studio EARTHSIDE
studio EARTHSIDE is a community-rooted design practice creating products, spaces, exhibitions, and systems that honor the land and make room for people to live well together. Founded by Cherub “Chopp” Stewart, studio EARTHSIDE builds at the intersection of design, education, and community care, shaping environments where food, shelter, memory, and belonging are treated as shared human needs.
Formerly known as Wild Earth, studio EARTHSIDE has evolved from public programming and mutual aid into a broader practice of cultural design and social infrastructure. Rooted in Newark and expanding outward, the work spans free food distribution, public gatherings, land-based programming, and design-led interventions that respond directly to unmet needs with dignity, beauty, and care.
At the center of studio EARTHSIDE is a belief that design should do more than beautify space; it should restore relationships: to land, to one another, and to the systems that sustain life. This work is guided by interdependence, collective memory, and the understanding that food and shelter are not privileges, but rights.
studio EARTHSIDE is currently developing FOOD + SHELTER, a new housing model that brings free housing, free food, and community-rooted care into one shared system. Designed as a replicable village model, FOOD + SHELTER reimagines how families might live with greater stability, beauty, and belonging.
A new website is on the way, with stories, offerings, and the work to come.
The videos below highlight The Outdoor Living Room, one of studio EARTHSIDE’s ongoing public initiatives rooted in creative placemaking, healing arts, and community care. Created in response to the pandemic, The Outdoor Living Room reimagined public space as a site for gathering, reflection, and restoration, moving healing arts programming outdoors and into shared community space. What began in 2020 as an immediate response to isolation has grown into a lasting model for land-based public programming in Newark. The initiative invites residents to gather, reconnect, honor the land beneath them, and reimagine what community can feel like when care is made visible. The Outdoor Living Room was supported by Newark Arts’ Creative Catalyst grant in 2021 and 2022, and by the Neighbors Helping Neighbors LISC grant in 2024.
Below are featured excerpts from four programs within The Outdoor Living Room:
Tune Inward
A communal sound bath designed to create space for reflection, listening, and restoration. In this excerpt, sound healer Christina leads a large-scale public sound bath for over 150 participants in Military Park, offering collective stillness and healing in the center of Downtown Newark.
This Land Speaks
An oral storytelling series exploring land, memory, and place. This preview features Newark artist Purple in conversation as part of a series that invites residents to reflect on Newark’s Lenape land, local histories, and the ways place shapes identity, memory, and belonging.
You and I Got to Do For You and I
A free grocery distribution and community gathering created in collaboration with The Yard and Mitch From Marketing. Designed in support of Newark’s creative community and surrounding neighborhoods, this program combines food access, joy, and mutual care through music, connection, and free groceries. Over the last four years, this initiative has redistributed more than 10,000 pounds of fresh produce that would have otherwise gone to waste.
Baby Backyard Boogie
A joyful outdoor musical learning experience for children and families, led by Momma Merikara in partnership with The Yard. Created as part of The Outdoor Living Room, this program offers children a playful space for movement, rhythm, and communal joy.