Youth Spirit Artworks S. Berkeley Art and Gardening Lot Project engages youth leaders in a collaborative community design, creating open space in South Berkeley’s densely-populated Lorin District. They will be converting a large, underused parking lot into a relaxing space for gardening & art enterprises benefiting youth and neighborhood residents. This project is linked to creation of a parklet on Alcatraz Avenue and Ellis Street.
The Art and Gardening Lot Project is linked to the YSA mission “to use art jobs and job training as a vehicle to empower and transform the lives of youth, giving youth the skills, experience and self-confidence they need to meet their full potential.” YSA young Leaders initiated the project by making use of the parking lot we inherited when we moved into our new, larger space on Alcatraz Ave. in South Berkeley. Youth want to use the space to better their community using art and gardening. The parking lot is intended as a neighborhood art making and community building space, as well as a space that groups can rent to hold events generating an income for YSA. Here our youth will sell their art on Saturdays and Tuesdays. The youth’s goal is to link the art space and gardening lot to the weekly South Berkeley Tuesday Farmers Market as an Annex. Youth are also excited to link the parking lot to a First Tuesday Arts Walk for South Berkeley’s Lorin neighborhood, a project being developed by the Lorin Merchants Association.
The collaboration with Urban Adamah will support critically needed youth stipends so that homeless and low-income young people can be paid to participate in Urban Adamah’s Spring Training toward later being engaged at YSA supporting our garden and creation of our Art and Gardening Lot.