a space to gather, a place to grow
ruum kogunemiseks, ruum kasvamiseks
место, где собраться, место, где расти


A space to gather, a place to grow is a project initiated by Yvette Bathgate & Jake Shepherd that takes the form of a greenhouse constructed in the community garden of EKKM. The greenhouse will be activated as a collective space through a programme of public events and workshops developed in collaboration with invited practitioners.

In a garden, a greenhouse allows for more growth by harnessing the energy around it. This, as the venue in which a series of events will be held, also acts as a catalyst for community building and creative processes.

Throughout the duration we will be on site gardening, writing, drawing, reading, weaving and spending time; we welcome you to join us informally in these moments, as a space to gather a place to grow. Follow how the programme unfurls and find when we’ll be around


25.05 - Collective Cup, Keithy Kuuspu
27.05 - Gardeners flag
08.06 - Collective Cup, Keithy Kuuspu
10.06 - Embodied Arrangements, Kati Saarits
12.06 - Windows of Tolerance, Feminist Culture House
17.06 - Round about, Laura De Jaeger
22.06 - Celebration (with collective cups!)



Sunday 25.05 / 08.06 / 22.06
12.30 - 14.30
COLLECTIVE CUP
With

The Collective Cup Workshop is a space where everyone is always welcome. There are instructions on how to create a clay cup or decorate one. The more people there are, the more co-authored cups there will be. Someone creates, someone decorates, and together we celebrate! The cups will belong to the garden.
OPEN for cup making every day (independently), group making sessions on 25.05 and 08.06.

Collective cup workshop on ruum, kuhu on oodatud kõik ja alati. Ruumis on juhised, kuidas luua savist tass või seda kaunistada. Mida rohkem on inimesi, seda rohkem on tasse. Keegi loob, keegi kaunistab ja koos tähistame!
AVATUD tassi tegemiseks (ilma juhendamiseta) iga päev, grupis töötamine 25.05. ja 08.06.

Language is not a problem / Keel ei ole takistuseks



Tuesday 27.05.25
17.30 - 19.30
Gardeners Flag
With EKKM garden community

Join the group of gardeners to make a collective flag that will hang in the garden. Together we will think about our relationships with gardens, what community gardening means to us and our dreams for them. As Olivia Laing writes in A Garden Manifesto we can think of gardens as literal places or metaphors for a better society, as lost or reclaimed edens, as sites of pleasure, freedom, complexity and abundance.
These can be gestured through drawing, embroidery and words (expressed in various languages) and incorporated into the textile flag.



Tuesday 10.06.25
17.30 - 19.30
Embodied Arrangements
With

A collective walk through the untended urban naturescapes around EKKM. We start the walk to spontaneous urban fields and no-man’s-lands near Linnahall gathering plants and wildflowers. Guided not by instructions but by intuitive presence, we move together through these often overlooked in-between spaces gathering plants that simply draw us in. The walk circles back to the greenhouse, where the collected matter can be arranged into floral compositions using a series of porcelain slip-cast vessels made by Kati. The sculptural flower holders take their form from suvila (summer cottage) object culture - from seasonal routines and improvised solutions, enamel buckets and makeshift pots.





Thursday 12.06.25
17.00 - 19.00
Windows of Tolerance
With
Paola Jalili & Katie Lenanton

Welcome to a workshop with Katie and Paola from Feminist Culture House (Helsinki)! Let’s gather in the greenhouse and think together about collaborative practices in the cultural field. What happens when there is no budget? How can we recognise and value different types of labour? How can we conduct rewarding collaborations that also explore the idea of alternative currencies?

The workshop invites participants to imagine more sustainable and long-term ways of distributing resources, and to prioritise collective well-being over individual comfort.

During the workshop we will share excerpts from our forthcoming publication Windows of Tolerance: Tools for Ideal Collaborations in an Unideal World. We’ll use verbal, edible, textual, and artwork prompts to guide our conversation. A flag artwork by Gladys Camilo will be flying during the workshop.

Let’s come together and worldbuild a cultural field upheld by intersectional feminist working practices. Everyone is welcome to join us, no sign up required! Seasonal snacks and drinks will be provided :)



Tuesday 17.06.25
17.30 - 19.30
Round about
With

Question: How can one manage not to lose time? Answer: Experience it at its full length. Means: Spend the days at the dentists waiting room on an uncomfortable chair; Listen to lectures in a language that one does not understand; Choose the most roundabout and least convenient routes on the railway (and naturally, travel standing up); Queue at the box-office for theatres and so on and not take one's seat, etc.

This list of answers, (posed by Camus through another fictional writer Tarou), could easily have an early gardening session in there. This workshop taps into exactly that. What happens during times of waiting, filled with suspense or hesitation? When things have not yet sprouted, or grown, what do we ponder about? What do we read when we read into things, which knots tighten and what gets blurry?

Following the shape of a handle in public transport, this workshop aims to get a hold of imaginative processes during periods of waiting. Via reading, writing, and knots, we tap into acts of wishing and storytelling. Moving from an individual to a collective level, we conclude with leaving behind a support ribbon, with which new plants in the garden can grow taller.

Within the greenhouse are a series of objects composed of found and repurposed material, the immediate structures often found around gardens, and handcrafted items; benches, a rug, mobile shelving, carved stone, (among others). The objects act as a gentle welcome to the space, intended as a quiet act of care. Some serve a function, others are decorative. During the programme these physical support structures furnish the space, gesturing that the site is a place to spend time, rest, read, gather; they speak of hospitality. These slow making processes mirror the subtlety of labours of care and relationship building, tending and reattending, Among them are ceramics, textiles and other objects made during public workshops, intentionally expanding the collective processes that the space seeks to initiate; growing throughout the programme.
Repair, tending to and a collective responsibility is build into the space, in the site as a community garden and in it's construction. Moten uses the term 'anoriginal repair' in which we understand and and refer to in the act of re-attention, re-attending, re-mending; the process of continued repair.

Graphic Design by Agnes Veevo