Operating in the North Foyer (1st & 2nd Floor)
The Hyde Park Art Center and Cream Co. (Chicago) welcome your participation in General Economy, Exquisite Exchange (GEEE, 2011). GEEE introduces a post-retail museum shop and rooftop tomato garden at the Art Center where neighborly value has become the operative currency and creative bartering has become the dominant mode of exchange. GEEE brings to life a local culture sustained by the give and take of neighborly ritual, by the surplus of seasonal gardens and local kitchens, and by the exploration of post-retail systems of value.
GEEE provides a site for the exchange of homespun, indoor and outdoor gardening materials (seeds, trellises, houseplants, &c.); immaterial support (dialogue, advice, recipes); inanimate pleasures (collectibles, homemade favorites, books). Knowledge might be exchanged for seedlings, and seeds for a good story, zinnias might be exchanged for tomatoes, and a glazed pot for some cucumbers or for a rusty but still worthy trowel. Bring plants, home-made gifts, re-giftables, gardening books and cookbooks, recipes, or any other thing you'd be willing to surrender to, or share with, a neighbor. Enjoy an evolving array of plants and neighborly gifts including, during April, seeds, seedlings, houseplants, herbs, Amish Friendship Bread starter and homemade tomato soup, and, during May and June, shrubs, perennials, annuals and herbs. In August and September, weather-permitting, pick your own black cherry tomatoes.
Everything will be available for sale at cost, or for exchange (like-for-like or by GEEE-change). Our costs are our costs (yours and ours); free to us is free to us: anything GEEE receives for free you can receive for free (including seeds from the GEEE Seed Library and seeds donated by Seeds of Change through the Sowing Millions Project).
Discover how local abundance can support a general economy.
GEEE operates on an honor system and exchanges can be made whenever the Art Center is open. If you'd like to have a person-to-person exchange, a GEEE member is available by appointment.
If you have questions or plants to swap or donate please contact info@creamco.net. An informative blog exists on past and current G.E.E.E. projects.
Special thanks to The Rebuilding Exchange and Seeds of Change.
