WNC Sculpture Center Celebrates New Installation With Community Garden Party!

The WNC Sculpture Center is hosting a Garden Party and community gathering to celebrate Biochar Drawing, a community earthwork created by artist Ila Sahai Prouty. This celebration will be held on Friday, June 26th, from 5-8 p.m. at the WNC Sculpture Center. This event is open to the public and free of charge.

Beginning stages of Biochar Drawing

Biochar Drawing is a community earthwork in which a charcoal drawing is buried underneath an herb garden. Prouty envisioned this piece as both a community garden in the form of a line drawing and a project that explains various biochar practices and sequesters carbon. In this piece, biochar is used in two ways within the earthwork: as a sequestration tool in the subsoil, and as a soil enhancement in the topsoil.

The June 26th celebration will feature printmaking activities, information about biochar, and opportunities for attendees to plant seeds directly into the drawing. Additionally, students in Prouty’s Appalachian State University course Climate and Community will be assisting with the project. This piece is allowing them to explore environmental issues through participatory, place-based practices that connect personal experiences with lager ecological concerns.

This piece explores how communities engage with urgent environmental issues on a human scale. Participants are invited to reflect on their relationship to the land while contributing to a growing regional conversation about climate resilience and restoration.

“I hope Biochar Drawing helps people experience climate action at a human scale,” said artist Ila Sahai Prouty. “We can gather, make something beautiful together, improve the soil, and leave behind a trace that will outlast us.”

Visitors are welcome to stop by the WNC Sculpture center at any point throughout the installation process to explore the grounds and view the project’s progress.