McCoy Community Garden Gates

McCoy Park is a 3.8-acre park in the center of the New Columbia Housing Project. The McCoy Community Garden, located at the northern end of the park, provides a gathering place, a means of feeding families, a place of tending the earth & nurturing life. The fence surrounding the garden has four gates, three single & one double, one on each side of the rectangular garden plot. Each gate features a different area of the world, acknowledging the diverse population at New Columbia where 14 different languages are spoken. Numerous open houses & meetings were held to solicit ideas from the community & stakeholders with residents submitting quotations, proverbs, recipes & stories. The chosen images of fruit, nuts, spices & vegetables, & quotations about food, family & community reflect both the similarities & differences of people around the world.

The North entry displays food from Asia with a quotation from China & Cambodian & Vietnamese proverbs. The West Gate features Africa & the Near East, including quotations from Kahlil Gibran & Martin Luther King, Jr. & a proverb from Zimbabwe. The South entry highlights foods from Latin countries with a traditional toast in English & Spanish & a quotation by Benito Juarez. The East Gate is double to accommodate a tractor. Its focus is primarily on western & European plants with Russian & Native American quotations.

Without the Percent for Art Program, this garden would only be surrounded by a galvanized fence of modular, welded wire panels. The zinc plated & powder coated steel gates & accompanying side panels (designed to code & Parks & Recreation rules & regulations), transform a mundane, unattractive barrier into an elegant & provocative installation. When the sunlight hits the horizontal planes of the pierced metal, the panels sparkle, like the frosting on a cake.

After these gates were installed, Suzanne designed a coloring book of all the images translated in six languages with descriptions of the plants, symbols & quotations. These were given to the families at New Columbia in welcome baskets on Easter to increase the residents’ sense of ownership of the installation.