This page includes supplementary materials and information for the exhibition Seeds: Containers of a World to Come at Mildred Lane Kemper Museum in Spring 2025, curated by Meredith Malone and Svea Braeunert. We gathered the seeds for this St. Louis special collection in October 2024. The seeds will be available to the public during the run of the show. Scroll down for more information on collection sites, species collected, and print resources included in the show, including our new Mini-Manifesto.
View our observations on iNaturalist, including photos and map of findings
View our seed packet inventory, including full species list
Sites:
We collected seeds from the following sites, all of which have experienced significant human-caused ecological disruption, including the pre-Colombian site of earth removal, the lawn of the corporate headquarters of Bayer (formerly Monsanto), the site of a demolished housing project, a burned-out library building, a Superfund site where waste from the Manhattan Project was illegally dumped, and a highly manicured college campus. You can learn more about our seed collecting field trips via our story collection: #kemperseeds
- Cohokia Mounds State Historic Site, Colinsville, IL
- Cahokia Mounds borrow pit
- Cahokia Mounds parking lot
- Construction site near Cahokia Mounds
- Lawn at Bayer Corporate Headquarters (formerly Monsanto), Creve Coeur, MO
- Former Pruitt-Igoe site, St Louis, MO
- River Des Peres Drainage Channel, Shrewsbury
- River Des Peres Greenway, Shrewsbury
- Water feature (constructed river) in Forest Park above buried River Des Peres
- Site where the buried River Des Peres returns to daylight
- Karpeles Manuscript Library and alley, Compton Heights
- Compton Hill Reservoir Park, Compton Heights
- Confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, Columbia Bottom Conservation Area
- West Lake Landfill Superfund Site, Bridgerton, MO
- Northside near Northside Workshop
- Grossman Iron & Steel, Old North St Louis
- Mt. Olive Church and alley, Compton Heights
- Former Olio’s / AO & Co., Compton Heights
- Winslow’s Table parking lot and alley, University City
- Washington University campus
Printable Guides and Posters (PDF download)
- Icons poster
- Seed Collection and Storage brochure
- “So I’ve got these Seeds: Now What?” brochure
- NESL Mini-Manifesto
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Meredith Malone, Svea Braeunert, Carmen Ribaudo, Lynn Peemoeller and her students in Fall 2024, Juan William Chavez and Kiersten Torrez of Northside Workshop, Dr. Natalie Mueller, and our families.
This project is made possible in part with funds from the Statewide Community Arts Program, a regrant program of the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of The Governor and the New York State Legislature and administered by The Arts Center of the Capital Region.
