BEGIN AGAIN: WAK’A GARDEN
By Juan William Chávez & Kiersten Torrez
April 18, 2026 through April 15, 2029 | Outdoor Galleries: South Lawn
Begin Again: Wak'a Garden is a commission with 2026 Visiting Artist in Residence Juan William Chávez and 2026 Kranzberg Exhibition Series Artist Kiersten Torrez. The project is the second installment in Laumeier’s Begin Again series, which honors the Park’s 50-year history of collaborating with artists and supporting new commissions and exhibitions.
Built from fallen trees, branches, mud, and rocks reclaimed from the Park’s grounds, Wak’a Garden functions as both a habitat and a sacred monument dedicated to native plants and pollinators. Designed as a multisensory space, the organic, amphitheater-shaped structure serves as a gathering place for reverence, community connection, experiential workshops, and performances. It features ceramic hive-shaped vessels created by Chávez and a chemical-free teaching garden shaped by Torrez’s interpretation of the natural habitat.
Chávez and Torrez will help cultivate and care for this four-season planting, which follows the Andean philosophy of reciprocity, interconnectedness, and balance between humans and the natural world. In Andean traditions, Wak’as are sacred places, objects, or natural features—such as mountains, springs, or stones—that are understood to be living and communicative rather than inanimate. Wak’as communicate when activated by sound, movement, environmental signals, rituals, and collective experiences. A core principle in relating to Wak’as is reciprocity: humans offer care, respect, and symbolic gifts, and in return, Wak’as provide guidance, protection, alignment with the environment, and opportunities for self-realization.
Wak’a Garden invites visitors to reconsider their relationship with nature, emphasizing how care for the land can benefit the ecosystem and generate cultural and creative meaning. By blurring the lines between disciplines, Chávez and Torrez aim to create a vibrant tapestry of mixed-media projects and programs, including free educational programs on native plants, land conservation, and beekeeping.
UPCOMMING PROGRAMS:
CAMPFIRE CHAT / Wak’a Garden Sound Pollination
Thursday, October 8 / 6:30–8 p.m. / Laumeier Sculpture Park Outdoor Galleries: South Lawn
Free | No Registration Required
Join us for a “sonic conversation” around the fire in Juan William Chávez and Kiersten Torrez’s monumental installation Wak’a Garden. Visiting sound artists Kole Galbraith (Sinixt/Peoria) and Warren Realrider (Pawnee/Crow) will join Chávez, St. Louis musician Josh Levi (Cherokee) and other local artists to collectively improvise an ambient sound composition in response to Wak’a Garden and the wider landscape.
Wak’a Garden Sound Pollination is part of Four Days in the Illinois Country; or “L’Esprit de L’Escalier,” an event series exploring land-based approaches to art and artistic approaches to territory presented by Counterpublic and Tulsa Artist Fellowship at locations around the St. Louis region, from October 8-11.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Over the past 15 years, artist and cultural activist Juan William Chávez and master gardener Kiersten Torrez have developed nationally recognized social practice art projects that foster community building and promote ecological awareness. Their collaborations explore themes of decolonization, environmental stewardship, Native and Indigenous Latinx land-growing practices, and the cultivation of native pollinators and plants through art installations, native bee gardens, workshops, performances, zines and publications.
LOCATE WAK’A GARDEN
Wak’a Garden, 2026. Laumeier Sculpture Park Commission. Photo by Wil Driscoll.
Photos By Wil Driscoll from the Begin Again: WAK’A GARDEN OPENING on April 18, 2026.
“Laumeier Sculpture Park has been foundational to our art practice and careers. They were the first museum in St. Louis to support our social practice work with pollinators and native plants. Our project, Wak’a Garden, feels like a full-circle moment—it reflects how our practice has grown and expanded over time. Having this opportunity to work with Laumeier again is especially meaningful, as it brings us back to our roots where our practice first began.
- Juan William Chávez & Kiersten Torrez”
2026 Exhibitions are supported by Whitaker Foundation, Ken and Nancy Kranzberg, Joan and Mitchell Markow and Two Sister’s Foundation, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, and Mary Ann and Andy Srenco.
Begin Again: Juan William Chávez & Kiersten Torrez, Wak’a Garden is supported by PNC Foundation. Juan William Chávez and the Visiting Artist in Residence Program are supported by Windgate Foundation. The Visiting Artist in Residence Program is sponsored by 21c Museum Hotel St. Louis.
Kiersten Torrez is the 2026 Kranzberg Artist. This fund, generously provided by Ken and Nancy Kranzberg, supports the presentation of new work by one or more St. Louis area artists per year.
