and possibly support them at a future date.[1]

With the economic down turn we may have the site for a good few years to come.

The residency at Studio 468 gave me the leverage to accelerate the next phase of the community garden project. I was in the enviable position of being able to use my connections and links with the St Andrews community centre to give the project validity. The Studio team had outlined that we did not have to come up with a finished product but that the space was an opportunity to work with a community group of our choice. Their ethos provided me with the time and space to experiment and push my art practice.

The project only works through a collective effort. It is all run on a voluntary capacity. It has been inspiring over the last three years to see and meet the many dedicated individuals who have given time to the project all adding their creativity, skills, input and aspirations.

It’s a small project with big ideas on the future of our cities.