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Tucked in an abandoned North Philly lot lies a not-so-secret oasis, filled with trees, plants, recycled art and a working kitchen. Recycled benches, tables, bikes and planters sit among mosaics, windchimes, sculptures and endless knickknacks.
“I wanted to create a community gathering space, but I wanted it to be something very different than just a community garden,” said artist Pedro Ospina, founder of the Open Kitchen Sculpture Garden. “The project itself is based on people — not an organization, not something set up, something more grassroots.”
Ospina’s garden is a space where community members can cook, participate in wood workshops, create art and more. It’s been going strong for over a decade.
“The reason it’s called the Open Kitchen Sculpture Garden is because food is a big part of the project,” he said. “Everything we do has to do with food, because it’s based on something essential.”
Walking inside is like walking into a wonderland that could exist in remote Pennsylvania, and not on a West Kensington street.
“I have an off-grid solar-powered woodshop,” Ospina said. “I have all these different things that are for me very important as an example of sustainability.”
The DIY, handmade vibe would not be out of place at Burning Man. In fact, one of the outdoor grills was actually an art piece a friend of Ospina brought back from Burning Man. Some of the recycled artwork is purely decorative, while others have a practical use.
“They’re dumpsters,” Ospina said, pointing to giant sculptures in the garden. “The idea was like, how to be creative doing this process.”
Ospina was born in Colombia, raised in New York and eventually settled in Philadelphia in 2008. He has always had a love for creating spaces.
“My father was a construction worker,” he said. “I’ve been working ever since I was five years old, and basically I just do construction, but I do it artistically.”
The Open Kitchen Sculpture Garden is multi-purpose. Ospina hosts potlucks in the garden every other Wednesday. He’s helped put on concerts. All of the events are pay what you can.
While the garden does not have any formal employees, many community members come through, volunteer and add to the space.
“I’ve met a lot of people who come by and say, ‘Oh, my partner is a construction worker. You need materials. I got materials.’ Somebody will come over here and say, ‘Oh, I got a band. Can we do this?’”
‘Art should be practical’
The Open Kitchen Sculpture Garden Space was originally seven empty lots that Ospina decided to clean up.
“It’s years of investment,” said Ben Miller, executive director and founder of the Reinhard Street Community Farm and Kitchen. “(Community gardens) are all unique to the neighborhood that they’re in, to the ideas of the people who have been in those spaces, to the way that people naturally flow through the spaces.”
Miller has crossed paths with Ospina through the years. Most recently, he helped cater an event Ospina worked on called Rewilding Philadelphia, a project put on by ArtPhilly to bring a microforest to Kensington.
Miller stressed the importance of spaces like Ospina’s.
“The food brings people together, so it’s a way to serve some people’s everyday needs and share culture and enjoy things together,” he said. “When we can sit down together, we can have conversations. We can build revolutions.”
Ospina said that like the plants in his garden, the space is always changing, evolving and growing.
“It’s a living piece of artwork, which is different than a museum, different than a gallery,” he said.
“Art should be practical. Art should help you live. It should be integrated into your life.”
“This is an experiment,” he added. “We’re just making it up, you know, and that’s the exciting part. It can turn into anything.”
