SEED

SEED 4 - plenary meetings with style!

2012-02-22T10:15:00.000-08:00

Planning and fundraising for SEED 4 are already in full swing!

Last night's meeting was particularly engaging. As you can see from these images, it was accompanied by FOOD, echoing the focus of this year's Exploratorium, "Seeds to Food."
As we ingested crunchy veggies and yummy local tamales, we reflected on the appropriateness of enjoying good food at SEED meetings.

We are ever on the look out for excellent recipes for both food and fundraising. Please leave a comment below or contact us with your ideas!

SEED 3 Gratitude

2012-02-22T09:11:00.000-08:00

A heart-felt THANK YOU to everyone that made SEED 3 such a success!

Special Thanks:

To the wonderful SEED 3 artists
for their beautiful, thought-provoking work
and enthusiastic participation in the event!

To everyone that came out for the fun SEED 3 opening reception!

To Senior Felipe and his four junior singers for their wonderful musical contribution to the SEED 3 opening event - an original song highlighting the 19 endangered plants of New Mexico,
and their Latin names!

To the many volunteers that made SEED 3 possible.
(From painting pedestals to gluing beans, you were there with a smile!)

To our generous raffle donors!

To the Taos News and other publications, radio producers and bloggers that gave SEED 3 great coverage!

To the many seed donors that contributed beautiful local and global seeds to the Exploratorium!

To our wonderful instructors for guiding 465 visiting students through the SEED 3 exhibition, Exploratorium and art-making curricula!

To our partners at Sol Feliz Farm, Morning Star Farm, and the Taos County Economic Development Center for hosting informative SEED 3 farm tour field trips!

Especially to the Taos Community Foundation, Los Jardineros Garden Club of Taos, the Taos Chapter Native Plant Society of New Mexico and the many individuals for their financial support for the SEED 3 project, Exploratorium and hands-on education programming!

We thank you, SEED supporters, near and far!

Donate to the SEED 3 Exploratorium!

2011-09-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

We are pleased to announce that you can now donate online to the SEED 3 Exploratorium and this year's education outreach to schools! Through our new fiscal sponsorship with Fractured Atlas your online donations will even be tax deductible.

Click HERE to donate to SEED online or visit our Donate page to donate by mail.

We have lots of great plans for the Exploratorium this year. The theme is "Seed to Food". Help us to reach even more classes this year with this very relevant theme!

2011-08-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

Seeds, dispersal and biomimicry

2011-07-28T12:32:00.000-07:00

Seeds, dispersal and biomimicry - three of our favorite topics here at SEED! All three important topics can be found in this article from "Science Daily" - Specialized Seeds Can Really Float Your Boat.

What "seed news" have you heard recently? Please share in the comments area below. Thanks!

New Law of Mother Earth enshrines the rights of the natural world

2011-04-30T15:30:00.000-07:00

Bolivia is set to pass the world's first laws granting all nature equal rights to humans. The Law of Mother Earth, now agreed by politicians and grassroots social groups, redefines the country's rich mineral deposits as "blessings" and is expected to lead to radical new conservation and social measures to reduce pollution and control industry......read entire article here

SEED 3 at Pecha Kucha Night Taos #2

2011-01-17T18:43:00.000-08:00

Check out our SEED 3 Pecka Kucha presentation on YouTube!

to view click on image below

SEED 3 Features in Pecha Kucha Night Taos #2

2011-01-10T21:56:00.000-08:00

WHAT: PECHA KUCHA NIGHT TAOS #2

WHEN: JANUARY 13, 5:30-8:00 PM

WHERE: THE HARWOOD MUSEUM OF ART, Taos, New Mexico

ADMISSION: $3 - $5 Suggested Donation

Pecha Kucha Night is BACK for round two! And this time SEED will be included in the line-up!

PechaKucha Nights are informal and fun gatherings where creative locals get together and share their ideas, works, thoughts, holiday snaps - just about anything really, in the Pecha Kucha 20x20 format.

Pecha Kucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of "chit chat", it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It's a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things
moving at a rapid pace.

The line up for Pecha Kucha Night Taos #2 is:

1. Agnes Chavez: "STEMArts: (x)tree project"
2. Paul O’Connor: "Taos Characters"
3. Nettayah Ben-Attar: "From Performance to Parchment"
4. Siena Sanderson, Mandy Stapleford, Katie Woodall and Claire Coté: “SEED 3”.
5. Sam Lambie: "Photography"
6. Carrie Field, Mike Malixi & Daryl Black- “Taos Tango”
~ Intermission: Live music by Tina Collins and Her Pony ~
7. Marcy Andrews: "Midwifing the Midwife"
8. Suki and Genevieve: "Shree Yoga Taos"
9. Christian Ristow: "Robots in the Dust."
10. David Costanza: "Documenting the Song Writing Process"
11. Christina Sporrong: "Large Scale Interactive Sculpture"

The evening’s music will be provided by Tina Collins and Her Pony, and our host, The Harwood Museum of Art, will offer a wine reception before the event and at intermission where there will be plenty of time for socializing, drinking, and “chit chat” - creating great opportunities to network and to meet our local “creatives”!

Why Pecha Kucha Nights? The founders have discovered that most cities - not just Tokyo have virtually no public spaces where people can show and share their work in a relaxed way. If you’re out on the mesa or a lone artist in the sage brush - where can you show? In this age of digital everything, nothing is better than face to face community gatherings where we can share and inspire our community. PechaKucha 20x20 is the perfect platform to show and share one’s creative spririt.

You can find Peach Kucha Taos on facebook at: “Pecha Kucha Taos” and read more about Pecha Kucha on the web at www.pecha-kucha.org.

Email questions to: pechakuchataos@gmail.com, that's J. Matthew Thomas and Richard Spera, Co-directors Taos
(575.613.0601) (575.758.2306)

SEED 2 appears in the "blogosphere"

2010-10-17T10:05:00.000-07:00

Kate Cartwright, the artist behind the blog "Nine Lives - Kate in Taos," recently wrote about SEED 2 in her blog. Read her SEED 2 post by clicking here.

SEED 2 Featured in Taos News

2010-10-10T15:09:00.000-07:00

Read the article about SEED 2 in the Tempo by clicking here.

2010-09-29T08:44:00.001-07:00

The Stables Gallery Hours for SEED 2

Monday - Saturday 12 noon - 6 pm
Sunday 10 am - 4 pm

SEED 2

2010-09-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

Seeds are the essence of our sustainable world heritage; those who preserve them are our heroes. Two years ago, artists Mandy Stapleford and Siena Sanderson were moved by a pair of remarkable authors to produce a special art show for the public. The book collaboration by Stuppy and Kesseler was called Seeds, Time Capsules of Life. Representing the values of the Millenium Seed Bank with provocative wonder, the botanist and the artist produced a marriage of sustainability principles and illuminating macro-photography. Nine original artists responded to this root idea, opening at the Stables for the first time last year, in October of 2009. Since then something out of the ordinary has flourished: conceptual metaphor, botany, discovery science, and profoundly original artistic response are continuing to evolve.

This year there are 14 artists expressing 15 mediums in the show. As before, there is a mystery about how the participation in this event opens creative doors. It is as if the generative vitality of seeds has an effect on the unfoldment of ideas. Web-site director and environmental artist Claire Long Cote bears witness: “ Seeds are primal, beautiful, miraculous, …of utmost importance in our lives.” Her enthusiasm expanded into the formation of this website that connects artists from events to resources worldwide. Photographer Geraint Smith says of his recent work: “I made these transfers on fabric as prayer flags, inspired by the milkweed seeds in the wind.” Using collected live flowers, mixed media artist Katie Woodall says “the creative tension feels like a new seed vying for its potential home sometimes.…Glue it down now; save this reference before things shift, or the connections are no longer remembered.”

From the beginning, experiential education has been an essential component of the show. According to SEED 2 curator and educator, Siena Sanderson, "We are attempting to encourage people to not only look at artwork inspired by the seed but to engage in ...tactile learning ... about the remarkable lives of seeds----all in the same gallery."

An entire room is dedicated to engaging all five senses, so that information can be synthesized in multiple ways. SEED 2 was partially funded this year from the Albert I. Pierce Foundation and Taos Community Foundation. Groups of children from all over the district have been invited to participate. With educator Susan Vernon’s help, activities include experimenting with the ways seeds are dispersed, and even inventing them from clay. Respecting the natural intelligence of the child is a way this group has chosen to contribute to our local seed bank, and that of the greater world.

Ongoing SEED Shows have a far reaching potential. The 501-C3 umbrella for the exhibit is the Taos Chapter of the Native Plants Society of New Mexico. This is just an example of how connections are made that invite further collaboration. A desire to inspire SEED nationally is making headway . Seeds are wealth: they are free, they are the embodiment of hope.

2010-04-05T22:53:00.000-07:00

Student looking at painting by Katie Woodall from SEED, 2009
(photograph by Geraint Smith - www.geraintsmith.com)

Initially inspired by the stunning micro-photography of the book, Seeds - Time Capsules of Life, by Rob Kesseler & Wolfgang Stuppy, SEED has grown into an annual exhibition, exploring the importance of seeds, the environment and our place in it all.

View of SEED, piece by Mandy Stapleford in foreground
(photograph by Geraint Smith - www.geraintsmith.com)

"Seeds are time capsules, vessels traveling through time and space. In the right place at the right time each seed gives rise to a new plant. They are the most sophisticated means of propogation created by the evolution of plants on our planet and the most complex structure a plant produces in its life." - Wolfgang Stuppy (in Seeds: Time Capsules of Life)