From the Ground Up: Nurturing Diversity in Hostile Environments

What happens when populations that depend on international supply chains for basic needs are systemically cut off from food production? And when power grids fail, and reservoirs dry up? For decades, artists, writers, and scientists have imagined the consequences of severe disruptions to the economy and the environment. Taking inspiration from the seed—one of the smallest but most powerful mechanisms for change—From the Ground Up presents works by 17 contemporary artists who confront the specter of global environmental disaster and disruptions in food production. The artists also explore technology, histories of contested spaces, and Indigenous understandings of nature as they imagine alternative, sustainable futures and issue calls to action. The exhibition looks at the ways art and science can work together to encourage sustainable food and shelter using traditional environmental management techniques that stand in contrast to industrialized corporate farming.