The Perfume Garden
Started: March 2019 – ongoing
A collaboration between GrowGood
and The Institute for Art and Olfaction
ABOUT THE PROJECT
The Institute for Art and Olfaction is excited to team up with the non-profit GrowGood in an ongoing collaboration.
Together, GrowGood and IAO have created and will maintain a garden devoted to botanical aromatics, serving the community of homeless men, women and veterans housed at the adjacent Salvation Army Bell Homeless Shelter. This Perfume Garden will be activated by a rich slate of workshops on topics relating to scent as an accessible and meaningful creative practice. Garden and workshops alike will serve GrowGood’s mission to provide green space, work opportunities and a beautiful space for the homeless shelter’s population.
PLANT LIST
2021 UPDATES
Basil Mint
Chamomile
English Thyme
Lemon Thyme
Spice Island Rosemary – 1 gal
Meyer Lemon – 5 gal
Scented Geranium – Chocolate Mint
Scented Geranium – Lemon Fizz
Pineapple Sage
Lovage
2019 PLANTING
Wooly blue curl
Western spice bush
Chaparral currant
Gardenia
Anise hyssop
Lemon balm
Orange thyme
Coconut thyme
Lemon thyme
Rose geranium
Coyote mint
Jasmine
Fascicularis milkweed
Blue spice basil
Pineapple sage
Goodwin creek lavender
Spanish lavender
Purple sage
Gardenia
Clary Sage
Rama Tulsi (Holy Basil)
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WHY?
Through shaping the physical landscape of this site in Bell and offering passive and active creative opportunities for growth and exploration, the Institute for Art and Olfaction and GrowGood hope to shape the future of Los Angeles by reaching its most vulnerable population. The Perfume Garden will extend GrowGood’s already impactful programming by providing an additional engagement point, as well as a dedicated space for the shelter residents to relax and enjoy nature.
We are beginning the planting and plot preparation phase of the Perfume Garden in April, 2019. In June through August 2019, we will refine the garden, and build seating areas and a shade structure. We will open the space for the Bell Shelter residents – and members of the surrounding community – in September, 2019. At all stages of the process, the site will be activated by a series of workshops designed to create engagement points for the garden’s visitors. In 2020, we will create an on-site distillation system, and supplement this with training and technical support.
The history of scent is the history of humanity, and every society on every continent through time has a relationship with aroma: From the Bablyonians to the ancient Greeks, the Saharan nomads to the merchants along the Silk Road, humans have been trafficking in, creating, and enjoying scents from the dawn of recorded history. We aim to empower Los Angeles’ population to view scent as not just a product of consumption but as a valid creative practice, whose finest materials can often be sourced in the public domain.
As unlikely as it may seem, Los Angeles has become a mecca for independent sensorial practices. In our efforts to support open access and creative practices with scent in a heretofore inaccessible field, we intend to ensure representation across class, cultures and economic status. This garden, and the program around it, is a modest step in that direction.
Do you want to help?
We’re looking for partners willing to supply planting materials (seeds, tools, etc), fiscal support, building supplies and design and construction assistance for The Perfume Garden. Please email us at hello@artandolfaction.com and help us build something wonderful.
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PAST EVENTS
April 17, 2021 – Volunteer Day at The Perfume Garden
at GrowGood, Bell CA.
Join us to re-plant the garden after COVID, and – let’s be honest – a heck of a year. It’s Spring, and it’s time to get green!
Nov. 14, 2019 – Volunteer Day at The Perfume Garden
at GrowGood, Bell CA.
Help us re-vitalize the perfume garden after a brutal summer: re-plant, give love, trim, tend, and mulch. Bring gloves, trowels and other gardening gear, and – if you want – an aromatic plant that thrives in hot, dry So-Cal weather. Natives a plus!
July 27, 2019 – Volunteer Day at GrowGood
at GrowGood, Bell CA.
Join us to tend and weed and enjoy the Perfume Garden that we planted in April. We will also build a bench. Bring: Gardening gloves, trowels, hammer and nails, sandpaper, any extra bits wood you have lying around.
Apr. 20, 2019 – PLANTING DAY
At GrowGood, Bell CA.
Join the Institute for Art and Olfaction + GrowGood to plant the seeds for the new Perfume Garden. Bring comfortable clothes, gardening gloves, spades, trowels and your sturdy biceps as we plow, sew and seed our soon-to-be-aromatic plot of land. What we need: Volunteers, with tools; Handypersons with upcycled wood, nails and hammers to build benches, and more! All and any ideas are welcome. Email us and we’ll go from there.
Mar. 16, 2019 – Introduction to Perfumery
At GrowGood, Bell CA.
Join the Institute for Art and Olfaction founder Saskia Wilson-Brown for an introduction to the creative practice of blending scents. Expanding on the bountiful aromatics already found in GrowGood’s farm, participants will spend 2 hours smelling and talking about aromatic materials while learning the basics of how to formulate materials into perfume. Everyone leaves with a small spray vial of their own personal scent.
Free for shelter residents / $40 for non-residents
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ABOUT GROWGOOD
GrowGood is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that has been working in partnership with The Salvation Army since 2011 to transform and maintain a 1.5-acre parcel of land adjacent to The Salvation Army’s Bell Homeless Shelter into an urban farm. The Bell Shelter is one of the largest homeless shelter’s west of the Mississippi operating a comprehensive program that offers transitional care for up to 500 homeless men, women, and veterans.
GrowGood’s no-till, regenerative urban farm provides the Shelter’s kitchen with substantial quantities of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables as well as therapeutic and employment opportunities for residents. We are proud to report that in 2017, GrowGood’s farm provided over 8,000 lbs. of organic produce to the Shelter’s kitchen, which serves over 6,000 meals per week.
ABOUT THE IAO
Founded in September 2012 in Los Angeles, The Institute for Art and Olfaction is a 501(c)3 non-profit devoted to advancing public, artistic and experimental engagement with scent.
We do this by initiating and supporting experimental projects that utilize the medium of scent, by providing accessible and affordable education in our laboratory as well as in partnership with institutions and community groups, and by celebrating excellence in independent, artisan and experimental perfumery through our yearly award mechanism, The Art and Olfaction Awards. Through these efforts, we extend the world of scent beyond its traditional boundaries of appreciation and use.