About this project

In supporting the Flower Tower, you are supporting an art installation that celebrates the natural environment, community as defined by hundreds of people participating in planting seedlings, altruism in the donation of the gardens after the event, and the exciting practice of pyramid construction!

The Flower Tower will be built by the Woolies this summer for Wooly Fair on July 31. Located at the industrial arts facility, the Steel Yard, in Providence's valley district, the Flower Tower will be 5-tiered pyramid, with a 24' base and 10' tall. The Flower Tower will be arranged with numerous bare planters. Attendees of Wooly Fair will be invited to plant a flowering plant or vegetable in one of the structure's containers. The Fair will provide the plants for the attendees and staff at the structure will instruct on planting. A small sapling at the structure's summit will be on hand for decorating with prayers and ornaments made at the Fair. The more people who plant the structure, the lusher it will become. After Wooly Fair, we will donate the gardens to various organizations including hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and coffee shops, so that the spirit of the event can continue to flourish like seeds in the surrounding communities. We will plant the tree from the summit, either at the Steel Yard or near the event site, placing its root ball over the prayers and ornaments.

To build the Flower Tower, we will be employing a staging company, renting the basic structure, though we will build the stairs, gardens, and facing for the Flower Tower ourselves. We are working with local gardeners and soliciting sponsorship from local nurseries. During the event we will staff the structure with volunteers. We will be reaching out to organizations in the local community to find homes for the gardens once they leave the Flower Tower.

The money raised here will go directly toward the staging and build out of the structure (which includes everything from the removable gardens to the stairs, to the structure's lighting) and to pay for the site rental fee. We have already raised $2500 for this project through a grant from the Rhode Island State Arts Council. We plan on installing the Flower Tower in the 2nd week of July and taking it down the first week of August. While it's up we hope it draws people to the Steel Yard, which is a fantastic arts nonprofit with a beautiful newly landscaped site.