Picture yourself as a master gardener in the arts and entertainment flower mart. Imagine a place where you can go to do what you do so well – even better.

Our friends at the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council this week provided a five-minute realization of this imagery. It comes in a delightful, insightful video by David Seals and Monica Meinert of the Council’s Loud and Clear Productions.



It’s the story of a community database – a greenhouse –where a participating gardener has the ability to:

Know the households that populate one’s own garden of arts offerings as well as those of other cultural endeavors in the neighborhood.

Then grow one’s own garden by voluntarily swapping seeds other community gardeners who are willing to share.

We’ve seen and studied the blooms. Cross-pollinated seeds grow into multi-organization patrons that spring up in gardens--neighboring arts and culture organizations--all across America in 19 community database networks. It’s more than a sweet image. It’s life-sustaining patronage for arts and culture. We highly recommend you take a little time to smell this rose. Bravo to the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council.