“A century ago, Marcel Duchamp submitted a porcelain urinal to a New York exhibition and revolutionised art. If a urinal can be art, then why not a post-industrial slag heap?”

Thus begins an article in The Guardian about an ambitious plan to offer abandoned eyesores in the county of Cumbria, England to artists, so that they can transform them into works of art.

Among the proposals submitted to the organizers of the project, called Deep Time, is one by garden designer Piet Oudolf, who would work with film-maker Tom Piper and Oscar-winning sound engineer Nicolas Becker to create a place of subterranean beauty in an old quarry. The Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson has an idea for a large-scale optical illusion on a beach.

Finding the beauty in the midst of wreck and ruin—and then making the place more beautiful through our own simple creations—is the essence of Radical Joy for Hard Times.

We believe that places on the Earth that have been plowed, paved, gouged, poisoned and in other ways hurt deserve the same kind of love and compassion that we would give to a friend who finds herself facing hard times. Instead of abandoning these places, we seek them out. Instead of turning our faces away, we fasten our gaze to what is there. Instead of feeling distanced from a hurt place, we become even more connected through mindful attention and the making of a gift.

What place near you is waiting to be seen and experienced anew?