Soft, grand opening of Artlands REACH community garden in Sylvan Park

The new REACH community garden in Sylvan Park hosted a soft and grand opening, beginning Thursday, March 26, with a soft opening event and cascarones workshop led by the March artist-in-residence, Loriann Hernandez, who goes by Elle Seven. At the grand opening Sunday, March 29, Seven hosted skate lessons.

The project is organized by Artlands in Redlands in partnership with the University of Redlands and the city of Redlands. Examples of native plants and ways to use raised planters for growing vegetables are part of the demonstration at the community garden.

Making cascarones is a tradition that dates back 200 years to 1826, Seven explained. “You crack the egg on somebody you want good luck to happen to,” she said. Cascarones are used for celebrations or fiestas, not just for Easter.

“Traditionally they put confetti in [the eggs], but we are going to put flower petals,” she said at the Thursday workshop. Birdseed and flower seeds were also added before participants painted the eggs and sealed the holes with tissue paper. Changing the contents from confetti to biodegradable, environmentally beneficial materials tied into the messaging of the REACH community garden.

“My family has been doing this tradition in the Redlands-Riverside area since the 1800s,” Seven said. “My grandmother went to Redlands High School.” Seven is a multidisciplinary artist from Riverside with more than 18 years of experience in community engagement and has led similar workshops at schools in Ohio and California.

Angela Humberstone, one of the volunteers building the garden space, attended the workshop. “It’s really beautiful, because everything is connected,” Humberstone said. “[Making the cascarones] is like a small but beautiful piece of the grander picture that we all are a part of.”

At the grand opening, Seven taught skate lessons, something she has done around the world. “I found out that [the skate park in Sylvan Park] used to be a pool, a segregated pool,” she said. “So, to have me teaching there is kind of like the tables are turned. It’s a proud moment for my family.”

Some of Seven’s family members who lived in the area during that time attended the Sunday event. “Having this opportunity feels like a full circle,” she said. A video from the grand opening will be recorded and shown at the end of the 2026 program exhibit.

“My family, we’re Mexican and Native American,” she said. “When my great-grandmother was 6 years old, they walked all the way from Nogales, Arizona, to Anaheim. They followed the railroad. That’s actually what inspired me to commute by roller skate.”

“If they could do that, I can get off my lazy butt and skate to the bus or train, and that’s how I got so good,” she said. She has skated with Olympians and professional skateboarders at events, mostly in San Diego.

The University of Redlands provided workspace for the artist-in-residence across the street. Seven called it a focused space. “Instead of working out of your home, you can take yourself and your work more seriously,” she said. “It’s a huge relief where I can work on art and skating without having to think about how do I pay for my phone bill, etc.”

She called the Redlands campus enchanting. “This is like a little hidden paradise,” she said. “Having that opportunity has been a blessing.”

Because the residency has been next to the skate park, Seven said her purpose of sharing her skating skills has been reignited. “I helped raise money to build [the Redlands skate park],” she said.

She has also worked with Apache Skateboards to raise funds for skate parks in northern Arizona. “It’s weird to merge this intersection of art and skating,” she said, laughing. Previously, she worked on an art installation focused on the empowerment of movement, a message she shared through her Sunday skate lessons called “Legacies in Motion.”

Fourteen people signed up for the cascarones workshop, while up to 50 people attended throughout the day of the grand opening. The event also featured a live solo performance by Matt Adams of The Blank Tapes.

“The hope is that this will become more like a community gathering space, that other groups can use it, collaborate with us and utilize this space and make it an ongoing activated space,” said Daniel Gohman, executive director of Artlands. At the Sunday event, those connections were already forming. “This is the seed of doing free visual art in the park on this side of Redlands.”

At the Sunday event, Gohman said, “The feedback was very positive.”

REACH is funded through a grant from Arts in California Parks, a program of California State Parks in partnership with Parks California and the California Arts Council.

For more information on REACH, visit www.theartlands.org or email reach@theartlands.org.