Praxis and Indigo
Vikki Broer
In the fall of 2022, the Civic Engagement Committee (Ruth Eppig, Vikki Broer and Petra Moran) was tasked by the Shaker Lakes Garden Club Board to identify and develop possible projects that would qualify for Garden Club of America awards in the Civic Improvement category. These awards cover the Founders Fund, Common Ground Collaborative, Partners for Plants, the Hull Award, and the Restoration Initiative. Our first focus was those organizations that might qualify for the Garden Club of America Common Ground program.
The Common Ground Collaborative (CGC) was created to support GCA member clubs in building long-term relationships with diverse community groups to develop, improve, and maintain public land and programs.
We will submit articles about the places we visit to help you to learn about the large number of activities in Northeast Ohio that are in line with the GCA’s purpose, vision, mission and values and hence those of the Shaker Lakes Garden Club. We invite your opinions and comments. The key part of the work is to find diverse community groups that can benefit from a long-term and sustained connection with what Shaker Lakes Garden Club has to offer. We hope to recommend one or two potential projects by the end of the year. In the February 2023 newsletter, we highlighted the Nature Preschool program at the Garfield Park Reservation. This article highlights the Indigo Project at Praxis on Waterloo Road in Cleveland.
In October 2022, we met with Jessica Pinsky, the Executive Director of Praxis Fiber Institute located in the North Collinwood neighborhood of Cleveland. Praxis hosts a Cleveland Indigo Project which connects art, plants and community in a very interesting collaboration. It is modeled on a national Indigo Project. Through exploring indigo, Praxis helps the community examine a troubled history of discrimination and racism in our country, connect with our neighbors, and acknowledge harmful environmental impacts of synthetic dyes.
In 2018 Praxis Fiber Workshop leased two parcels from the City Land Bank and turned abandoned soil in North Collinwood into a quarter acre of thriving indigo and marigold plants. The goals of their program:
Grow 400 pounds of indigo so we can process the leaves in the traditional Japanese method of composting in a facility we built behind Praxis. It is one of only two like it in the US.
Engage over 100 volunteers and community members on-site at our gardens and teach them the troubled history of indigo in our country, as well as the environmental benefits of using natural dye versus the highly toxic synthetic version for denim cloth.
The project expanded to connect with Cleveland Metropolitan School District and was fully funded by the Gund Foundation and others through 2020. The pandemic interrupted the on-site work and Praxis pivoted to a community-based approach, supporting community members to grow plants in their home gardens through kits and on-line tutorials.
With the pandemic easing, the focus is no longer on individual action but on reinvigorating the connection to the community and the neighborhood youth. Indigo planting is planned for early spring in the Collinwood greenhouse with in-ground planting in May and then educational programs throughout the summer and fall. Anyone interested in the Indigo story or in connecting further, please reach out to Jessica via the website, referencing the SLGC newsletter.