Beirut Art Center's community rooftop garden is a mutual aid initiative centered around food sovereignty. The garden seeks to connect local grassroots initiatives and provide farmers a foothold in the city, while creating an interdisciplinary approach to questions of sustenance, with farmers, activists and artists. The project centers around a vegetable garden and a seed bank, to create a hands on approach to alternative forms of nutrition, political thought and social organizing.
Criminal levels of corruption in Lebanon have culminated in unprecedented rates of food insecurity, and a freefalling standard of living. Given the complete absence of any roadmap out of this crisis, most people have no access to affordable foods and face an urgency to find alternative sources of nutrition. This project is a space for communities in Lebanon to come together to act, think, talk and imagine practical and replicable models of fighting the systemic disenfranchisement and starvation.
Drop off nodes in the city are instrumental for farmers transporting goods across the country.As we build such a node,we will conduct workshops with a focus on urban gardening,composting,carpentry,and recipes for traditional preserves and extracts.We will teach ourselves about the laws and policies that disenfranchise farmers in Lebanon.Through hands on farming,symposia,screenings,public discussions,the project seeks to change thought,discourse and culture around how we feed ourselves and others
We will train over 100 people annually with the help of local co-ops, lawyers, thinkers, working with farmers and food preservation practitioners to form alternate economies to precarious local supply chains. The garden will cultivate a 1500sqm area to yield produce/seedlings for distribution as well as dedicate areas for independent projects. Connecting with artists, theorists, activists, we seek to empower ourselves and our farmers with the help of strong collectives within and across borders.
