Hiya Nashville!

Artist in residence, Moira Williams,
and Parthenon curator, Susan Shockley,
pretending to be columns

Hiya Nashville! My name is Moira Williams and I am an artist in residence for the upcoming FLEX IT! My Body My Temple exhibition at the Parthenon Museum in September. My art practice is a combination of community organizing, research and movement. I create participatory works that bring people together and make explicit the complexity of community and the environment that surrounds us. My project for Nashville underlines two communities that constantly share the same environment and are completely unaware of each other: people and wild yeast. Yep, wild yeast and us! 

By walking throughout the Centennial Park and the Parthenon Museum, I will collect Nashville's enigmatic wild yeast. Once captured, I will create a sourdough sponge to nurture and share with Nashville for community baking. Some of the wild yeast will be dried for more sharing and baking.


I harvest the wild yeast by going for a walk with a bowl of water. Yeast is literally all around us, so as I move through an open space they land in the bowl and come to rest in the water. Then all I need to do is nurture them by making sure they have food and are kept in a warm, comfortable place. I like to provide sustenance from the place they originate, like wild berries that I collect while on my yeast harvesting walks, and organic oat flour.  

Sourdough starter of wild yeast I harvested
and fed mulberries.

Sooo, ya wanna get to cooking with that wild Nashville yeast? No worries, we are building an adobe oven resembling the Parthenon Museum! The oven will be a place for community baking and workshops. We will bake together and discuss healthy, whole grain and handmade food. One-of-a -kind Nashville Sourdough pizza anyone? Please contact me if you are interested in leading a healthy eating and baking workshop OR if you want to walk with me while I collect Nashville's wild yeast: moira670@gmail.com.

Thank you Nashville! I’ve been having a terrific time learning about Nashville’s community by walking and talking with her people. I have gotten to know a little bit by stopping to chat with folks, asking about historical plaques and their shapes (What shape would you be if you were a historical plaque?), sharing in a community meal at West End Methodist Church, picking mulberries, feeling Nashville’s summer air sing and looking up to star gaze.