A Gift Economy in Action
Place-based textile artist Kayla Powers has debuted her exhibition Flourish at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts (November 7, 2025 – May 8, 2026). She’s invited visitors into a world shaped by local plants and the rhythms of the natural world. What we did not anticipate was just how deeply the exhibition’s call for participation—Sowing Seeds—would resonate far beyond our gallery walls.
Over the past four months, the SCA has received hundreds of envelopes, intricate packed boxes, padded mailers, and beautifully decorated packages from across the country and around the world. Inside them were more than 1,600 hand-sewn seeds—each one stitched with intention, individuality, and surprising tenderness. Some were minimalist and delicate; others were bold and intricately embroidered. Every seed told its own quiet story.
But the most moving part?
Tucked inside so many of these packages were handwritten notes responding to Kayla’s prompt:
“What is something you’d like to pass along to the next generation?”
Some notes offered wisdom. Others offered humor, comfort, or courage. Some read like tiny blessings. And a few were so honest and profound they shook us to our core. Reading these messages—hopeful, raw, and deeply human—became its own act of witnessing.
Together, these submissions transformed Flourish into something far bigger than any of us imagined. They turned the exhibition into a living archive—one made by many hands, shaped by generosity, and rooted in shared belief in creativity as a connective force.
One of the most meaningful elements of our Exhibition Flourish is the project Sowing Seeds, a simple invitation: take a seed home. With that small gesture, visitors join a living chain of giving—an echo of nature’s own cycles of generosity, abundance, and return.
Kayla was inspired by Robin Wall Kimmerer’s The Serviceberry, embracing the idea of a Gift Economy: an exchange that is cyclical rather than transactional, rooted in reciprocity and in recognizing ourselves as part of the greater family of living things.
When we take less and give more, both the earth and our own sense of fulfillment grow.
Kayla’s project brings this philosophy to life. Each visitor is welcome to receive a seed—freely offered, anonymously shared—carrying the exhibition’s spirit of connection and abundance out into the world.
Interwoven: A Night of Community, Creativity & Connection
Our Exhibition and its global call for participation has already carried deep meaning. But this fall’s celebration event, Interwoven: The Art of Flourishing Together, became a night where those themes truly came alive.
Guests moved through an evening filled with creative experiences:
- collaborative painting
- hands-on textile exploration
- poetry shared by writer Jacqueline Suskin
- stories and soundscapes from 2025 SCA Creative Fellow Caila Conklin
- conversations with artist Kayla Powers
- a delicious spread from Farmhouse Deli
- and a lobby buzzing with neighbors, artists, families, and new friends
Interwoven was a living expression of what Flourish is urging us to celebrate—connection, curiosity, care, and the beauty of creating something together.
Flourish in the Classroom
This fall, our Flourish curriculum brought Kayla Powers’ exhibition into middle school classrooms across the community. Students explored the connections between the natural world and the creative one—discovering how science, art, and place are tightly interwoven.
Before hand-sewing fabric “seeds” for the exhibition, students learned about planting, growing, harvesting, and creating natural dyes. Many stitched for the first time, selecting fabrics, designing embroidery, and developing new skills in focus, patience, and creative problem-solving.
While Kayla was in Saugatuck installing the show, she and our Education Programs Manager, Meg Shoup, visited students in their classrooms. At the Careerline Tech Center, she taught students how to transform the plants they had grown into pigment and milk paint; their finished canvases contributed to a collaborative mural titled “Seed Stitch”. At Black River Public Schools and Zeeland Quest, Kayla and Meg guided students through sewing fabric seeds for the Sowing Seeds community installation.
Our team was also able to reach youth in out-of-school programs at CultureWorks, the Children’s Advocacy Center, and the Boys & Girls Club, where students also contributed to Kayla’s “Seed Stitch” community mural pieces.
Through hands-on making, hundreds of young people met a working artist, connected with her process—and became part of the exhibition itself.
The fabric was donated from Conscious Clothing, based in Grand Rapids and the wool for stuffing was donated from Fiber Fleet, based in Fennville! It’s been meaningful to have local partners with similar goals to our artist generously sponsoring in our program with their goods.
Kayla Powers: A Place-Based Artist
We’re honored to showcase the work of artist Kayla Powers at the SCA. Kayla’s practice has been shaped by time spent creating in Norway, Iceland, and Breckenridge—residencies that deepened her relationship with landscape, craft, and the stories materials can hold. Her textiles have been exhibited at the Australian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne, Simone DeSousa Gallery in Detroit, and Stetson University in Florida. This year, she served as the International Artist in Residence at the Australian Tapestry Workshop and received an Environmental Artistic Activism Grant from the Puffin Foundation.
Kayla’s work invites us to slow down and attune ourselves to place. She starts by foraging, gathering what grows where she stands and listening closely to the language of plants as she transforms them into plant-dyed textiles and paintings. Her process is quiet, repetitive, and deeply rooted, revealing the small, essential connections that tie us to the land and to one another.
“When I really try to look at my creative process, it’s hard to tease apart what is my art practice and what is my life. And really, at this point they are one and the same. I’m working to create the conditions for creativity to arise. Taking a walk, reading, writing, meditation, weaving, cooking, sewing, being with friends, with family, gardening…this is how I cultivate the conditions.”
– Kayla Powers
The Impact of Many Hands
What’s unfolded through Flourish, Sowing Seeds, Interwoven and our classroom outreach programming is more than participation—it’s a collective expression of what people carry, what they cherish, and what they hope to pass forward.
As we round out our year of programming centered on the theme of Thrive, we are reminded that art isn’t something that happens in isolation. It happens between people. It grows in spaces of care. It expands in the presence of community. It flourishes when many hands contribute to the same vision. The Art Center believes that creativity and culture enhance the wellbeing of our thriving West Michigan community, and we are committed to supporting artists who inspire connection, spark imagination, and bring their vision to life for everyone to experience.
Visit Flourish
Flourish is on view through May 8, 2026 in our main gallery. Visitors are encouraged to enjoy the exhibition, read the messages shared by participants, and bring home a seed—continuing the cycle of generosity and connection that has made the debut of the Exhibition so profound.
Whether you mailed a seed from afar, contributed your reflections in person, or attended Interwoven, thank you. You have helped it flourish.
