Dixon Elementary School Visit

 Early on the morning of Monday October 29th, with the air still chilly from low overnight temperatures, students, teachers and parents from Dixon Elementary School arrived on mass to the Taos Center for the Arts to take part in SEED4 www.seedtaos.org

Aaliyah Sanchez at the seed drawing station.

 From the beginning, experiential education has been an essential component of the show. At SEED exhibitions visitors are encouraged not only to look at artwork inspired by the seed but also to engage in hands-on learning about the remarkable lives of seeds and their utmost importance in our lives. The SEED Exploratorium, is an entire room with new displays every year dedicated to engaging all five senses, so that understanding can be synthesized in multiple ways. This year SEED 4 Exploratorium highlighted the theme “Seed to Food”. The "seedettes" a group of four incredible women who organize SEED every year put allot of their energies into arranging field trips for local schools and the Dixon group,of kindergarten Ist and 2nd graders, were to be the last group before the closing of the exhibition.

Benjamin Gonzales with his seed story.

Denim Padberg  sharing his seed drawing.

 Katie Woodall, a seedette, skillfully gathered the group outside the exhibition space and introduced everyone to the various areas of activity, the exhibition, the exploratorium and the SeedBroadcast mobile station.  SeedBroadcast provided a creative seed drawing station, where the students could look at seeds through lenses and make drawings to place on the seed wall in the broadcast unit. Inside the unit they investigated the Ipods to discover seed videos, seed story interviews, and looked at the seed books. In preparation for this visit, their teacher Eva Behrens, had the students create their own seed stories so they could be recorded. When each student felt ready and confident we introduced them to the recording equipment, did sound tests and then asked them to tell us their stories. Here are a selection.  Eva will continue to record other stories back in her classroom as as we receive these they will be  added to the seeds story library.  Thank you so much students for being so courageous in sharing your stories with us. 

Investigating ipods in the mobile broadcasting unit.

Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station and Seed Stories from Taos, New Mexico

Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting and the Creative Seed Drawing Station in Taos, New Mexico.

SeedBroadcast hosted the Seed Story Broadcasting Station outside the Stables Gallery, at the Taos Center for the Arts, during the final weekend of the Seed 4 exhibition. Broadcasting in the public parking lot between the gallery, the Taos Auditorium, the main strip, and Kit Carson State Park, many passerby's stopped by to see what was going on. While the station played seed stories over the outside loud speakers to the Taoseno environs, people were encouraged to explore the resources in the Station and make drawings of favorite seeds and plants to be posted on the bulletin board inside the van.

SeedBroadcaster, Chrissie Orr, watches as a Seed Story picture is drawn.

Many people came by to share seed stories from the Taos area, as well as from distant homes. Conversations arose over local seed security, a concern many local growers have that their rights as food producers and seed savers will be compromised if resources such as seeds and water become controlled by the proprietary interests of corporations and governments.

Watching the video Seeds of Freedom inside the Mobile Broadcasting Station.

During the afternoon, Greg Nussbaum, along with a young student from Camino De Paz, stopped by after their morning selling produce at the Taos Farmers' Market. Greg, the Camino De Paz's Farm Director, shared information about their amazing school, located outside of Santa Cruz, NM. It is a farm-based middle school, which integrates hands-on working experiences of living on a farm with applied learning in the fields of "sustainable living practices, traditional arts and crafts, ecology and environmental education." Asking the question...what if public education looked like this?

We asked those we met if there was a Taos seed swap, seed library, or informal seed sharing organization, and no one seemed to know of any....although everyone seemed to think it was a grand idea. Perhaps folks we met over the weekend would be interested in working together to organize one? If you would be interested in getting involved with this please email us and we will try to get everyone in touch.

Looking at corn From Fodder Project Collaborative Research Farm and sharing some seeds.

Miguel Santisevan, a local farmer and teacher we spoke to via email, said he has been working on a seed library for several years. Its goal is to increase local seed stock among area farmers. Even though this seed library is not a public resource at this time, he encourages people to contact him to find out more about the agricultural projects their farm is undertaking. In the future, they hope to build seed networks among local farmers, and provide seed saving, cleaning, and processing workshops. You can find out more about their projects and contact Miguel at: http://solfelizfarm.wordpress.com/

Taos Seed Stories are now being broadcast!
Here are the Seed Stories from people we met over the weekend. Thank you all for sharing these wonderful stories.

Seed Story from Bob Fies, Taos, New Mexico

Seed Broadcaster, Jeanette Hart-Mann, recording Bob Fies' seed story

One of the people who stopped by to share a seed story with us while we were in Taos was Bob Fies. For the past seven years Bob, a retired physician, has been the owner and caretaker for the Arroyo Hondo property on which the historic New Buffalo commune was established. Although he was not involved in the founding of the commune in 1967, Bob shared a deeply moving story of gratitude for the generosity and compassion that local Pueblo and Hispanic people bestowed upon the young back-to-the-landers - sharing the necessary skills for building shelter and growing food in this challenging environment.



Since acquiring the New Buffalo property, Bob has supervised preserving, restoring and making sustainable the main building, planting hundreds of native trees and restoring the land. On Sunday, we followed up on his invitation to visit the property and spent the morning with him as he shared the history of this unique place, as well as his recent efforts to develop the New Buffalo Center into a place that will continue to serve as a center for connecting, learning, and creativity.

Bob Fies and Seed Broadcasters at the New Buffalo Center

View of the newly completed passive-solar greenhouse

Inside the restored sunken round room at the heart of the original structure

Guerilla Sprouting with Sibylle Ingeborg Preuschat, Taos, NM

Sibylle Ingeborg Preuschat with her Guerilla Sprouting project -
part of the SEED 4 exhibition and exploratorium

As part of the Seed Exploratorium component of the SEED 4 exhibition,  Sibylle Ingeborg Preuschat presented her Guerilla Sprouting project - a demonstration DIY sprout garden. Sibylle shared with us the story of how she came to adopt sprouting as an act of self-reliance and empowerment. She sited Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma as an influence that shifted her thinking about the carbon footprint of even the healthiest of store-bought organic produce. Sibylle describes sprouting as, on one hand, a response the waste and inefficiency of large-scale commercial farming, and on the other hand, it is also a symbolic act - of reclaiming responsibility for one's health and well-being by tending to life in a direct, hands-on way.

The Guerrilla Sprout garden a little after two weeks of being planted

"The folks running the Seed 4 Exploratorium did an amazing job growing sprouts in the middle of a busy exhibition - and these don't quite look like they would when tended at home... still you get the idea of how tenaciously they grow even when conditions aren't the most ideal!" - Sibyille

Along with her demonstration sprout display, Sibylle disseminates information on how to sprout to encourage others to try it themselves. You can read her blog, and download this great how to document which she put together for a workshop she gave during the SEED 4 exhibit.

Seed Story Broadcasting at Seed 4 in Taos, New Mexico

On October 27th and 28th, SeedBroadcast traveled to Taos, New Mexico for the closing festivities of the Seed 4 exhibition and exploratorium and to collaborate on a Seed Story Broadcasting event with Seed 4. The Taos Seed exhibitions, now in their forth year, bring together artist, educators, local farmers, gardeners, and the public to investigate the power of seeds as a concept. In the gallery, a wide range of art explored the visual performance of seeds, current perspectives about bioengineering, and the magic of sculptural stratification and transformation.

The Seed 4 exhibition, inside the Stables Gallery at the Taos Center for the Arts, in Taos, New Mexico.

The entire exhibition was filled with Seed Stories as visual and textural expressions. The statements written by participating artists provided a keen insight into the complex, personal, and powerful connections that people feel about seeds in form and process. During our Broadcast we met Peter Chinni, a local sculptor and participating artist in the Seed 4 exhibition, and he shared his seed story with us.

Using a magnifying lens, Seed Broadcast takes a closer look at cucumber seeds while harvesting, cleaning, and sharing them with visitors.

The Seed 4 organizers, Siena Sanderson, Mandy Stapleford, Katie Woodall, and Claire Cote put together a public celebration on October 28th, for the final weekend of the exhibition. They shared local seeds and food with everyone who stopped by. During this reception Claire and Katie took some time to share their seed stories with us.

A gift of hollyhock seeds from Seed 4 and local Sanborn Farms.

You can also listen to more Seed Stories at the Seed Story Broadcast Page. Stay tuned for more Seed Broadcasts from Taos, New Mexico, coming soon...and don't forget to sign up for email updates, which will deliver blog posts directly to your email address. To do this fill out the following form:

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Seed 4 Taos Broadcast Oct 27th and 28th

This Saturday and Sunday, Oct 27 and 28th, stop by the Taos Center for the Arts, Stables Gallery, in Taos, New Mexico, and join SeedBroadcast for a two day broadcasting event and final weekend perusal of the Seed 4 exhibition.
SeedBroadcast will be conducting seed story interviews, so bring favorite stories from your gardens, kitchens, and studios, to share with the broadcast crew. We will also have the broadcast station open, with copy shop, library, videos, drawing board, and close up views of open pollinated seeds to explore. So come by and check out the seeds, stories, resources, and art.

Event Details
October 27th and 28th, 2012
Times: 12pm - 6pm
Location: 133 Paseo del Pueblo Sur, Taos, New Mexico
For more information:
Email: SeedBroadcast@gmail.com
Call: 1-575-718-4511

Download event pdf