Setting Seed is an evolving public artwork by San Antonio artist and printmaker Margaret Craig, installed at the McNay Art Museum on May 13, 2026, and dispersed during McNay Family Day on June 7, 2026.
Craig transforms discarded plastic and other recycled materials into delicate alternative evolution flowers, or seeds, through cast acrylic etching. Gathered together on a tree, the seeds evoke the clustered winter roosts of monarch butterflies while inviting reflection on pollution, adaptation, and humanity’s relationship with the natural world.
Unlike a traditional exhibition, Setting Seed was designed to change over time. On a certain day, the seeds left the tree and escaped into the McNay courtyard, mixing with the natural garden plants there. Visitors were invited to remove a seed and take it home, gradually dispersing the installation beyond the museum. In taking a seed home, each participant became part of the work’s migration, a dispersant of invasive species, carrying these imagined life forms beyond the museum just as butterflies or wind disperse seeds across a landscape. Its meaning unfolded through these small acts of participation, transforming visitors from observers into stewards of the artwork’s continuing journey.
Each seed became both a unique work of art and a reminder that individual actions—whether contributing to pollution or protecting the environment—can spread far beyond where they begin.
The artist thanks the City of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture for its support and the McNay Art Museum for its collaboration. Previous versions of this interactive art happening have taken place in Salina, Kansas, during the Smoky Hill River Festival, and in San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the Southern Graphics Council International conference.
