ArtsXchange marks year of growth in sustainability efforts with 2026 Earth Day Celebration

One year in, and the work is taking root at ArtsXchange. The cultural community center is deepening its commitment to environmental justice and community-led sustainability with the return of its Earth Day Celebration, from 1-5 p.m. April 18. The event is free and open to all at 2148 Newnan St. in East Point.

This spring marks a milestone of one year since the launch of the organization’s front-yard permaculture project, designed by Shades of Green Permaculture, and one year since the work reached a national stage on The Kelly Clarkson Show. What began as a reimagining of land use has grown into a living model for urban agriculture, education, and collective care. At the center is Fresh Oasis Community Gardens, an expanding initiative offering access to land in a food desert. Community members can purchase garden plots and build practical skills around cultivation, self-sufficiency, and food justice.

The 2026 Earth Day Celebration brings it all into full view. The free, family-friendly event invites the public to engage sustainability as a daily practice. The event includes:

• Film screenings presented in collaboration with Forward Together East Point, centering local, people-led environmental advocacy and policy change

• Workshops on rainwater collection, gardening, and land stewardship

• Resource tables from community organizations including Pangea Garden Collective, Canopy Atlanta, Chattahoochee Brick Company Descendants Coalition, SouthSide Environmental Justice Alliance Corporation, Market 166, West Atlanta Watershed Alliance and more

• Art classes led by ArtsXchange studio artists

• Champion Youth Entrepreneurs for Agriculture farm-to-table food
  

Visitors can also view Toxic Beauty: Hidden Harm Beneath the Surface, ArtsXchange’s annual environmental-themed juried exhibition in the Jack Sinclair Gallery. Featuring work by 13 artists, the show interrogates the hidden costs of what society calls “beautiful,” from chemicals in cosmetics to social media pressures, to the environmental toll of industries built on convenience and consumption. It asks a direct question: What are we willing to harm in order to appear whole?

The ArtsXchange continues to fill critical gaps in access through creative programming, environmental education, and pathways to grow and sustain one’s own food, positioning ArtsXchange as a site where art, land, and liberation meet.