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2022 saw the serious expansion of 24 Carrot Gardens across nipaluna (Hobart), in the north of the State and for the first time, in high schools. Together with our school communities, support from the Department of Education and our landscape design partners Inspiring Place and the University of Tasmania, our development team commenced a total of nine new transformation projects across lutruwita (Tasmania).

Through listening to local knowledge and encouraging the creativity of students, educators, families and the school community, we collaborate to envisage how under-used spaces can be transformed into beautiful and productive living landscapes. Environments that bring beauty and offer a valuable contribution to the education curriculum through learning that occurs by growing, harvesting and cooking fresh produce. 

Each site responds to place and people and is as unique as the community who has imagined and developed it. Together we design, problem solve, dream, construct, plant and through conversations of care, communities connect and take ownership  of these future ecologies. 

With more sites to transform in 2023, we are energised and inspired by the number of schools and communities now reaching out to us and expressing their interest in being part of a vibrant food culture and establishing gardens filled with delicious produce. We continue our fundraising efforts to support and enable the establishment of more school gardens. 

More gardens in more schools and communities means more access to delicious produce. More gardens make stronger community connections, generate better health outcomes and develop moments of collaboration and celebration. We believe communities with vibrant food cultures have strong futures. 

We’re looking forward to planting more seeds of radical renewal and growing a vibrant food culture across in lutruwita in 2023!

A huge thank you to our generous and growing network of funders, volunteers, collaborators and the nine schools who joined us in 2022:

University of Tasmania (School of Architecture and Design)

2022 saw the serious expansion of 24 Carrot Gardens across nipaluna (Hobart), in the north of the State and for the first time, in high schools.

From asphalt to wonderground: sowing seeds of radical renewal across lutruwita.

24 Carrot Gardens is the core education program of the Material Institute Tasmania. And we are proud to announce (trumpets…!), that through the efforts of our hard-working Board and team, the Material Institute is now officially a charity and charitable organisation!

We’re here for a very good cause - to raise a gazillion dollars for the 24 Carrot Gardens program so we can bring school gardens, nutrition and education through artful experiences to regenerate communities across Tasmania. 

We’re excited about our new charitable status because it grows our potential to deliver even more programs, and with them, greater opportunity to more Tasmanian communities.  

Since establishing Material Institute in 2021, we have:

 - established 5 new primary school programs in the north of the state and 4 new high school programs in the south

 - secured over 2.3M in funding through philanthropy, grants, government support and curated events

 - delivered over 100 in-school kitchen and garden classes to an audience of over 1500 students 

 - hosted over 750 students in 2022 alone, at our base camp, Botanical Institute, in the heart of Bridgewater for hands-on learning experiences in gardening, cooking and the creative arts

We acknowledge the generosity and contribution of our past and current patrons, associates, friends and every community donor, partner and sponsor who has dug deep and galvanised our impact through their passion for our purpose. 

Every gift no matter how big or small makes a positive difference. Your generosity can buy garden tools and equipment, mulch and pots, clay, cooking and art supplies or seed new gardens in schools and communities across Tasmania.

In 2023, we’re excited to be launching new ways you can get involved and support 24 Carrot Gardens so stay tuned! Or you’re always welcome to drop off a fruit tree (or a bag of cash) to Botanical Institute or our spiritual home, Mona.

We tailor our sponsorships and partnerships so feel free to drop us a line.  We’d love to hear from you, take you on a tour of one of our gardens or host you at an upcoming events. 

Or if you prefer, make a donation here. All donations over $2 are tax deductible. 

As we embark on our first year as a charity, we would like to take this moment to extend our immense gratitude to:

- the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens and Colony47 for auspicing the 24 Carrot Gardens program since 2013

- the inaugural 24 Carrot Gardens program steering group  - Renate Hughes, Angela Miezitis, Niall Doran and Robert Sveen

- Material Institute Board members Kirsha Kaechele, Patrick Kelly, Nic Whyte, John Balazs and Kelly-Anne Williams.  

The Material Institute Tasmania is now officially a charity and charitable organisation!

 This November we’re celebrating the sixth annual Carrot Carnival! A community and cultural event that brings together the schools and communities that the 24 Carrot Gardens program connects with for a day filled with art, food and music. 

This year, artist Selena de Carvalho joins us to curate the festivities. We caught up with Selena to learn more about the plans for the day, her arts practice and her approach to radical acts of care and inspiring future climate custodians.   

Hi Selena! Thanks for joining us today. We’re thrilled to be collaborating with you on the sixth annual Carrot Carnival. Art is a vital aspect of all our programs at 24 Carrot Gardens. Can you share a little bit about yourself and your arts practice?

My practice is interdisciplinary and takes on many forms including installation, performance and sound works. It is situated in imagined ecologies and I spend a lot of time in the natural environment. Places such as fields, forests and rivers and especially those that are vulnerable. I translate the experience of being with these vulnerable places into art experiences extending the act of empathy and listening. 

What is the connection between your arts practice and the Carrot Carnival?

The work of 24 Carrot Gardens is very much aligned with my ethos. An ongoing question is ‘how do you break through social circumstances and open them up to new possibilities?’. Art, humour, food and beauty can all do that. 

My art is usually experienced by a few people at a time so the challenge here was to think about an artful experience for 1,300 people and mostly 8 to 12 year olds! 

Another consideration has been ‘how do we open up a conversation about climate change for this age group?'.  And how do we encourage curiosity and dreaming into a future space that can either be presented with false hope and positivity or as defeatist and fatalistic? 

The answer in a way is to come back to basics and this is also what the 24 Carrot Gardens program does so well. It’s radically simple. Put your hands in the soil, watch the cycles of nature, recognise where food comes from. This all brings joy and a sense of connection and belonging. 

What is your hope for Carnival goers and their experience this year?

I hope they make phenomenal memories. Maybe new knowledge will be gained. We have a panel of experts lined up to answer questions related to climate change. And maybe we will be entertained. We have programmed some great performance ensembles and artists including a ‘Weather MC’—essentially a cloud providing an update on weather patterns!

We hope people will bring their curiosity and be ready to have some fun. 

Thanks so much for your time Selena! We look forward to seeing you at the Carnival. Where else can we find you?

This summer I’ll be with the ocean and the bespoke mobile Elsewhere Sauna. You can find me on Sundays at Randalls Bay Beach. Come for a swim, a sauna and repeat. The sauna really encourages people to care for themselves and I’m really just there to open the door. It’s another way I can care for and restore nature—in this case of the human kind!

Selena de Carvalho is an interdisciplinary experimental artist living in Longley, lutruwita, Tasmania and this year’s Carrot Carnival curator. 

24 Carrot Gardens is a program of the Material Institute. 

What do carrots and radical acts of care have in common?

Our expansion into the north of lutruwita / Tasmania has signalled a great leap towards our big ambitions. 

It's very exciting to be starting our first ever development in the northern regions, as we break ground at East Tamar Primary School. 

Our development manager Reuben Parker-Greer is at the helm, with garden design assistance from UTAS architecture students. Our northern project manager Joanne Dean is also on the tools making it all happen. 

Before breaking ground, we had design consultations with students, teachers and community to make sure the designs created by UTAS really take on board the wishes and dreams of all involved.

Breaking Ground at East Tamar Primary School

Jordan River Learning Federation's Senior School is the first high school we've started working in for the expansion of our program. 

With tireless work from our development manager Reuben Parker-Greer, we spectacularly cut up chunks of asphalt in the heart of the school to create our beautiful kitchen garden—designed by the generous Inspiring Place Studio.

It has now reached stage one, with garden bed infrastructure in, seedlings in, seating in, and a bit more to come!  

Their garden has reached its first stage of development, with garden beds and seedlings in!

Jordan River Learning Federation Senior School reaches stage one

Well—that was a blast. After winning community event of the year last year, our Winterfest came back with a bang for 2022: an amazing line-up of indigenous musicians and entertainers, face painting, fire twirling, Deadly Choice's famous smoothie bike, spray painting, ceramic workshops and a massive hangi that fed everyone with delicious earth-cooked meat and vegetables. We had an incredible time, and the hundreds of folks who joined us seemed equally excited.

A huge thanks to the TAC and the kutalayna Collective for their amazing support—we can't wait for next year!    

After winning community event of the year last year, our Winterfest came back with a bang for 2022.

Over a hundred plucky ladies (and a few gents) made the chilly jump for 24 Carrot Gardens on 2 July, giving us a record-breaking haul of funds raised.

  The annual tradition of an icy ocean plunge for charity continued this year—spearheaded by our fearless leader Kirsha—and was an even bigger success than last year, raising over $215,000 (a huge jump on the $120,000 we raised last year) to support our program’s growth and expansion in the north of Tassie.

Over a hundred plucky ladies (and a few gents) made the chilly jump for charity on 2 July, giving us a record-breaking haul of funds raised. 

The cooking, YouTubing, and all-round general legend Nat from Nat’s What I Reckon stopped by the Botanical Institute (our headquarters in Bridgewater) recently, to check out the community space and meet 24 Carrot catering students from Montrose High School.

Nat told us about some of his personal experiences at school, and his journey to finding stable employment. He talked about how he found comfort in ‘real’ food and what that has meant in his journey. Follow our social channels for more!

The cooking, YouTubing, and all-round general legend Nat from Nat’s What I Reckon stopped by the Botanical Institute (our headquarters in Bridgewater) recently.

Nat’s What I Reckon visits Botanical Institute

Our Bond Place community space is currently transforming (metamorphosing, cocooning, etc) to grow—yes, actually grow—a permanent new classroom structure (there will be built elements to the structure itself, but plant growth will be an integral part of the building), which will allow us to host more activations and workshops, as well as expanding our programming to three days per week.

The build will be complete in October 2022 in partnership with Brighton City Council and Centacare Evolve for the 'Gagebrook Renewal Project', supported by a $140k grant through the Building Better Regions Fund.

Our Bond Place community space is currently transforming to grow—yes, actually grow—a permanent new classroom structure.

Since the start of 2022, five new primary schools in the north and north west of lutruwita / Tasmania have joined our program, along with two high schools. We’ve also recruited our first northern program manager—the excellent Joanne Dean—to oversee and spearhead the 24 Carrot revolution up north.

As the first step in their journey, the new schools are getting busy (with some help from our friends at UTAS) planning their gardens so everything’s ready to rock once we hit the planting season. 

Since the start of 2022, five new primary schools in the north and north west of lutruwita / Tasmania have joined our program, along with two high schools. 

Here's some stuff we've been up to lately.

Stories

From asphalt to wonderground: sowing seeds of radical renewal across lutruwita.

Let’s Celebrate!

What do carrots and radical acts of care have in common?