The Minerva Apothecary Garden has been created alongside the Grand Union Canal, next to Grand Union Gallery and Studios, in collaboration with Alberta Whittle. The formerly unused space has been transformed into a garden full of herbs and flowers, all with medicinal properties.
Alberta Whittle in the Minerva Garden, Birmingham, 2021.
Working with MJM Bespoke, the Minerva Apothecary Garden has been designed and constructed to include planters, seating and outdoor cooking facilities. Developed in collaboration with women’s support organisations in the West Midlands (Crisis Skylight Birmingham women’s groups and Anawim), this garden is central to developing knowledge around growing and healing practices and fostering connections between plants and people.
Revisiting the 1968 Commonwealth Immigrants Acts, Congregation (Creating Dangerously) is using workshops as a congregation to consider notions of freedom and long-term healing. Not only will this centre the histories of communities and growing in the city, but it will also connect with the work of food activist Eunice McGhie-Belgrave, the founder of the community group Shades of Black (started in 1989 to unite a fractured community in Birmingham in the wake of the 1980s race riots.) One of the most vital ways to rethink food systems is to nurture the community with the tools, knowledge, and land needed to be able to cultivate a community garden as a space of healing and growth.
Minerva Apothecary Garden, Birmingham, 2020.