The Flower Chain was a participatory community art education project by artist Michelle Glass. Responding to the opportunity to engage 20 local teenagers in a paid summer activity, Glass proposed to use the power of art to build collaboration among diverse youth groups. The Flower Chain interprets the Park motto, ‘Parks Make Life Better,’ with 19 small paintings. Assigning one letter to each youth, Glass had them design and paint on an octagonal plaque. The letters, mounted on an exterior fence were each surrounded by steel ‘petals’ to frame each artwork. A temporary project, The Flower Chain bloomed for years.

Michelle Glass is a visual and social practice artist and community arts advocate working with rural and underserved communities. A citizen artist, her content is equity and social justice. Her artworks are experiential in format. Glass collaborated with Hataya Tubtim to replant native wildflowers that had been plowed under and paved in a Central California agricultural community. They establishing a ladies’ seed cooperative and held weekly seed exchanges to fight agricultural pollution. A creative catalyst for society, Glass developed community art and science gardens in East Palo Alto and co-produced a film about immigration for Los Angeles’ Watts House Project.

Date: 2014
Collection: City of Inglewood Community-Based Public Art Projects
Medium: Social Practice
Material: Acrylic paint on prepared steel octagons
Size: 20” x 480”

Location:
Darby Park Community Center Perimeter Fencing
3400 W. Arbor Vitae
Inglewood, California 90305