Make the River Present encourages creative engagement with the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Although St. Louis is physically bordered by these rivers—the two longest in the US which come together at the confluence a few miles north of downtown—their presence is often obscured by industrialization, urban planning, and Indigenous erasure. Make the River Present invites visitors to strengthen our connections to these enduring waterways through works of art, resources, and activities. The exhibition highlights present-day and ancestral stewardship of the rivers and surrounding environments, especially focusing on Indigenous and African American perspectives.
This interactive exhibition provides a physical space to explore the contributions of artists and cultural stewards whose work respects and engages rivers. Works by Black Water Heritage Trail, Allena Brazier, Dail Chambers, Galen Gritts (Cherokee), Native Women’s Care Circle, Monique Verdin (Houma), and selected writings by other authors and contributors are on view.
As a complement to the exhibition, a series of curated gatherings will uplift ways artists and cultural stewards can align our relationship to the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers as well as reinforce communal relations and interdependence of human beings and nature. These events are opportunities to reorient our positioning as contemporary, urban dwellers to one that is part of a longer historical arc shaped by the presence of these rivers.
Make the River Present is organized for the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis by Michelle Dezember, CAM’s Director of Learning & Engagement and Allena Brazier, independent curator. Exhibition design by Tiana Berry-Jones.
