Amaptocare

amaptocare
An example amaptocare semi-mature tree, with its narrative lectern, in a "renewed Ballymun" streetscape
Medium	Trees
Location	Dublin, Ireland

amaptocare is a large-scale public art work, in the form of a participative sponsored tree-planting project in Ballymun on the Northside of Dublin, Ireland. Proposed by German conceptual artist Jochen Gerz and commissioned by Breaking Ground on behalf of Dublin City Council's Ballymun Regeneration Limited as a percent for art scheme, it involved planting semi-mature trees in each neighbourhood of Ballymun, each with a personal comment from its sponsor inscribed on a nearby metal lectern. Over 630 trees from a choice of 15 mostly native varieties were sponsored, most by locals and other Dubliners, and 620 were planted by 2006.

amaptocare was the largest and longest-running of the arts projects funded as part of the massive regeneration of Ballymun, on which over 1.5 billion euro was spent. Begun in 2003, the project formally ended in 2017 - but three elements at Ballymun's civic plaza remain to be completed, namely an illuminated map of the project, inscription of sponsor names, and the planting of the "first fifteen" sponsored trees, one of each variety. There was a wide welcome for the new trees, and arts critics commented on the positive engagement of the project, but there were also questions from some locals about the mandatory sponsorship element. Aside from amaptocare, Ballymun Regeneration also engaged in a general tree-planting project.