Recognizing that the development of green spaces is often driven by a desire to foster a deeper connection with nature, care becomes a key principle in many of these practices. By providing attention, concern, and support, we engage with the land and its natural life. Caring for the land allows us to shape and nurture it while drawing attention to the place and its non-human inhabitants, demonstrating that they are worth caring for. As an artistic strategy, care involves knowledge, sensory awareness, and motivation, all aimed at shifting our perspective on what truly deserves our care. In other words, care is contagious.
This focus on care mirrors a broader societal search for meaning. In challenging times, when people struggle to find hope for regenerative ways of living with the natural world, the concept of care has resurfaced in both the arts and activist communities. It offers a way to empathically engage with our surroundings while also serving as a form of self-care — the practice of regenerating one’s own body, mind, and well-being as a foundation for action in a challenging world.
However, the intersection between personal self-care and care for others has been subject to intellectual critique. Do we cultivate gardens out of self-interest, or do we do so to help regenerate the land? Is it more important to create practices that make us feel good in nature, or is the actual thriving of nature what truly matters? In this sense, care has been accused of both being escapism from the real challenges we face and a blurring of ecological impact with personal desires, framing nature as a space for recreation, well-being, and self-healing.
For any practitioner, it is clear that these binary oppositions are more complex. Practices of care incorporate both empathetic and intellectual knowledge. Rethinking how we engage with the natural world naturally involves exploring ways to approach nature with openness and genuine care. By introducing participants to various practices of care and the intellectual critics surrounding the term, our goal is to foster a broader understanding of the need for care, its potential applications, and the pitfalls that can arise when the concept is misused.