Perennial City: Experiments in Urban Gardening

Perennial City connects early urban gardening experiments at Hull-House to today’s movements for environmental justice, food access, and land stewardship. Drawing on rarely seen archival materials alongside new artist commissions, the exhibition reveals how Hull-House helped immigrant and working-class communities at the turn of the twentieth century reclaim unused and industrial land to grow food, sustain cultural traditions, and build healthier urban lives. Hull-House reformers recognized gardening as more than recreation: it was a way to restore agency, resist the pressures of industrialization, and imagine a more humane city. Installed throughout Hull-House’s historic interiors, the exhibition transforms the museum. Visitors encounter historic photographs and gardener testimonies alongside contemporary artworks. Highlights include a commissioned toile wallpaper by Relativity Textiles; artworks by Carlos Flores and Olly Costello; and an installation produced by Red Line Service artists in a workshop facilitated by Melissa Hilliard Potter. Together, these works invite visitors to see the garden not simply as green space, but as a regenerative force—one that nurtures health, natural beauty, and collective flourishing across generations. Accompanied by public programs, garden visits, and an exhibition learning guide, Perennial City asks what it means to cultivate a city rooted in care and access to land.