Fritz Haeg

Los Angeles based Fritz Haeg is an artist, designer, and initiator of Edible Estates, demonstrating how people can publicly grow food where they live with a series of regional prototype gardens established throughout the country. Since Haeg helped plant the first Edible Estates homeowner garden in Salina, Kansas, in 2005, a movement has taken off, extending all the way to the White House and Michelle Obama's widely documented Kitchen Garden. Over the past five years, Haeg's gardens have gained worldwide attention, and have been featured everywhere from The Martha Stewart Show to the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Many people credit Haeg with bringing the issue of sustainable home gardening to a new generation of foodie and landscape sustainability activists.

Endorsed by Alice Waters, Eric Schlosser, Bill McKibben and Elizabeth Kolbert, the first edition of Haeg's influential book, Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, came out in 2006, and sold out in about 8 months, necessitating a new edition, which we will celebrate at the Greene Space on April 8. In addition to new gardens and an updated text by the author, the second edition of Edible Estates includes the first published manifesto by Will Allen, the MacArthur Genius Grant winning founder of Growing Power, and an essay by Eric W. Sanderson, author of Manahatta.
 
In addition to his work on Edible Estates, Haeg maintains an occasional building and design practice, Fritz Haeg Studio. He is well known for hosting the happenings and gatherings of Sundown Salon, Los Angeles; the ecology initiatives of Gardenlab; and his role as an educator. His ongoing Animal Estates initiative proposes the strategic reintroduction of native animals into our cities with a series of regional events, publications, exhibitions, and design proposals. It debuted at the 2008 Whitney Biennial, with later editions produced in six cities across the U.S. and Europe. In 2006 Haeg initiated Sundown Schoolhouse, an alternative educational environment based in his geodesic dome in Los Angeles. He has taught in architecture, design, and fine art programs around the world, including CalArts, Art Center College of Design, Parsons, and the University of Southern California. He has produced projects and exhibited work at the Tate Modern; the Whitney Museum of American Art; Mass MoCA; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts; the Netherlands Architecture Institute, Maastricht; SFMOMA; and the MAK Center, Los Angeles, among other organizations. An exhibition of his work, related to Edible Estates, will be on view at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Connecticut from June 27 – January 2, 2011. Haeg and his Edible Estates project have been nominated for the National Design Museum's 2010 National Design Award. More information can be found at: www.fritzhaeg.com.