The Seed Project Exhibition will be opening at Winkleman gallery in Chelsea from 6-8 and will feature artwork from over 140 artist from around the globe. Other projects include work by Aaron Storck, Gabriela Alva Cal y Mayor, Theresa Valla, and Michele Brody.

The Seed Project began in March 2006 by David Cohen, a Brooklyn based artist used crowd sourcing to fing Artists and activists to plant wheat grass seeds creating individual art projects from what was grown. The result is a “Virtual Field,” and was published in the Seed Issue of Artworld Digest Magazine. The project has continued to grow and currently the seeds can be purchased in Wholefoods, throughout New York, Conneticut and New Jersey.

People have become so disconnected fromthe natural environment and the natural ecosystems which sustains them. The orignating artist, David Cohen, believes it is important to promote a cultural shift towards sustainability by teaching the next generation about the value of growing plants, which are the source of our fuel, fiber and food in our daily lives through creativity. The Seed Project accomplishes this through an interactive art project that’s both a mix of science and art.

The Seed Project is intended to solve environmental and social problems. It is a bridge between art and the environment as well as a creative cultural reclamation of our stewardship of the earth. The strategy is for individuals planting and re-foresting the earth to fight global warming and to create a global network of concerned citizens and activists. Seed collectives are a way for individual artists to create cultural capital by networking with other artists and allows them to take ownership as well as collaborate with the group to see these visions come to reality.

The project fosters the creative act and encourages a widening cultural identification with artists, encompassing all people who have creative power. The Seed Project turns on the basic act of creating, in this case the organic energy of life. The outgrowth will be a heightened awareness of changes in our environment, our participation in power, as well as a growing community of artists, and a more sustainable environment. Art which, addresses and seeks to solve world problems will be created from this new collective.

“The Seed Project conceptually collapses the physical space that separates people in the world to imagine a virtual field growing together, but the motivating goal is a growing community of artists, ideas and resources which will be linked and shared. A seed is a symbol of the incredible power to create and redefine the world that we all have, but are particularly aware of as artists. By defining the act of planting as a creative act the participant becomes an artist in a basic and sustainable way. The medium term goal of this project is for thousands of artists to participate in planting the seeds in creative ways. But the long-term goal is for millions and then billions of people to engage in creative growth and change. We, as a society, need to turn organized creative energy to nurturing our environment because the industrial age we are emerging from has hazardously degraded the one we have. But first we need the structures which support organized energy. Art can serve these needs.