The Word Garden

Integrated Art - Plaza design

18in X 5ft X 1000ft

2000

Franklin Park

Description:
Broward based artist team of Angi Curreri and Rick Yasko designed a thousand-foot long colored concrete patterned walkway encircling the playground of the park. Along the walkway, they placed seven colored concrete benches engraved with the name of seven Principles of Kwanzaa in both Swahili and English, plus seven inspirational quotes which are related to each specific principle. Their design vision went out beyond the boundary of the park into the neighboring community by coloring their concrete sidewalk in hues echoing the park walkway.

Artist Statement:
"The Word Garden includes a colorful, patterned sidewalk with adjacent benches running throughout Franklin Park. Each of the seven triangular sidewalk extensions with V-shaped pairs of benches is engraved with the name of one of the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa in both Swahili and English, and an inspirational quote that relates to that specific principle.

The project was created to be the culmination and focal point of the infrastructure project the artists had previously designed for the Franklin Park neighborhood (as yet to become a reality). It incorporates the same four colors and employs the same material, concrete.

The artists met with the Franklin Park Community many times during their five years working in this neighborhood. The community repeatedly expressed the desire for the project to be both inspirational and educational. The beautiful celebration of Kwanzaa was selected as a unifying theme to both inspire and educate. In addition, the artists desired to visually and aesthetically enhance the park as well as the neighborhood and to help create a unique sense of place."