Tag Archives: Swale

Science & U visit Swale

September 10, 2017

Science and U visit Swale.

Published on 10 Sep 2017

CUNY TV Presents Swale

Posted in News | Also tagged , , , |

Swale on Now This News

July 17, 2017

“This floating forest contains hundreds of edible plants.”

Lucy Biggers of Now This chats to Swale team members about the project while we were docked at Brooklyn Bridge Park!

Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , , , |

Swale on NY1

July 22, 2016

Swale Brings Farm-Grown Food to a Bronx River Barge

By Erin Clarke
Friday, July 22, 2016 at 11:00 AM EDT

Screen Shot 2017-08-02 at 1.50.39 PM

 

“The 130-foot by 40-foot floating platform is the creation of the non-profit organization Swale, whose founder wants the city to explore growing fruits and vegetables in parks as a way to provide food to residents.

“Going forward we can work towards policy change in the city where right now it’s still illegal to grow public food in public spaces and what we hope is that this can set a good example and we can potentially move forward with starting to change some of those old rules,” said Mary Mattingly, the founder of Swale.

Mattingly says the barge is partly a farm, and partly a public art project, that explores a new way of living. After a year of planning, the first planting occurred this spring. And starting Saturday, the barge will be open to the public. Tours will be given by volunteers from a local environmental activist group.”

Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , |

Interview about Swale in am New York

July 20, 2016

Swale, Mary Mattingly‘s most recent massive undertaking – a public artwork, and floating food forest, is due to open at Concrete Plant Park in the Bronx on Saturday July 23, 2016, where it will dock for a month before moving on to other locations around New York Waterways. I’m working with Mary and her team to curate public programs at our docking locations, and caught up with Meredith Deliso of am New York to talk about the project on Mary’s behalf.

Screen Shot 2016-07-20 at 7.41.09 PM

Screen Shot 2016-07-20 at 7.44.04 PM

Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , , |

Swale Kickstarter

April 26, 2016

I’ll be working with Mary Mattingly and her AMAZING team on her SWALE project this coming summer.

I’m excited to let you know that we JUST launched a Kickstarter campaign for Swale.

Swale is a public floating food forest in New York City. In the summer of 2016, people will be able to visit a barge growing edible, perennial plants, and even harvest food.

If we meet our fundraising goal, we will be ready to launch in June.

Here is a link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1152620801/swale

We’d be so thrilled if you might be able to get involved in the project, even in a small way. And we’d also be grateful if you could share this link with your friends and colleagues.

Swale_boat_floatingfarm

With Swale, we want to ask, what if healthy, fresh food could be a free public service, and not just an expensive commodity? It’s important that this project happens on NYC’s water for several reasons:

      • It can move! We can visit different boroughs and the areas surrounding the city.
      • Alongside rain water, we can utilize the river water, purify it, and grow food with it.
      • You might know that all waterways are actually a form of commons: In New York’s case, they are overseen by many agencies, but not owned by anyone in particular, which is one of the reasons we have launched Swale on the water. It isn’t yet legal to grow public food in public spaces in New York City, but on a floating island… well, we’re pushing the boundaries of public space!

Swale is working on several different fronts at the same time.

1. We are co-creating a floating food forest.

2. We are working with community groups in each place we are able to dock, to establish permanent food forests on NYC’s publicly owned land.

3. We are working towards galvanizing enough support to advocate for policy change; for a city where public food is incorporated into the urban plan.

Reinforcing water as a commons also gives us more of a chance to look after them. We believe that the more we look after our common spaces, the more that they look after us.

Follow along as we develop our docking schedule: http://www.swaleny.org

Mary’s built an amazing team, and A Blade of Grass have provided her with a fellowship to begin the process : but its going to take YOU to help us make it REAL…

Please join us on the journey!

Amanda, Mary, and the SWALE team!

swalelogo

 

 

Screen Shot 2016-04-25 at 10.26.39 PM

Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , |