MANKATO — Beth Fisher and Cheryl Casteen’s works are among dozens of pieces in “We Are All Not Temporarily Soil,” an eco-art project’s second phase and first U.S. event that’s on display at Carnegie Art Center.
The two St. Peter women also were represented in the inaugural “Living Soil Project” group exhibit in Armenia last year.
Fisher, a soil scientist who teaches at Minnesota State University, has been prolific in creating art during the months between the two exhibits. She’s also offered three classes on making pigments.
“Thank you for welcoming me as an artist,” Fisher said to attendees at the exhibit’s opening in late March.
Other soil scientists’ contributions to the show include a giant-size, whimsical display that imagines what can be found in the organic ground beneath our feet — such as earthworms and buried litter.
“I have no idea how many artists are represented in the show, there are so many,” said Casteen, describing the project to raise environmental awareness.
Last summer Casteen and Maryland artist Pamela Thompson traveled to Armenia as collaborators of an installation similar to “We Are All Not Temporarily Soil.” Casteen brought along a suitcase full of works by U.S. artists, including Fisher’s photographs of soil monoliths.
The Carnegie exhibit features some of the artists who showed in Armenia, but they are displaying new works in Mankato. Artists from several states, including Minnesota, are first-time contributors to the soil project. Some of the pieces have political as well as soil-based themes. Anti-ICE messages are incorporated into a handful of paintings and photographs on display.
Casteen said a large piece featuring an American flag by Thompson and an Armenian collaborating artist Myrtich Tonoyan arrived several days after the show’s opening. “Soil of Our Discontent 2026” hangs from the dome area of the Carnegie.
“The flag’s clay stars are falling from it,” Casteen said.
Thompson’s schedule and flight delay made it impossible for her to visit Mankato or give live presentations about her work. She will be on hand to oversee the third phase of the eco-art project slated in October at the Zo Gallery in Baltimore.
Opportunities for the public to see “We Are All Not Temporarily Soil” continue through Saturday. The exhibit’s closing reception 4 p.m. Saturday also will be a celebration of poetry and music. The free event will feature Phil Bryant, who will read his poems as well works by Salem Heideman. In addition, Chase Burkhart, Jennifer Hildebrandt, Jill Hildebrandt, Michelle Kaisersatt, Derek Liebertz, Oziel Javier Hidalgo Nieto and Luke Smith are performing during “Common Ground: A Gathering of Poetry and Music Honoring the Earth and All Our Relations.”
The Carnegie, 120 S. Broad St., also is showing through Saturday beadwork by Erin Penas and Natalie McGuire’s landscapes that merge her photographs with tiled frames.