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Garfield Park About Garfield Park is eight acres with four entrances; one at each corner. It was once owned by the Hatch family. In 1925 Garfield Park was a willow swamp and remained that way until the Riverside Chamber of Commerce purchased it at auction for back taxes in 1931. In 1932 the city began working on it, and in 1938 leaders were hired to supervise children's activities, but it was the children's dog shows that attracted a lot of people. In 1949 or 1950 the Circus came to town. They left quite a mess raking the straw bedding and animal manure into piles and setting it on fire. For three days the smoke drifted into homes with the west wind. Garfield Park has undergone numerous changes and below are the most recent park enhancements. The Grant The Riverside neighborhood was awarded City of Everett Large Grant funds ($6,941) from the Office of Neighborhoods in 2003 in order to beautify Garfield Park. The Plan In partnership with the Everett Parks Department, Riverside neighbors worked over several months to develop a long-range master plan, including redevelopment of the park. Riverside neighbors wanted to take steps to make initial improvements while waiting for the redevelopment to occur. Based on comments gathered at an annual community social, Riverside neighbors worked with Parks staff to shape the design and upgrades to the park. Neighbors chose specific initial projects to tackle: planting grass, painting benches and picnic shelters and installing a new art feature. The Large Grant funds helped cover costs for paint, grass seed and for art materials. The Project All of the picnic shelters and benches at Garfield Park were repainted a brighter color. One corner area of the park was leveled, new soil added and fresh seed planted to restore an entry to the park. Volunteers also helped prepare foundations for new benches to be installed. The Mosaic The mosaic art project was led by a local professional artist, Shannon Danks, who collaborated with school students at Garfield Elementary. Together, they developed a mosaic to be mounted on the restrooms at the park. Zaineb Alghazali, an eleven-year-old girl, designed the mosaic. The mosaic consists of two panels and reads "Everyone is Welcome in Garfield Park", with the second panel showing two people joining hands. The Tiles Everett Parks and Riverside agreed each entrance should have an independent theme, playful, historical, environmental, and sports oriented. These will help define our park layout, which has multiple uses. Our plan personalizes and brings artistic flair to the perimeter designed by the Everett Parks. The Riverside Neighborhood Association collected donations from Starbucks and other sources for art in the park. With adult supervision, students from North Middle and Garfield Elementary School designed and created metal art panels depicting playful and historical images of our neighborhood park. View the student's designs by visiting the Garfield Park Art Club Project . Artist Dan Cautrell created the metal panels using the student's images. These panels have become important components of the newly designed historical river rock entrances to Garfield Park. Art Walking Tour The art panels are located at each of the four entrances to Garfield Park. Download garfieldparktour.pdf which lists all the tiles and their descriptions. Then take a stroll and enjoy Garfield's art in the park. For the kids: give each child their own list of the tiles. Give them a pencil and have them cross off the title of the tile as they locate it and see who can locate all of the tiles the quickest. Articles:
Community in action for art.pdf
For inquiries please contact our Park Liaison Katrina at katrinal@frontier.com |