Tender Gardens

Copied Marion Coleman, Tender Gardens, 2014, cotton fabric and batt, 72 1⁄2 × 72 1⁄8 in. (184.2 × 183.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Michael Humphreys, 2023.41

Artwork Details

Title
Tender Gardens
Artist
Date
2014
Location
Dimensions
72 1⁄2 × 72 1⁄8 in. (184.2 × 183.2 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Michael Humphreys
Mediums
Mediums Description
cotton fabric and batt
Classifications
Subjects
  • Architecture Exterior
  • Figure female — full length
  • Landscape — garden
  • Occupation — domestic — gardening
Object Number
2023.41
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2023.41

Artwork Description

Marion Coleman 
born 1946, Wichita Falls, TX
died 2019, Oakland, CA

Tender Gardens
2014
cotton fabric and cotton batting

Marion Coleman began quilting in the 1980s, drawing inspiration from her relatives who quilted in the narrative tradition. Here, she tells the story of a garden in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco. 

In 2010, the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation transformed a vacant lot to a flourishing urban farm. Tended exclusively by volunteers, the Tenderloin People’s Garden offers free produce, herbs, and plants native to the Tenderloin, a neighborhood with no full-service grocery store. 

Coleman’s fiber collage comes together with vignettes of people working and photo transfers of the garden against the backdrop of the Civic Center of San Francisco. It celebrates people returning to the soil for sustenance, nourishment, and connection. 

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Michael Humphreys, 2023.41


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