🚨Postponed🚨Rodeo Resilience Assembly
​This Karkin Art Grant Citizen Assembly is designed to transform a $2,000 grant (gratitude to Blue Heart) into a permanent community asset. By shifting from "buying" to "making," we ensure that the majority of the funding stays in the hands of the artists and community laborers rather than leaving the bioregion for retail supplies.
​Event Overview: The Rodeo Resilience Assembly
​Date: Monday, February 16, 2026
​Location: Laurel Court Community Garden & Farm, Rodeo, CA (An emerging Karkin Ecoversity Node).
​The Mission: To collectively decide on the distribution of a $2,000 Art Grant focused on "Regenerative Aesthetics" and honoring the Karkin people: art that heals the soil, the body, and the community.
​The Interactive Agenda: Decisions in the Garden
​1. The "Skills & Hobbies" Marketplace (10:00 AM – 11:00 AM)
​Before the money is discussed, we map our assets.
​The Skill-Share Board: Neighbors list their hidden talents (e.g., "I know where the best local clay is," "I have a woodworking lathe," "I grow medicinal lavender").
​The Resource Audit: We identify what nature provides for free in Rodeo (with the guidance of artist and educator Mick Lorusso from Los Angeles/Mexico):
​Wild Clay: Foraging local creek-bed soil for pottery and natural building.
​Invasive Dyes: Turning "invasive" plants like Fennel or Eucalyptus into professional-grade textile dyes.
​Pruned Wood: Using local orchard or street-tree trimmings for sculpture and garden signage.
​2. The Art Grant Assembly (11:00 AM – 12:00 PM)
​We deliberate on the $2,000. Instead of "who gets the money," the question is: "How can this money hire the most neighbors?"
​Interactive Voting: Using a Pol.is, participants allocate the $2,000 across three categories:
​Labor & Mastery (70% Target): Paying local artists and teachers to facilitate workshops.
​Regenerative Materials (20% Target): Buying local tools or seeds (rather than store-bought paint).
​Ecoversity Infrastructure (10% Target): Investing in the farm’s physical art (e.g., a cob pizza oven or hand-painted herbal signage).
​3. The "Food as Medicine" Lunch (12:00 PM – 1:00 PM)
​A preview of the Karkin Health Hub model.
​Medically Tailored Kit Demo: A workshop on assembling "Rodeo Resilience Kits" using the garden’s herbs (e.g., eucalyptus for respiratory health).
​Herbal Consultation: Local healers offer "education spaces" exploring how the farm can become a source for preventative, place-based medicine.
​How the $2,000 Grant Scales
​By choosing Ecologically Wise Materials, the budget stretches twice as far:
​Traditional Art Spend
​Karkin Regenerative Spend
​The Result
​$800 on high-end acrylic paints/brushes.
​$100 on local mineral pigments and foraged dyes.
​$700 saved and redirected to hire a local muralist.
​$500 on imported store-bought clay.
​$50 for a "Clay Foraging" workshop at the creek.
​$450 saved to pay a local potter to teach seniors.
​$300 on plastic signage.
​$0 using salvaged wood and pyrography (wood burning).
​$300 saved to buy medicinal seeds for the clinic.
​The Karkin Ecoversity Blueprint
​This assembly serves as the foundational "ritual" for the Rodeo Ecoversity Node. It proves that the community is ready to steward:
​A Health Clinic: Integrated into the garden to offer horticultural therapy.
​An Innovation Lab: Where local artists design the eco-packaging for the "Food as Medicine" kits.
​A Bioregional Trust: Where the Karkin Art Grant is the first of many community-led investments.
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​This video highlights how artists can lead community initiatives to bring organic produce and healing to underserved neighborhoods, perfectly reflecting the spirit of the Karkin Art Grant Assembly.