Flower Beds
I see you.
A field of mirrored flowers that turn to reflect you back at you.
A Touring Interactive Art Installation
Built in Asheville, NC
The Community
Garden
What you water thrives
A touchable environment about systems that govern our lives.
What is it?
The Community Garden playfully represents the systems that empower (or disempower) our communities.
We do this with interactive art that's 90% fun with an opportunity to engage more deeply. At the center of the exhibit is a house, representing the individuals and families that make up a community. Surrounding it are whimsical interpretations of some of the major things affecting our lives: health care, the media, finance, utilities, politics, transportation...all represented as the living garden of our communities.
A garden that needs regular care and tending in order to thrive.
The Four Elements
Tree House
What is this?
It takes a village to raise a house. This one is made of many people's sense of community.
Playing
the Pipes
Musical plumbing.
A tangle of valves and switches that lets you steer a living music system.
Funding
CAPTCHA
Prove your
humanity
Make shapes with your body to prove you're human, until your efforts are futile.
Where it's been
The Community Garden made its debut at Connect Beyond Festival, May 29–31, 2026. Its first three days of being walked through, watched, and played.
Then a residency at Lamplight AVL in West Asheville, September 6–October 2, 2026, which included:
- Live music with Shana Tucker
- A game design workshop
- A diorama building day
- Youth Envision Asheville programming
- An Asheville Music Professionals event with a pedal board workshop
- An Asheville Game Developer meetup with play tests of new games
- The Make Noise 0-Coast 10-year anniversary celebration
- A Sylvan Esso album release party
- The East West Asheville Art Walk
In the news: “Free interactive art exhibition opens in Asheville”, WLOS, September 7, 2026
Ready to travel anywhere within a day's drive of Asheville. But don't let distance discourage you.
Book the Garden
Bringing it to a festival, venue, or gathering? The Community Garden travels. Tell us about your event or space and we'll take it from there.
booking@impracticalinstruments.com