The setting of the art fair is a unique component of the event. The 10,000 square feet of ornamental plantings that comprise the gardens are a work of art themselves. They won one of Mayor Daley’s top landscape design awards, and Doug Wood won Gardener of the Year in 2005. Wood continues to maintain the space with the help of volunteers in the Wicker Park Garden Club and in partnership with the Chicago Park District’s Community Gardens in the Parks program.

The gardens feature sustainable and native plants and shrubs designed to provide four-season interest to visitors and an environment rich for birds, beneficial insects, and pollinators. Sections of the gardens are named after people who have given significant support to their development: Allen Blaurock, Edith Konieczko, Petrina Patti, Marion Smith, Peggy Thoma, Richard Tilley, William Westfall, Casey Wisemont, and Joe Vallee. Doug Wood maintains an Instagram account showing the beauty and diversity of the gardens, @Wicker_Garden.

The Garden as Gallery 
During the Wicker Park Fine Art Fair select artwork will be installed among the gardens to highlight relationships and inspiration between art and nature. Wood imagined this garden gallery concept during the Around the Coyote Arts Festival in 2005. Artists participating in the fair who are interested in working with Wood in this new iteration of the collaboration may contact him directly at doug.woodchi@gmail.com.

Summer Art Classes 
The Garden as Inspiration art education program that Mariottini and Wood established in 2020 continues. If you’d like to learn more email wickerparkfineartfair@gmail.com and see past classes here.