Announcing the KINection Garden at Rio Fernando Park

Taos Land Trust is launching the KINection Garden, a new children’s garden at Rio Fernando Park that will connect young people with land, food, and creative learning. Thank you to the National Endowment for the Arts (with help from Taos Center for the Arts) and the U.S. Bank Foundation for year 1 support of this project and for getting us the funds to finally get it off the ground. We are deeply grateful for their support.

TCA Community Arts Fellowship: Carol Padberg

The KINection Garden is part of TCA’s Community Arts Fellowship, which supports artists whose work is rooted in community and place. The 2026 Community Arts Fellowship Program supports emerging and established artists in northern New Mexico, with a focus on projects that engage Taos communities. The Taos Land Trust and the Harwood Museum of Art have joined TCA to administer the program and support three artistic projects in our community, one of which is the KINection Garden.

Carol Padberg will create the KINection Garden at Taos Land Trust, a collaborative garden space where children and families can participate in workshops, plantings, and creative activities. Padberg is an interdisciplinary artist whose work brings together craft, agriculture, and community. As an artist, farmer, writer, and researcher, her initiatives explore resiliency through poetic intervention and pragmatic engagement.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to create the KINection Garden at the Taos Land Trust. There are two integrated parts to this project: a natural play area for children and a dye and fiber garden. The play space will give all of our kids new opportunities to learn and play in nature. Studies show how time in the natural world improves mental health, intellectual development and physical fitness. Yet it can be hard to find ways to get kids interested in playing outside in our world of screens. The KINection garden will provide creative natural play environments for children, and a relaxing setting for their caregivers,” says Padberg.

A Rainbow of Playspaces

In addition to the play spaces, the KINection Garden will offer a rainbow of vivid colors for artists who dye textiles and make natural inks and paints, and a selection of fibers for basket and cordage makers. The project asks, in Padberg’s words, “What if art supplies were kin, not commodity?” and reminds us that we are all a part of the web of life and that the ecosystem provides incredible abundance when we take time to be in a healthy relationship with it.

Stay tuned for upcoming opportunities for families, educators, and community members to get involved in the KINection Garden, including a community work party on July 18th from 9 -11:30am. The workshop “Designing with Nature” will introduce permaculture design principles grounded in traditional ecological knowledge, show how they shaped the KINection Garden, and invite participants after a refreshing iced tea break to help create the garden by making willow edging and building a woven fence.

Support the KINection Garden

The KINection Garden is still in its infancy—a small but powerful space—and more funding is needed to truly grow it into the vision we share with our community. While the garden footprint is modest, we see big possibilities for expanding playful, nature-based experiences over time.

If we can raise an additional $10,000, we can build more natural playscapes that incorporate gross motor skill development and nature‑inspired whimsy. And if, together with our community, we are able to raise $100,000, we can fund our ultimate dream: a treehouse. Playscapes are expensive because they require long‑lasting, durable materials that are safe for children and the environment, artist design and project labor, and careful engineering to ensure the stability and health of the trees that support them.

Here’s how your gift can help the garden grow:

• A gift of $25 helps us add new natural play features and plant more dye and fiber crops.
• A gift of $100 supports the creation of additional playscapes that build kids’ gross motor skills and invite nature‑inspired whimsy.
• A gift of $250 helps us purchase the long‑lasting, durable materials that are safe for children and the environment, bringing us one step closer to the treehouse we envision.

Every donation counts. Please help us nurture the KINection Garden so children, families, and artists can continue to grow, play, and create together.

HELP US GROW!