Harvest Studio (2017-2025) is now closed.

For current updates about all the activities at our State Heritage site see @ glory_mclarenvale on Instagram and Glory McLaren Vale on Facebook.

Hope Lovelock Deane, Custodian & Curator
The Botanical Cemetery & The Culture Garden, plus Glory (museum of love) artist in residence

(Photo credit: Jonathon VDK)

Hope Lovelock Deane (MAVA) has an over 30 year background in contemporary visual art, public art & placemaking, & enjoys working collaboratively & holistically across disciplines towards the greater good. Hope’s work has focused on reconnecting people with the wonders of the natural world, for over 30 years. 

Hope was the Founder & Creative Director of Harvest Studio (2017-2025), a botanical studio specialising in creating immersive experiences by transforming spaces with locally farmed & foraged materials. Their work was all about connection; between people, place & the natural landscape around us. 

Housed in the first church in McLaren Vale (1843-44), The Pioneer Chapel, an artist in residency project is now in its research phase…which will result in an interactive public artwork, a Museum of love, that collects people’s experiences of love for the (McLaren) Vale (& the landscapes that shape it), over time. It will eventually be open to the public and collect people’s experiences, building up a visual memory store or archive of love for this area.

The State Heritage site includes The Botanical Cemetery (active) & The Culture Garden (scroll down for more information), a placemaking & community garden initiative, transforming this public place into a more welcoming and garden-like world, with plantings linking people to the multi-cultural history of the area.

Community gardening is weekly, during school terms. We are planting out the whole site in zones that reflect the settlement of the area, so that the plantings tell another layer of story about this place, its people and our connection with the landscape.

We are also created an audio tour, telling the stories of some of the town settlers, buried in the cemetery. And we are working with the local traditional custodian, on a public artwork that tells a story of how this landscape was used, before the township.

Site tours are available, by request.

Hope Lovelock Deane is the site custodian, as well as the cemetery (originally the Congregational Cemetery, 1841) & community garden (est. 2022) Curator, with family connections to her site going back 8 generations. Hope is committed to regenerating & activating their State Heritage place in the centre of McLaren Vale.