BEGIN AGAIN: WAK’A GARDEN
By Juan William Chávez & Kiersten Torrez
April 18, 2026 through April 15, 2029 | Outdoor Galleries: South Lawn
UPCOMING PROGRAMS:
Escucha: La Wak’a Habla / Listen: The Wak’a Speaks with Juan William Chávez & Kiersten Torrez and Alan Poma
Thursday, November 5th 6:00–8:00 p.m. 21c Museum Hotel St. Louis, Main Gallery
Join Juan William Chávez, Kiersten Torrez and Alan Poma for a participatory workshop** to explore stones as sources of sound and create recorded sounds that will become a part of the Laumeier After Dark Wak'a Garden sound performance by Chávez and Poma.
Escucha: La Wak'a Habla / Listen: The Wak'a Speaks will begin with a brief introduction to Wak'a Garden, followed by a presentation by Peruvian sound artist Alan Poma on the cultural significance of sound and how sound gives stones and wak'as a voice and the ability to speak. Wak'a are sacred objects or places in Andean tradition that embody divine power and receive ritual reverence.
Chávez and Poma will guide participants through a series of exercises exploring stones as sources of sound. Using small river stones, we will experiment with two simple gestures—tapping and rubbing—to discover different sounds and rhythms. These exercises aim to build a relationship between participants and the stones. Rather than treating the stone only as an object that produces sound, the workshop asks participants to consider what changes when we listen to the stone as something with which we can establish a relationship.
Chávez and Poma will use small megaphones equipped with recorders to capture these sounds and play them back. This will allow participants to layer individual stone sounds into collective polyrhythms, creating a shared sonic composition for an improvisational sound performance that gives the stones a voice and the ability to speak.
The sounds created during the workshop will become part of the Laumeier After Dark Wak'a Garden sound performance by Juan William Chávez and Alan Poma, extending the workshop into a larger collective composition.
**This event is free and open to the public, but participants in the sound workshop will play a role in the creation of sound materials for the performance at Laumeier After Dark. If you register to participate, please be sure that you are able to attend the workshop from 6pm to 8pm.
ABOUT WAK’A GARDEN
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.
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.
