Anne Whiston Spirn, West Philadelphia Landscape Project

Gardening is a life-embracing act, an act of faith and hope. It can also be a political act. This is especially the case in low-income neighborhoods where thriving community gardens stand in stark contrast to vacant land and abandoned buildings. This exhibit presents eight community gardens of different types, sizes, and political structure, which were originally documented in 1988. Photographs and commentary from 2017 record how each garden has changed over the past three decades.