Podcast #64 – Planting Temporary Parks with Amanda Lovelee

amanda loveleeThe podcast this week is a conversation with Amanda Lovelee, a public artist and urban designer who is currently working as an artists-in-residence for the City of Saint Paul. Amanda has a fascinating resumé of public art projects that promote engagement and use urban space in a variety of interesting ways. Her latest project is a temporary two-year park installation in downtown Saint Paul in a vacant lot that once housed a luggage store. We sat down on a circle of paving stones in the middle of what will be the new park, called Flower Field.

Volunteers and workers were literally moving the dirt around and working on flower beds as we talked, so forgive the ambient noise. But Amanda and I had great conversation about her public art career, the role of art in public space, the potential of downtown Saint Paul, and what it’s like for an artist to work in a city public works department.

The link to the audio is here.

 

stp-lovelee-flower-park

Flower Field under construction.

Bill Lindeke

About Bill Lindeke

Pronouns: he/him

Bill Lindeke has writing blogging about sidewalks and cities since 2005, ever since he read Jane Jacobs. He is a lecturer in Urban Studies at the University of Minnesota Geography Department, the Cityscape columnist at Minnpost, and has written multiple books on local urban history. He was born in Minneapolis, but has spent most of his time in St Paul. Check out Twitter @BillLindeke or on Facebook.