FREE
Join Belwin Conservancy and artist David Sprecher for the official opening reception for their latest work for 4Ground: Midwest Land Art Biennial, entitled Roaming Stone. Roaming Stone takes an impression of the land at Belwin Conservancy that bears the signature of the prairie's most skilled caretakers, the American bison, and translates the impression onto the surface of a large sphere. The inscription of the land that it holds can be recalled by rolling it, the way sound can be recalled by turning a record. The inverted tracks will bring to mind all the ways the bison maintain the health of the prairie ecosystem through their erratic roaming, their grazing, and wallowing. Wrapping the impression of the land around a sphere, an object that rolls freely in any direction reflects how the bison pick up and deposit microbes and seeds as they roam. In its ability to infinitely reproduce its impression of the soil, Roaming Stone becomes a piece of DNA that honors the persistent regeneration of life imprinting itself on the land.
Participants will visit a woodland that contains a significant portion of Valley Creek and hear from local historians Dr. Kate Thomas, Jean Huelster, and Sherri Buss about the people who have lived alongside it. Artist Rachel Frank will present “Rewilding Valley Creek,” a participatory performance that will highlight Belwin Conservancy’s restoration of the landscape through the seasonal use of bison and their ongoing stewardship of the land through celebrating the woodland that contains a significant section of Valley Creek. For the last ten years, Frank has worked on projects that explore rewilding–the environmental practice of reintroducing species back to areas where they had formerly thrived to help restore ecosystems. Participants will be invited to give a water offering with ceramic rhyton vessels, gestures that connect to Belwin and the surrounding Afton community’s commitment to the rewilding of Valley Creek.
Additionally, this event will include The Longest Poem for the Longest River (in North America). Join poets from across the Mississippi River in a collective, multilingual creative writing experience for the one and only Mississippi River. This project brings the Mississippi to the public beyond its banks, inspiring real-talk conversations about our relationships to water and the river. All ages and languages are welcome. Presented by, Angie Tillges, Moheb Soliman, and Monique Verdin.
David Sprecher is an artist and educator living in Chicago. He received a BFA in printmaking from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2006 and an MFA from the Art Theory and Practice program at Northwestern University in 2016. He teaches sculpture at the Chicago Academy of the Arts and integrates art education into primary schools through the Chicago Arts Partnership in Education. In 2020 he co-founded the design collective Essay. His work has been exhibited internationally.
Born and raised in Kentucky, Rachel Frank received her BFA from The Kansas City Art Institute and her MFA from The University of Pennsylvania. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include MOCA Tucson (AZ), the SPRING/BREAK Art Show (NYC), Thomas Hunter Projects at Hunter College (NYC), Standard Space (Sharon, CT), and Geary Contemporary (NYC). Residencies include Yaddo, Marie Walsh Sharpe, The Museum of Arts and Design, Skowhegan, the Innoko National Wildlife Refuge (Alaska), Franconia Sculpture Park, Socrates Sculpture Park, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson. Her performance pieces have been shown at HERE, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Select Fair, and The Bushwick Starr in New York City, The Marran Theater at Lesley University, and at The Watermill Center in collaboration with Robert Wilson. Currently, she has public artworks on view at Franconia and Socrates Sculpture Parks.
Angie Tillges is a civic project manager, artist and educator who is skilled at working with public institutions and community organizations on projects of social, artistic, ecological and educational importance. Currently she is the Great River Passage Fellow with the City of St. Paul where she leads projects that provide people the opportunity to make personal and lasting connections with one another and with public and natural spaces in their communities. She is co-founder of Wayfinding, and her current focus is on water, culture, and community/civic relationship.
Moheb Soliman is an interdisciplinary poet from Egypt and the Midwest. He’s presented writing, performance, installation, and video work at diverse literary, art, and public spaces in the US and Canada with support from the Banff Centre, Pillsbury House, Joyce Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Tulsa Artist Fellowship.
Monique Verdin is an interdisciplinary storyteller who has intimately documented the complex interconnectedness of environment, culture, climate and change in southeast Louisiana. Monique is director of the Land Memory Bank & Seed Exchange, a former member of the United Houma Nation Tribal Council and is part of the Another Gulf Is Possible Collaborative core leadership circle of brown (indigenous, latinx and desi) women, from Texas to Florida, working to envision just economies, vibrant communities and sustainable ecologies.