Projects
Design: Kevin McCoy, WORK/PLAY
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 project to treat nature as an art studio that creates wellbeing, community building, and renewed investment in place. This 132-page, full color book 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