Projects
The North St. Louis Creative Field Guide is a publication generated from a resident- and artist-led project of the same name. For over thirty years, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis has been a neighbor to significant and historic communities to the north. From 2024–25, members of a working group who live and work in these neighborhoods embarked on a creative placekeeping project to treat nature as an art studio that creates wellbeing, community building, and renewed investment in place. This 132-page, full color book is a result of those efforts, and includes essays, photographs, and artworks that preserves and shares knowledge about art and nature in North St. Louis.
Project curator: Michelle Dezember
Lead Artists: Dail Chambers and Juan William Chávez
Community Engagement Lead: Alexis Creamer
Working Group Members Cary Brown, Gabi Cole, AleXeana harlem, Tosha Phonix, Rev. LaQuindlyn Shanae, Ronda Smith Branch, and Frankie Williams
Design: Kevin McCoy, WORK/PLAY
Editor: Graham Eng-Wilmot
Table of Contents
/ Honoring the Land, Water, Ancestors, and Elders
/ Foreword, Lisa Melandri
/ "To Pay Attention Is to Love," Michelle Dezember
/ "The Sacred Space of Nature and the Built Environment," Dail Chambers
/ "The Garden as an Art Studio," Juan William Chávez
/ Community & Cultural Agreements and Map
/ "Charles Henry Turner: Garden as a Laboratory," Juan William Chávez
/ "Finding Our Way: Home in North St. Louis," AleXeana harlem
/ "We’re All Together," Frankie Williams
/ "Hidden Currents: From Athlone to O’Fallon Park," Rev. LaQuindlyn Shanae
/ "Composting as a Universal Process," Cary Brown
/ "Cultivating Sacred Movement Through Mind, Body, and Soul," Ronda Smith Branch
/ "Growing in Chaos: Rainbow Resilience Bed," Gabi Cole
/ "Seeds for the Future: A.C.R.E.S.," Tosha Phonix
/ 'When We Engage with Green Spaces Around Us, Maybe We Find...," Alexis Creamer
/ Contributor Biographies, Glossary, and Native Plants