Sweet Cherry Street Beats - Midtown's Secret Garden
During Fall 2022, six LT interns were hired to serve as ambassadors for PEAK, a community-based organization. As ambassadors, they worked on the Sweet Cherry Street Beats Project in partnership with UWM School of Architecture, MIAD, and Bloom MKE to gather stories of community gardeners and brainstorm a garden revitalization project. The goal of the project was to create spaces of respite and zones of human interaction within the garden beds by expanding the garden to include community gathering spaces and artwork, engaging more neighbors into the space.
The project will have several deliverables such as garden benches that provide functional art, a decorative shade oasis to create a gathering space, revitalization of the flower garden into a welcoming space, welcome signs to recognize the space and welcome the community, and four new raised beds to enable greater self-sufficiency for elderly and physically challenged gardeners.
“We’re talking with people about the garden and what it means to them. We’ve learned a lot of these people take pride in the garden, and they’re kind people,” said LT intern Jimena Alanis.
The six LT Ambassadors conducted a visioning workshop at Cherry Court Apartments community room with the assistance of field school students from UWM who taught the PEAK interns how to conduct the workshop. With the gathered information, the PEAK Ambassadors will work on phase 2 in Spring 2023, where they will create an interactive and functional piece that will contribute to the garden and bridging the assets of Tiefenthaler Park and Cherry Street Garden. Mania Taher, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee staff, helped facilitate the project. Taher took Pathfinders to the garden each week, and said it became a thing the kids looked forward to.
“The kids used to wait for that trip,” said Taher. “It’s like the place has some magical properties.”
Cherry Street Garden is a regular destination for day campers, and the project created will enhance their experience as well as that of other community members who follow the path to this “secret garden.”
The Sweet Cherry Street Beats project is a collaborative effort that seeks to bring together members of the community to create a welcoming and engaging space that fosters human interaction and community building.
“Other youth in the community should consider PEAK because of the internship opportunities we get to help better our skills while we get to work in the community,” said LT intern Nathan Moore.
