Soil to Soul

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About the Institute
Imagine the Next Institute:
Imagine The Next Institute™ will serve as a catalyst for creative, solutionist
thinking. Because the world needs creative solutionists more than ever, Imagine
the Next Institute will integrate the vision and methods that Janine James has
developed over the past 20 years. With her fellow collaborators, she will
continue to cultivate and evolve this thinking into methodologies that can be
taught, shared, and adapted. We will bring together multi-disciplinary teams
and use these methodologies to educate and inspire people to solve problems
holistically. Our goal is to train a whole new generation of solutionists to elevate
people, protect our planet, and expand our consciousness.
Janine will continue her collaborative work at The Moderns in New York City.
Her plan is to make her vision and methodologies available and accessible
through print, social media, and online, as well as at the Imagine The Next
Institute and Retreat Center. Over the next two years, we’ll conduct rapid
prototyping workshops at the Institute, before fully establishing a program for
diverse and visionary solutionists to participate in our curriculum.
Where
New York City will serve as the urban location for working studies, solutions
and projects, while North Carolina will serve as a solutionist think-tank and
learning center. Located approximately 40 minutes north of Asheville, North
Carolina, in Hot Springs, Imagine The Next Institute is nestled in the Blue Ridge
Mountains. This rural getaway will be a Learning Lab for permaculture
principles,crop harvesting, natural architecture, and biomimicry based systems
integration. In practical terms, it is an extremely peaceful place to retreat.
Asheville has long been known for thought leadership in the New Economy,
and is home to Mycelium School, Black Mountain SOLE, Earthhaven Ecovillage,
and MudStrawLove. Hot Springs is served by one of the nation’s oldest
electric co-ops, Mountain Electric,and Asheville has a number of the nation’s
most eco-friendly campuses—Warren Wilson College, UNC Asheville, and
the Black Mountain College Project.
imaginethenext.tumblr.com

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About the Agency
The Moderns:
The Moderns is a solutions based creative studio that uses strategy and
design methodologies based in social equity and environmental innovation.
We were early pioneers in collaborations with clients from start-ups to
corporations establishing brands that support people, planet and commerce
for healthier profitability with long term brand loyalty. We continue to create
brand communities that are focused on the integration of innovative brand
solutions that care forpeople while focusing on growing market share.
Our interdisciplinary practice incorporates a coterie of specialists from designers,
brand strategists, curators, and sociologists who work together to activate our
ecologically conscious and solution-based strategies. We are a creative agency
that thrives at the intersections of digital and offline human experience.
Under a socially conscious philosophy our thought leadership has been a
resource for more than 22 years.
We are people centered.
We Imagine the Next.
themoderns.com @modernsnyc

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About the nonprofit
More Art:
Mission
More Art is a federal 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to producing
meaningful and engaging works of public art in New York City. More Art garners
the power of public art to encourage social change and bridge the gaps existing
between underserved communities and the general public in New York City.
We make art accessible to all by fostering artistic collaborations between
contemporary artists and local communities and locating all our projects in freely
accessible public spaces. We support artists in their creative endeavors and
provide a public platform of expression for artists and community members
to express themselves through art.
History
Since its inception in 2004, More Art has produced a wide range of projects
reflecting the concerns and challenges of various New York City communities.
Our work started in Chelsea, which, like many areas in the city, underwent a
dramatic period of gentrification, which transformed a working class
neighborhood into the epicenter of the contemporary art world but in turn
marginalized many long-time, low-income residents. More Art focused on
building understanding between the two communities by creating opportuni-
ties for a creative collaboration on public art project. In 2008, for instance, the
month-long Chelsea Art Project featured three public art installations by artists
Tony Oursler, Anthony Goicolea, and Nicola Verlato that were directly inspired
by Chelsea’s complex architectural history and socio-economic fabric. Over
the years, we have built a number of longstanding partnerships with several
organizations, including Hudson Guild, the Chelsea Cultural Partnership and the
Highline, where artists such as Pablo Helguera (2011) have staged their work.
More Art has also worked with public schools including the LAB School for
Collaborative Studies, the Liberty High School and the Clinton Middle School for
Artists and Writers. Education has always been – and remains – central to our
mission. We regularly invite professional artists to work with public middle school
students to introduce them to the many possibilities of contemporary art practice
and encourage them to investigate their own communities, as exemplified in the
projects by Anna Gaskell (2005), Jenny Marketou (2011) and Ofri Cnaani (2013).
In recent years, More Art has reached beyond Chelsea in order to address a
broader range of issues and engage a growing audience; Michael Joo‘s work
(2007-08) was presented in both Chelsea and Miami while Joan Jonas‘ was
exhibited (2011-12) in Soho and Philadelphia. Expanding on our original mission,
we have worked with communities chronically underrepresented in the public
space, such as senior citizens and war veterans – as evidenced by Kimsooja‘s
(2010) and Krzysztof Wodiczko‘s projects (2012). We aim to give a voice to the
unheard and a face to the unseen through art. Consequently, our projects have
gone increasingly ambitious, transcending the traditional boundaries of public
art and expanding into workshops, lectures and panel discussions.
This comprehensive and holistic approach to public art not only enables us
to stress community involvement but also to approach sensitive topics in a
powerful and respectful way. In the future, More Art will continue to push the
possibilities of art by presenting ambitious projects at the forefront of socially
engaged art practice.
moreart.org @moreart

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About the Project
Project Title:
Soil to Soul™
Gentrification, and access to
affordable, healthy food.

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About the Project
What is the problem you would
like to solve?
Imagine the Next®
Institute has chosen to collaborate with The Moderns,
MoreArt, and Chelsea teenagers will collaborate on Soil to Soul™
—a solutionist
approach to a two-pronged problem: gentrification and access to affordable
healthy food. Led by an influx of high-end art galleries, the High Line, upscale
boutiques, and skyrocketing rents, Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood has
experienced rapid gentrification that has hurt diversity and negatively impacted
middle-to-lower income residents. And as the rising cost of real estate has made
life increasingly difficult for longtime residents, it has also made it harder for those
families to put affordable, healthy, nutritious food on their tables.
When under-served communities like Chelsea lose access to valuable cultural
programming that sustains their souls and to nutritious food that nurtures their
health, every city resident suffers.
Soil to Soul will demonstrate the harmony of mind, body,
and soul by artfully illustrating the lifecycle of healthy
food, and explaining how each and every one of us
is connected to the planet—and to each other—by the
food we eat.
Our goal is to combine art with education to inspire community members
to become involved in the lifecycle of their food. Using art as a powerful
experiential tool, Soil to Soul will educate and inspire community members to take
action for healthier food. By coming together to create and experience art—and to
study the scientific connections between the earth, the food we eat, and the
communities we live in—urban dwellers of all backgrounds can build healthier,
happier, more vibrant cities.

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About the Project
How do you propose to solve
this problem?
A. Education
We propose a seven-week workshop for students aged 12 to 18, meeting
on Saturdays and culminating in the Soil to Soul Festival—inviting the
community at large to explore what they’ve learned and to view an experiential
art installation. During the workshop, students will learn the connections
between compostable packaging, composting, soil remediation, heritage
seeds, nutrient-rich foods, healthy individuals, and healthy communities.
By showing students the connection between their neighbor’s Starbucks cup
and their own personal health, we’ll begin to educate the community about
the importance of restoring the planet’s health.

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Continued: How do you propose to solve this problem?
A. Education
1 | The program will begin with
food packaging and food waste.
A handful of national chains (most notably Starbucks),
have begun to recognize the importance of reducing
waste through compostable packaging and food
waste. That’s why they’re rolling out compostable
cups—effectively turning every Starbucks store into a
soil remediation facility.
2 | From compostable packaging
and food waste, we’ll move into
compost itself:
The magic begins when a customer finishes her
morning latte and composts her cup. The cup and
food are broken down into compost—the fuel that
heals our soil and nourishes heirloom seeds.
3 | Next, we’ll make the crucial
connection between compost and
healthy soil.
Our soil is in crisis today—just as our rivers were in
the 1960s—but compost can heal it. Without healthy
soil, heirloom seeds cannot thrive. But in
nutrient-dense, compost-enriched soil they can
sprout, and in turn draw lifeforce from the earth that
surrounds them.

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A. Education
4 | Once harvested, heirloom vegetables
pass those life-sustaining nutrients on to
the people who eat them.
We’ll now explore the many benefits of heirloom crops.
Because many program participants will be New
Yorkers, we’ll discuss the many surprising links
between urban and rural communities. While we can’t
create large-scale, sustainable farms in Manhattan,
we can be mindful of the roles that food packaging and
food waste from big cities play in composting and soil
remediation out in the country where our food is grown
(known as our “foodshed”—the area within a 100-mile
radius of a city that produces much of its food).

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A. Education
5 | As students begin to see the connections
between the planet as a whole and the lunch
on their compostable trays, we’ll move on to
examine the ways that healthy foods
nourish our bodies, our minds, and in
turn our souls.
6 | Finally, we’ll discuss how small
changes can have big impacts.
When a Starbucks coffee cup or food waste becomes
compost, and that compost nourishes soil on a farm,
a farmer can grow a crop of heirloom vegetables.
And when one family’s health begins to improve after
months of eating those vegetables, the family in the
apartment next door may notice and begin to change
their diet, too. Gradually, the entire city will become
healthier and more productive, and more people will
have a few extra bucks to spend on coffee
(in compostable cups), and the cycle can begin anew.

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B. Inspiration
Our choice is to collaborate with MoreArt (moreart.org), who has a 10 year
history of deep commitment to using art as a catalyst for social change in
Chelsea. Working with them, we’ll develop a curriculum and select a world-
renowned artist to collaborate with the students throughout the workshop.
Through his or her work with students, this artist will educate and inspire the
entire Chelsea community—bringing art and culture out of exclusive galleries and
into the community at large, and sharing the story of the healthy food lifecycle
with everyone.
By educating the next generation of composters, Soil to Soul will inspire other
community members to begin to take action themselves—because compost
doesn’t just nurture the soil, it nurtures the healthy foods that sustain our souls.
The experiential art installation will illustrate each step of the healthy food
lifecycle—creating a living representation of the connections between soil and
soul. Through this interdisciplinary collaboration with artists, curators, educators,
environmentalists, and others, Soil to Soul will help an underserved community
bring art and culture into their lives.
Working in collaboration with scientists, doctors, farmers, entrepreneurs,
a world-renowned artist, a neighborhood food activist such as Alice Waters
or Tom Colicchio, Imagine the Next, MoreArt, and students from six different
Chelsea schools will explore the connections between coffee cups, compost,
and communities. The end result will be an educated, inspired group of local
schoolkids poised to share their learning with the community around them
—and a world-class, experiential art installation for everyone.
At the end of the workshop, the community will be invited to take part in the
experiential art installation and a neighborhood Soil to Soul saturday street fair
—sowing the seeds of learning and inspiration in the fertile soil of the
neighborhood that sustains us.
C. Communication
From the integrated print and digital campaigns that promote the workshop to
the seed package, t-shirt and the digital initiatives distributed at the Soil to Soul
Saturday and Sunday Festival that culminates it, we’ll engage the community
as a whole and spark dialogs about the vital connections between composting,
microbusiness, health, and sustainability.
D. Documentation
In addition to the printed piece that will detail the evolution of the Soil to Soul art
project, we’ll create a documentary video to be shared via social media of the
entire journey.

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How do your printed pieces work
together to support your idea and
solve this problem?
• Promotion First, we’ll attract participants. We’ll create posters, seed
packs, and postcards promoting Soil to Soul. Posters will be displayed
on community bulletin boards (such as those found in coffee shops,
supermarkets, churches, and community centers) inviting kids to participate.
Postcards with similar messaging will be prominently displayed in area
businesses such as Starbucks, Chipotle, and Whole Foods—all companies
that actively participate in composting food packaging.
• Workbooks Students enrolled in the program will receive workbooks for
use throughout the course. They’ll be well-designed and graphics-driven
(and printed, naturally, on Sappi paper), with interactive exercises for
students to complete. We’ll also include a robust selection of resource
materials.
• Course materials We will design a spectacular pamphlet series that will
inspire and motivate students. These pamphlets, designed to ignite activism
the same way Tom Paine did in the 18th century, will be distributed at each
phase of the workshop.

Each pamphlet will fit into a slip case and are as follows:
Pamphlet 1: An overview of the curriculum
Pamphlet 2: An introduction to compostable food packaging
Pamphlet 3: An in-depth look at the science of compost
Pamphlet 4: The importance of soil remediation
Pamphlet 5: How heirloom seeds produce healthier food
Pamphlet 6: The impact that healthy individuals can have in building
healthy communities.
• Documentation A beautifully designed coffee table brochure and
documentary video, will chronicle the learning process and the
development of the art installation.
• Collateral materials Posters and brochures at the Soil to Soul Festival will
educate viewers on the lifecycle of food, and the deep connections between
healthy food, healthy bodies, healthy minds, healthy souls, and healthy
communities. In addition, everyone who attends the Soil to Soul Festival
will go home with a packet of heirloom seeds, printed with a brief
environmental message.
• Digital media program participants will receive Soil to Soul T-shirts,
and digital tie-ins will include social media campaigns, a mobile app,
a tumblr blog, a wordpress site, and a video documenting the entire project.
About the Project

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Continued: How do your printed pieces work together to support
your idea and solve this problem?

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Continued: How do your printed pieces work together to support
your idea and solve this problem?
Digital Media Program

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What is the goal of your project,
and how will it motivate its target
audience to take action?
We want to connect people to each other and to the soil that grows the food
they eat. By highlighting the importance of the healthy food lifecycle in
sustaining our minds, our bodies, our souls, and our planet, we’ll begin
to build a healthier community. And Soil to Soul will empower underserved
Chelsea residents to use art as an experiential tool for engaging with neighbors
and inspiring community activism.
Using art as a catalyst, program participants will learn the science behind
compostable packaging, compost, soil remediation, heirloom vegetables, and
healthy eating. From there, they may be inspired to create microbusinesses—
driving connections between community residents and local entrepreneurs to
collect food packaging and food waste, then turn it into compost that sustains
the soul of the local foodshed. This high-visibility art installation and
accompanying community street fair will inspire people to get involved in their
own health, the health of their communities, and the health of the earth—
because healthy food doesn’t just belong to the yuppies who shop at Whole
Foods. It belongs to all of us.
About the Project

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How do you plan to implement and
distribute each component so that
they work together toward your goal?
We will work with Chelsea schools through More Art’s existing
connections to help sponsor, recruit, and house the workshops
with neighborhood students.
Workbooks will be distributed to program participants in classrooms, and handed
out to public-school teachers throughout the city and eventually the nation. The
first Soil to Soul workshop will establish a scalable, teachable framework that can
help communities everywhere understand the value of composting in the healthy
food lifecycle, and empower them to mandate composting of food packaging and
food waste in their own communities—becoming catalysts for soil remediation.
In addition, posters will be placed on community bulletin boards in supermar-
kets, coffee shops, schools, churches, and community centers—encouraging
students to enroll, and inviting community members to attend the opening of the
art installation and community street fair that culminates the program and to
participate in the Soil to Soul Festival. And postcards and branded seed pack-
ages will be used to promote and guerilla market the workshop and the final art
project will be prominently placed in community centers and local businesses
such as restaurants, coffee shops, supermarkets, and more.
We also plan to seek funding and promotional help for the documentary and
digital media from national businesses renowned for their commitment to healing
the environment through composting food packaging, such as Starbucks,
Chipotle, and Whole Foods—and to engage with neighborhood restaurants
on a grassroots level.
About the Project

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What will be the lasting value of your
project, and why does its intended impact
make it an important and timely idea?
As communities across the country begin to mandate composting at least 35
percent of all food packaging and food waste, (such as Seattle, San Francisco,
Portland, NYC, etc) Soil to Soul will begin at a timely moment, and put Chelsea
at the cutting edge of mandatory composting and soil remediation. By re-engag-
ing the underserved community in Chelsea and empowering them to take action
for their own health and that of the neighborhood around them through com-
posting and soil remediation, we hope to build powerful connections—and to
inspire and ignite the community through the experiential art installation created
in collaboration with a world-renowned artist.
By educating community members on the healthy food lifecycle, the importance
of composting to healthy soil, and the ways that healthy soil sustains every
single one of us—mind, body, and soul—Soil to Soul will inspire one Manhattan
neighborhood to begin to change the world.
When people begin to see the connections between soil, food, health, soul,
community, and the earth, they’ll begin to take sustainability personally.
Through a provocative, inspiring, and experiential art installation, the
community’s soul will be uplifted, and people will reconnect with their birthright:
healthy soil, healthy food, healthy soul.
We believe that Soil to Soul can begin to create grassroots change for
composting and soil remediation and thereby healthy souls. Beginning in one
New York City neighborhood, Soil to Soul Saturdays and Sundays could
eventually take root in cities across the nation, growing into a powerful tool for
building healthy communities. Just as River Keeper organizations have spread
and grown nationally for the protection of our rivers, so can Soil to Soul for the
awareness and protection of our soil.
From our apartments and local coffee shops to our foodshed and our
fellow humans, we’re all connected—and if one of us becomes a catalyst
for composting, eventually we’ll all be healthier.
About the Project

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Potential Thought-Leaders, Solutionists and Mentors
to be invited for participation:
Penny Kelly
From The Soil to The Stomach
David R. Montgomery
Dirt: The Erosion of Civilization
Wenonah Hauter
Foodopoly
Will Allen
Growing Power
Alice Waters
The Edible Schoolyard
Derek Denckia
Slow Money NYC
Lower East Side Ecology Center
New York, NY
Maple Grove Composting Center
Seattle, WA
John Cronin and Robert Kennedy Jr.
The Riverkeepers
Dr. Patrick Fratellone
Fratellone Medical Center for Integrated
Medicine, New York, NY
Tom Colicchio
School of Visual Arts
Department of Social and Activist Art
John Jeavons
How To Grow More Vegetables
Danny Myers
Union Square Hospitality Group
Stephanie Owens
Cornell University, School of Art
and Architecture
Matthew Abrams
Mycelium School
Don Gibson
Léman Manhattan Preparatory School
Brian Halweil and Stephen Munshin
Edible Manhattan Magazine
Abbe Futterman
Founder of Earth School (aka P.S.M364),
New York, NY
Mark Sattelmeier
President of Heritage Seed Company
Diane Ott Whealy
Co-Founder of Seed Savers Exchange
About the Project

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General Notes:
• This project is still in development phase for deliverables,
so some details may change. Additionally, some items
may need to be canceled depending on funding.
• We are in the process of fundraising for this project.
The Sappi Grant will of course play a huge role in funding
it, but we are raising money from other sources as well.
• We will be seeking donated materials, in kind printing
and work, volunteers.
• We plan to design this to be a replicable and
scalable pilot.
• Photography, documentary video, illustrations,
digital/apps/social media: to be funded by others.
About the Project

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Sample Visuals
for the project

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COMPOS TABLE
FOOD PACKAGIN G
COMPOS T
HEAL THY
SOIL
HERI TAGE
SEED S
NUTRITION
RICH FOOD
HEAL THY
COMMUNITIES
1
4
2
35
6
Visual Storytelling
Lifecycle of Healthy Food

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Project and Festival Identity

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WEEK 4
HERITAGE
HEIRLOOM
SEEDS
WEEK 2
COMPOSTING
WEEK 1
COMPOSTABLE
FOOD & FOOD
PACKAGING
Pamphlet Series
WEEK 3
HEALTHY
SOIL
WEEK 5
NUTRITION RICH
FOOD
WEEK 6
HEALTHY PEOPLE
HEALTHY
COMMUNITIES

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Pamphlet Series
WEEK 1
COMPOSTABLE
FOOD & FOOD
PACKAGING
YOUR
BRAND
HERE.

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Pamphlet Series
WEEK 2
COMPOSTING
ALL THE WAYS WE COMPOST
WORMS
ALL THE WAYS WE COMPOST
WORMS
WORMS:Build your own worm compost

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Pamphlet Series
WEEK 4
HERITAGE
HEIRLOOM
SEEDS

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HOW DO YOU COMPOST?
W RMSHERE ARE ALL THE OTHER WAYS YOU CAN
COMPOST. HERE ARE ALL THE OTHER WAYS
YOU CAN COMPOST. HERE ARE ALL THE OTHER
WAYS YOU CAN COMPOST. HERE ARE ALL THE
OTHER WAYS YOU CAN COMPOST. HERE ARE
ALL THE OTHER WAYS YOU CAN COMPOST. HERE
ARE ALL THE OTHER WAYS YOU CAN COMPOST.
HERE ARE ALL THE OTHER WAYS YOU CAN
COMPOST. HERE ARE ALL THE OTHER WAYS
YOU CAN COMPOST.

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HOW DO YOU HEAL THE
S IL?HERE ARE ALL THE WAYS YOU CAN HEAL THE
SOIL. HERE ARE ALL THE WAYS YOU CAN HEAL
THE SOIL. HERE ARE ALL THE WAYS YOU CAN
HEAL THE SOIL. HERE ARE ALL THE WAYS
YOU CAN HEAL THE SOIL. HERE ARE ALL
THE WAYS YOU CAN HEAL THE SOIL.

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