Art Pollination in 2026; What now?

Written by Logan A Card Published to Blogger.com Intro I remember growing up in Calvert County, a tourist town off the Chesapeake Bay known more for its historic landmarks than anywhere else. A convenience store, Roland’s, a Wallgreens, a few fast food joints, a post office, a public library barely the size of three public school classrooms, a waterpark, a youth center called ‘the boys and girls club,’ and that was it. No bus system during the time period in 2003 to 2020 when I lived in the area. (so basically my whole life.) My family and I were lucky; we had wealth and, more relevantly, land to garden on. The garden was a fond memory of my formative years, having the wifi go out and checking if any of my neighbors had lost power, seeing my father put on his winter gear and go trudging near some bushes to pick as many berries as possible. These would be frozen for later consumption, i remember my siblings taking some of the fresh stock one time to make preserves with powdered sugar and a saucepan on the stove..(We had a lot of raspberry bushes growing up, mint plants, and a few staples in 5-gallon buckets, like cucumber and tomatoes) The part of art pollination where you get a free plant packed in a canvas bag with some dirt poured in it changes things for people, a place to teach the next generation where their food actually comes from, or to make the grocery bill less monstrous in the seasons to come. Kids these days are going to call it “Solar Punk”, I as the author, am going to call it being raised in an all-American household born to patriotic sports enthusiasts with military family legacies and blue-collar jobs whose love of duty and country falls short to family, faith in the gods and goddessed you could tolerate between your books and ears, and a job done right the first time. And that's why this art exhibit with free snapdragon plants is so important to me. This, of course designed to make you interested in the topic at hand, as our abiotic water guzzling entertainment is no longer supporting events that are meant to be child friendly described by our friend Google. “Pollination is the act of transferring pollen grains from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma. The goal of every living organism, including plants, is to create offspring for the next generation. One of the ways that plants can produce offspring is by making seeds. Seeds contain the genetic information to produce a new plant.”(U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2022) If you build it, they will come I arrived in Orlando, Florida, in August of twenty twenty five. This was anything but a field of dreams. My life kind of blew up the day after orientation week had finished. I submitted my first assignment at noon and was on the streets with everything I own in two suitcases by 6 pm. I lost the first room I ever rented in the first week to credit card debts I thought I could easily pay and not look at again. Full Sail University was going to be my fresh start. Then two weeks later, barely through my first group project carrying all of the precious notes that were trusted to me as a back log the recommendation to talk to Zebra Youth about housing went throught, and i was no longer sleeping on the streets and waking up at 4 or 5 am so i could catch the bus, shower, change clothes, eat breakfast, and head to class, so it's really a 50/50 split with anything that happens. Lots of chances to make up for one really bad day. I was doing laundry and procrastinating on a work assignment reply until I had to make dinner, then lunches for myself. There was this horrible loudspeaker, and this was forgiven quickly by the promise of free fruit and granola bars and a slam poetry reading in the park. (it was, however, all over the sidewalk. If this was such a grand and monumental event in the history of Central Florida of the united states during Donald Trump’s second term in office. Then why was it only mentioned through a few private codes and websites, then plastered around on sidewalks. It was, but since it was something you can't make money on just by mentioning briefly online. Writers like myself have more material to share until you finally hear us. Since you refuse to free my people Ice(US immigration or customs enforcement) or wait, no, sorry. I.C.E(2003-ongoing) is an acronym, or initials, depending on how you view it, that I, as well as most of Generation Z, have been reluctantly aware of since 2016. When I first saw the Prince of Egypt movie on Netflix. The media and what you talk about with other people will tell you that it's a very religious movie about faith in god. This Christ character was either busy being off somewhere doing something else within the length of the animated franchise, or so much of the funding went to accuracy based on the book, rather than cheap tech-generated swill you call ‘hey gemini,’ that it was a timeless childhood classic. I have lost appetite for people who can look at someone else suffer and not offer more than a fearful side step or ignorance. It's not just the way the city is. We had them in the country too you hear; camping equipment, seasonal work, shunned by everyone but the few charitable people and the pious, these weren't forgotten tax brackets, these were people. Not “houseless,” not “unhoused,” not “unsheltered,” just people; just the little people of a nation, deer lord, where was I going with this? It's the real reason you made this art festival, isn't it? So many enjoyable cultural events with a pay wall, and they told you to write for the exposure. With this project comes a level of responsibility to the environment around you. It's a pretty simple equation. You need honey and vinegar to stop fruit flies. You use plants from around your neighborhood to stretch tea and or make cheap salad and or tea off of concrete from common purple dead nettle, dandelion, clover, and mint plants. Store-bought herbs and herbs dried on your windowsill or in your oven are the same herb. The ecosystem is responsible. Get your money's worth out of your free events, get as much biodiversity out of your small urban landscape until the pigeons and feral cats are exhausted portions of the landscape. Take the names and new faces you see and try to talk to them after, create a plan for what to do if pollinators are destroying your or some one you know’s quality of life by taking account of allergens ensuring that rabies vaccines are administered or avoided all together by being careful which animals you let into your home or on your skin/ beind mindful of orafaces and open wounds, to stings from insects like bees and wasps as well as knowing which invasive species of vermin like snails, stray cats and dogs or rodents might be carrying infections fungal growths or viral infections as well as harmful arachnids and insects (ticks and roaches) that will ruin your quality of life and food. It is not enough to say you enjoyed an event you got to display or even just have the privilege of sitting back and enjoying the show. To fully experience something, it must come full circle. It's food, the thing people have been growing since we as a species allowed ourselves to sit and make art as a community. It only matters if it matters, and when it stops mattering to enough people, human decency becomes a luxury. This was an event that did not happen during people’s late-night shifts or early morning commutes. Not one homeless person was cast aside because the space needed to be used. For once, community making itself look put together was for everyone, not just those who could spare the time to make everyone and everything look presentable. Conclusion Things will change any day now. As people, the thing that kept us alive for millennia was the idea of memory. And I see kids playing in a nearby basketball park, I see plenty of homeless people who still need to sleep on the streets because it's the only place they can afford to have their needs met. People will, as they have for centuries, get into a large group with their slogans and their love for one another and protest some great evil. If honking your horn in traffic as you see protestors go by is not a disturbance of the peace, then neither is the march to city hall to remove fascism from your University town. Free food in schools so students can learn is not a new idea. Back home in the College of Southern Maryland there were plenty of food pantry boxes out. It was for context, those wooden things that stood inside the building rather than outside of it, for the people, not the pollinators. There were no gardens and no club involvements, but it wasnt like lack of networking or knowing the right people means you went hungry. A town where you did your work, pounded the pavement looking for jobs, and took what you could get. The central parks and third spaces were chosen for a reason. Location where people are anyway. Location in what is affordable to be reserved. Location is easy to travel to and easy to travel from. What I see with things like Art Pollination is things you once found in the farmers market. Not the plastic little odds and ends of small artists with plastic trinkets and artificial intelligence slough pile art and prompts, or people hoping to get you to sign up for a raffle and a free trip somewhere. Affordable goods, friendly people trying to earn their way in, people who love the aesthetic, and if your luck, a bargain on produce or plants (could never get the hang of growing strawberries, but that was more the Climate I grew up with than any real failing of the resources at my disposal) In order to enact change, you have to see it put forward. I like to think this was not a million-dollar project squandered on an idea for a cheap festival and with left-leaning/ liberal ideas, but the new status quo of political engagement. Did you make the art pollination event because you wanted to change the world? Or because you thought it was going to be your one chance for you to see it? Sources; “Art Pollination: Building Food Justice through Creativity.” Orlando.gov, 2021, www.orlando.gov/Our-Government/Departments-Offices/Venues/Public-Art/Art-Pollination-Building-Food-Justice-through-Creativity. Accessed 14 Mar. 2026. “Public Art Challenge.” Public Art Challenge, 16 Apr. 2025, publicartchallenge.bloomberg.org/. Accessed 14 Mar. 2026. U.S. Department of Agriculture. (2022, December 6). What is Pollination? US Forest Service. https://www.fs.usda.gov/managing-land/wildflowers/pollinators/what-is-pollination