The Creative Garden is designed as an accessible series of hands-on sessions at Treehouse NDSM, the studio hub on T.T. Neverita Road. The program runs in weekends through late summer and concludes in October, with individual workshops that you can attend one at a time or as a series with a passe-partout. The inset: learning by making, with soft materials science (paper, pigment, textiles) as well as a green component with which the yard literally blossoms.
The kickoff occurred with Paper Making: from pulp to your own handmade sheets, including playing with natural fibers and color. It is exemplary of the series: approachable, but darned educational, and suitable for both adults and children. Prices remain deliberately friendly, so that local residents and students can also join.
Beautiful is the way in which make-believe and urban nature come together. Visitors are invited to go on September 14 a wooden planter to adopt; then grow, bloom and sow - a mini-park softening the industrial quay. There will be a closing event in October where results and stories will come together. It fits Treehouse's mission: a public workplace where makers, neighbors and the curious find each other.
"Making with your hands, planting in the sun - The Creative Garden feels like urban education in the wild."
Treehouse NDSM itself is a clustering of 100+ studio spaces with public halls for exhibits and workshops. The place is a five-minute walk from the ferry and feels quintessentially NDSM: raw heritage, lots of air and water, and a steady stream of art projects. The calendar bundles ongoing programming - from Art Park III to live sessions - and The Creative Garden fits right into that rhythm of make, show, share.