Cover Crop was a the first-ever public art installation at the Queens County Farm Museum to anchor a series of COVID compliant public activities to welcome the public back to one of New York City’s oldest cultural icons, in Queens NY.
Cover Crop was inspired by the Queens Farm’s ‘Amazing Maize Maze’ and organic farming practices as an installation to invite visitors directly onto planted fields inspire conversation about dormant agriculture, sustainable farming, and the life cycle of the land — and to expand arts and cultural programming at the Queens Farm.
“As the realities associated with our new normal continue to challenge our ways of interacting with each other and with the world around us, it is more important than ever before to create new ways to stay connected, support each other, and share safe, meaningful, and inspiring human experiences.”
In response to the new social distancing guidelines, the revised installation, activates half an acre of farmland with a series of a criss-crossing path, which will allow visitors to pass through a cocktail of cover crop, while maintaining a safe social distance from one another. Parallel paths will also allow partners or groups to travel side-by-side ensuring appropriate distance can be maintained throughout their experience — created by and celebrated through the arts.
“The experience of wandering through Cover Crop is an unexpectedly calming, peaceful, and meditative experience – a stark contrast to most things you expect to experience in New York City – and a unique way to connect us with the physical earth in a new way”
Cover Crop was developed in partnership with the Queens County Farm Museum — with support from the Queens Council on the Arts — Summer 2020.
For more information see Cover Crop featured in DesignBoom and the New York Times.
