I love the Baltic, it’s my idea art gallery. (For the times I’ve been and posted see here and here)

There were four things on this week. I found two of them to be fascinating. First, The Waiting Gardens of the North. All art galleries should have gardens.

I’ve come to appreciate gardens and communal growing spaces, because I have one. So I’m keenly aware of the things that gardens do for the human condition. They are spaces to grow plants to connect that to the other things they do, to provide food, medicine, healing, hope, remembrance and community…

It’s hard not to talk about immigration without talking about the Middle East and that does mean talking about Israel but the quote on the video from a Syrian talking about his city that ‘used to smell of damask roses but now only smells of gunpowder’ haunts me.

Aside from immigration and the Middle East, it’s hard not to see how colonialism has shaped the world we live in. Some of the plants selected show that clearly, the spices, the coffee, the olives, the banana plants. But the amount of plants here that come from elsewhere and that I grow on the plot and some of them are almost weeds in my soil, mint, borage, marigolds, peppers, tomatoes, lavender, lemon balm, chives.

That this project has been running for a year and has made space for community meals, seed growing, harvest, tea and medicine making, for community and space. It just makes my heart happy.

I loved this so much. It felt soul restoring and hopeful.