Wak'a Garden
Wak'a Garden is a commission by 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.
At the opening, the Wak'a was activated through a performance featuring sound, native planting, and movement. Performers included:
Saundra L. McClain-Kloeckener
Native Women’s Care Circle
Educational Consultant - Teacher-Storyteller
Tess Angelica Losada-Tindall
Dancer, choreographer, and scholar
Aida Lizalde
Artist, sculptor
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.
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.