Mary Mattingly, Image courtesy of The Tufts Daily
The Tufts University Ecologies visiting artist discusses a proposal for a functional living installation
Mary Mattingly speaks with The Tufts Daily about her work with Tufts University on the Question of the Commons project, which imagines the campus' future as a commons. The project proposes building an accessible, edible perennial landscape on a campus lawn. These gardens would serve as a site for "gathering and learning, and would be an experiment in what can grow on campus,” including the many relationships that stem from sustaining such a project.
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“I came into this project thinking that I would love to co-build more public food forests, because I think that is a way to bring people from outside campus [to campus], but it’s also a form of food security and something that students can learn from and enjoy,” Mattingly said. “What I learned was there’s a lot more that people want than that, and I think it has to do with just convening and having space that people feel is accessible on the lawn. ... There [were] equal amounts of excitement around being together, and I was thinking of it more as an access point. It’s made me really reconsider the importance of those other spaces that are outside the classroom but you feel welcomed into.”