The Garden of Eden is a story of paradise familiar to a variety of religions and cultures. Eden is the perfect habitat for humans, animals and plants, a place where absolute serenity and lush fertility are the undisputed norm. In the gardens surrounding our homes, we are forever trying to re-create Eden with plants and decorations.

Folk art is one medium we have used in our quest to shape This Other Eden. Folk art is the effort of ordinary, untrained people to express their artistic impulses in a myriad of creative ways, using common, often recycled, materials.

Outdoor folk art is not pure gallery art. On the contrary, it is art produced expressly to stand in the elements. For this reason, it is presented in this exhibition in its intended open-air context.

Hooked Rug Maker unknown Saint-Hilarion, Charlevoix County, Quebec Ca. 1930 CCFCS A-421 Collected by Marius Barbeau   This splendid hooked rug includes all the elements of This Other Eden - that is, all the subjects common to outdoor folk art: animals and birds, children at play in a village garden, a duck pond, hunters and even the suggestion of a steeple weather-vane on the village church.