eco-conspiracies

CON: with
SPIRE: to Breathe

The idea of eco-conspiracies grows from the idea that we breathe together with plants. As the foundation of ecological webs, native and bioregional appropriate plants serve to restore habitats, especially through the tight urban spaces where most of us dwell. Opening space for contemplative practice, we invite visitors to slow down and breathe with surrounding plants in our spheres, practice creative acts of sci/art conservation, and share seeds and their stories with neighbors to pass regenerative acts forward.

Using Art to Bring Wildlife Conservation Closer to Home
Broadening perceptions of ‘home’ to include outdoors spheres around our lived-in structures, we encourage deepened relationships with non-human species who dwell with us in the urban corridors we call home, thinking of ways we may increase connectivity across Denver’s communities.

EXHIBITION
DATES: March 1 – April 30, 2026
An immersive installation sharing stories of creative restoration work by practitioners within the Creature Conserve community interspersed with local artists’ multi-disciplinary approaches of re-inhabiting conservation.

Spring 2026 engagements

Sunday, March 29: 10a – 12p
Native Seed Packaging Work Party

Hang out and help us package up seed for the upcoming Colorado Native Plant Society‘s Annual Conference and local seed shares. Participants can take seed with them after the event. The Galleries are a lovely, light-filled space perfect for this kind of slow, relaxing work. Come pack seeds and chill. We will provide seed, envelopes, packing instructions, and a place to make new friends. Feeling creative? Lee Lee will offer hints on how to approach various drawing/mixed media techniques to create artworks to be used on seed packaging.
GALLERIES on DOWNING: 420 North Downing, Denver CO 80218

Thursday, April 16: 7pm
Artists critique with Faith Williams Dyrsten

A free group for all artists and creators seeking to improve their work through thoughtful, peer feedback. Meeting every Third Thursday in Denver since 2013.
GALLERIES on DOWNING: 420 North Downing, Denver CO 80218

Saturday, April 18: 1-4p
Volunteer Day in the Stiles African American Heritage Gardens

Join us for spring spruce-up of the Stiles Gardens! We will be giving away pollinator powerhouses that were installed with the People & Pollinators Action Network as we thin the garden to open space for more diverse plantings. Seeds will be sown & are available to take home. Kala Greene, director of the Stiles Center will be on hand from 2-4p to give tours of the Heritage Center founded by her mother, Grace in the early 1990s.
Stiles African American Heritage Center 2607 Glenarm Place, Denver, CO 80205

Thursday, April 30: 6:30 – 8:30p
Goodbye Grass! Workshop with Faith Williams Dyrsten

Faith’s mixed-media illustrations are observations on the phases of new growth, ongoing
decay, and insect life. After removing the turf grass from her front yard using the “cardboard composting” method, Faith took pieces of cardboard back into these changed garden spaces and created live drawings of the plants. This series questions our needs for the traditional suburban grass lawns and considers what can happen when we create more pollinator-friendly spaces. Workshop will be paired with a demonstration of the cardboard method in the gardens at the GALLERIES and a presentation on grass replacement methods.
GALLERIES on DOWNING: 420 North Downing, Denver CO 80218

RSVP to any of these engagements by e’mailing leelee@creatureconserve.com

THANK YOU to the HABITAT Library for an engaging pop-up in 2025. A handful of works from Nature Heals are still on display in the GALLERIES to support the World Central Kitchen’s hunger relief in Gaza:

REVIEW: New Art Space Galleries on Downing Cultivates Community
Habitat Library has also found a temporary home in the space.
Come see it at an October 5 open house. By Kristen Fiore – WESTWORD

TAOS distillery

– Restorative Retreats – Community Workshops – Sci/Art Residencies –

Acequia
El Agua es la Vida – Water is Life

TAOS | New Mexico
The TAOS Distillery sits on Los Lovatos ditch, the oldest of 75 active Acequias in the Taos Valley. Today it is used as a platform that bridges art & science to engage discourse around water issues in arid steppe ecologies.

Tetouan | Morocco
Tracing origins of Acequias: the Rif
Residency at Green Olive Arts

Blanca | Spain
Investigations of Acequias installed in this valley by Andalusian settlers who arrived on the Iberian Peninsula in the 9th century. The ‘huerta’ was their last stronghold before being pushed back into Morocco.
Residency at AADK

 

FIELDWORKS

SEED :: den
Stiles African American Heritage Gardens

Mulatamicuwon | MAINE

SEED | Haiti