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These 7,000 Pinwheels Have Brought Prospect Park's Rose Garden Back To Life
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jul 8, 2017
Modified Jul 8, 2017
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jul 8, 2017
Modified Jul 8, 2017
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Prospect Park is giving the spotlight to their long-neglected Rose Garden, a little-known area in the northeast corner that's become overgrown and ignored in recent years. To help bring it back to life, they've unveiled a large-scale public art installation, featuring a field of 7,000 pinwheels... and counting, as the public is allowed to make additional pinwheels for the area. (The pinwheels are made of weather-resistant, compostable paper made from stone dust.) The Park notes that "150 years later, the Rose Garden will be experienced again in grand fashion, full of color and whimsy, a nod to the creative spirit that pervades Brooklyn and Reddy’s practice."
The unveiling comes during the Park's 150th anniversary year, and the 30th anniversary of the forming of the Prospect Park Alliance, in 1987. The Alliance was created in an effort to rehabilitate what was then a somewhat troubled space, first tackling projects like the carousel and ravine, where they put $9 million towards replanting trees, restoring pathways and making it a "habitable, pleasant place to go into and to stroll," Alliance President Susan Donoghue told us in 2015.
Now, the Connective Project "will transform Prospect Park's Rose Garden into an immersive, engaging and ever-growing field of pinwheels." The Park worked with AREA4 and Suchi Reddy, who "was very much influenced by the beauty and vision of Prospect Park’s designers Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, who in 1867 transformed 585 acres of rural terrain into the urban retreat that is Brooklyn's Backyard."
The installation is now on view, and will remain through July 17th, and it closes at sundown every day. Click through the photos to see what the Rose Garden used to look like, and what it looks like decked out in pinwheels.
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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