Yarrow Collective invites communities into acts of public gardening by creating free participatory art installations that:
challenge colonial gardening and artistic practices, and raise awareness of Indigenous pollinator plants and wild bees,
weave together multidisciplinary artistic practices in an ongoing relationship with the life cycles of plants and pollinators,
playfully provoke urban humans to explore our shared role in stewarding ecosystems, address the climate crisis, and imagine the joyful possibilities of what a garden can be.
By moving gardening from 'expert' labour to a shared creative journey, we envision the transformative potential of weaving together our multidisciplinary artistic practices in an ongoing relationship with the life cycles of plants and pollinators.
OUR PROJECTS 2023
- Garden of Stories
- Voices in Nature, Pacific Opera Victoria
- Play Streets, Pollinator Love
- Garden of Stories, Mayne Island Farmer's Market
2022
- Pop Up Pollinator @ City of Victoria's Tree Appreciation Day
- Play Streets, The Backyard Project
- FringeKids Fest, Intrepid Theatre
- Family Sunday, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
- Voices in Nature, Pacific Opera Victoria
- Dramaturgies of Participation Summit, Queens University, Online
- Greenhouse, Artist Brigade, The Only Animal
2021
- Pop Up Pollinator @ Fall Fairfield, Gonzales Community Association
- POLLINATORS, SKAMpede Performance Festival
- Pop Up Pollinator @ FernFest, Fernwood NRG
OUR TEAM
Yarrow Collective is co-led by Victoria-based artists Sammie Gough and Laurel Green in collaboration with an extended community of artists, backyard gardeners, community activators, and a certified bee steward. We frequently partner with, and develop custom projects for, arts companies, neighbourhood events, and community organizations.
Sammie Gough (she/her) is an artist, theatre producer and backyard gardener of Irish, English and Welsh ancestry. She is interested in how creative work can build connections and community across plant, animal and human worlds. Her work with Yarrow Collective has been presented by Pacific Opera Victoria, Theatre SKAM, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the City of Victoria and more. Sammie is a member of The Only Animal's Artist Brigade, MeadowMakers, and spent seven years as Producer at Intrepid Theatre, creators of OUTstages, UNO Fest and the Victoria Fringe Festival.
Laurel Green (she/her) is a dramaturg, creative producer, and community activator. She designs invitations to participate and provocations for change; from world premiere productions, to immersive installations, community activations, gameful experiences, digital projects, and secret backyard shows. . Recent projects include the video game asses.masses (The Theatre Centre, NAC’s National Creation Fund), , change-App/algorithm Remixed (Trophy), and world premiere play WROL: Without Rule of Law (Persephone Theatre). Laurel was the former Festival Producer for the High Performance Rodeo, Calgary’s International Festival of the Arts and spent eight seasons on the artistic team at Alberta Theatre Projects leading the development of new performance work.
Sophie Fuldauer (she/her) is an artist living and working in Victoria, BC. She is a painter and illustrator who also works in theatre as a multi-disciplinary maker of creature puppets, shadow puppets, masks, art installations, theatre sets, props and costume design. She has worked for various people and groups including Story Theatre and Theatre Inconnu in Victoria. She’s an alumni of Dawson City’s School of Visual art and has taken courses with various art schools across Western Canada which have led her in many artistic directions including illustration for print, digital media and children’s books, painting, mixed-media sculpture, design work and several musical instruments.
Myriam Parent (she/them) is a musician, certified bee steward, and artist from Quebec who lives with a disability. They have released three albums including Withbloom (2019), funded by Canada Council for the Arts. They are part of the Banff Centre for the Arts’ music residency program (2023) and the Only Animal’s Artist Brigade. Myriam is the owner of Withbloom Pollinator Gardens, a business that specializes in education, consultations, and landscaping for indigenous plant and bee habitat on Lekwungen Territory. Their work was recognized with the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign’s Pollinator Advocate Award in 2022.