Sound Garden at Caponi

Sound Garden at Caponi | September 12 – 26, 2026

A Concert You Can Move Through

Fall is quickly approaching at Caponi Art Park and we’re thrilled to host composer and director JG Everest’s newly installed “Sound Garden” sound sculpture in our new Oak Savannah Restoration area on the north side of the park.

The Restorative Sound Garden is a temporary sound installation that accompanies the existing natural soundscape (birds, insects, wind through the trees, etc) and immerses listeners in spatially composed music, played through 30 speakers, each playing a different part of the whole “Symphony”.  Every step, every turn of the head, results in a different mix and orientation of the music. The featured music will change on different days throughout the 2 weeks of the Art Block Festival, so return visits are encouraged.

The Sound Garden is self-guided and durational, offering visitors a chance to move through at their own pace, and spend as much or as little time as they choose. The longer a listener spends in the Sound Garden, the more their ears adjust to the spatial scale and dimensions of the music, and the more deeply their nervous system is affected.

In addition to the sound installation will be added layers of site-specific poetry, natural sculptures, and live performance, created through free outdoor Art + Nature workshops onsite at the park. (see below) Workshops are free, but with limited capacity, so registration is required.

The Sound Garden will be Open daily from noon – 4:00 PM.
Featured live performances on Sept 12, 20, and 26. 

Free Community Art + Nature Workshops at Caponi

Saturday, September 12

Poetry and Creative Writing in Nature Workshop | 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Free | Space is limited | Registration Required – Register Here
Open to Ages 14 and up. Kids under 16 should be accompanied by an adult. 

• Acclaimed poets and Teaching Artists Chavonn Shen, Teresa Ortiz, and Lisa Yankton will lead a site-specific writing workshop onsite at Caponi Art Park, including a guided nature walk and creative time to write in nature. Poems and Written pieces created in the workshop will then be part of the Sound Garden installation the following weeks, as part of the Eagan Art Block festival, Sept. 12-26.
• Please plan to bring sturdy walking / hiking shoes, your favorite writing utensils, (pen or pencil and paper, phone, etc), a water bottle, and a snack. The workshop is rain or shine. In case of rain, please bring an umbrella and appropriate clothes and footwear.
• Click here to view a sample of one of these workshops.

Guided Poetry Tour | 1:00 p.m.
Free | Registration onsite at the Sound Garden Greeter Table. Limited to 10 people.

Saturday, September 19

Sound Garden Natural Sculpture Workshop | 10:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Free | Space is Limited | Registration is required – Register Here
Open to Ages 5 and up. Kids under 16 should be accompanied by an adult. 

• Join us for an outdoor, site-specific sculpture workshop with sculptor Jim Proctor onsite at Caponi Art Park! The workshop includes a guided nature walk and natural sculpture creation in the park, using natural materials such as pinecones, needles, leaves, flowers, acorns and much more. Art Supplies provided.

Spatial Sounds in Nature Workshop | 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Free | Space is limited | Registration is Required – Register Here
Open to Ages 8 and up. Kids under 16 should be accompanied by an adult. 

• Co-led by Free Range Orchestra Members Carlene “Ms GuGu” Williams and Matty Harris
• Join us outdoors at Caponi Art Park to develop deep listening skills and approaches to accompanying the sounds of nature with music and sounds of our own. No previous experience necessary. Bring your own instruments, but other instruments will be provided at the workshop. Your voice can be your instrument too!

Sunday, September 20

“Mitigwaki” (Forest)| 1:00 p.m. & 3:00 p.m.
Free | Musical performance in the sound garden.

• A choreographed, roving spatial musical performance along the trails of the new Sound Garden space at Caponi Art Park, featuring JG Everest, deVon Russell Gray, Anthony Afful, Nathan Hanson, Matty Harris, Carlene Williams, William “Truth Maze” Harris, and Jeanie Ockuly.
• Performance runs approximately 45 mins. 
• Arrive at least 30 minutes prior to performance time.

Saturday, September 26

 Sound Garden Closing Event | 12:00 – 4:00 p.m.
 Sound Garden + DRPL Performance Installation w/ Free Range Orchestra and Choir 

• At the Sound Garden Closing Event, on Saturday September 26, visitors will have the opportunity to walk through the installation while engaging their senses in unique ways prompted by music, poetry, performance, and sculpture art. Visitors will be encouraged to separate from pre-existing groups and take an opportunity to experience the sound garden, not alone, but in solitude alongside many others.
• At 1pm and 3pm, there will be two live 30-min site-specific dance performances by DRPL (Dance Rec Pickup League) featuring dancers Leslie O’Neil, Sarah Baumert, Erika Hansen, Gabe Anderson, Jamie Ryan, and Eva Mohn, with live roving accompaniment by members of the Free Range Orchestra & Choir.  *Rain or Shine. Exact Performance times may vary depending on weather.

What is a Sound Garden?

What is a sound garden? – It is a site-specific performance installation that uses custom speakers to create an immersive soundscape that blends with natural sounds. Each speaker plays a different part of a piece of music, so the mix changes depending on the listener’s movements. Sound Gardens, like the Fall Sound Garden at Caponi Art Park also include other elements like poetry, visual art, storytelling, dance, and live performances.

JG Everest brought a Fall Sound Garden to the park in 2019. You can read more about that event here. Below are also some videos from previous sound gardens created by JG Everest and Wavelets Creative that help illustrate how a sound garden works and what to expect at Caponi Art Park this fall.

Reflections from past Sound Gardens

“I felt a sense of calm. The music was almost hypnotic. I enjoyed finding the “sweet spots” where everything seemed to come together – music from multiple directions, the sound of the wind in the trees as well as the visuals of the trees and environment. The wonderful dancers, the information signs that described the plants and animals.” – Jen

“I felt wonderful and my experience was wonderful. My favorite parts were the sun, the glorious day, the sound of the cottonwood leaves in the wind.” – Nancy

“I felt really calm and relaxed. It was almost like a guided meditation experience. I really enjoyed the opportunity to slow down, and just notice my surroundings. I was surprised at how much visual and written art there was in addition to the soundscapes.” – AJ

“what a beautiful way to unplug from daily life” – anonymous

“It was magical. I didn’t know where the sound was coming from. I liked that there were created forest structural elements. It felt like a visceral experience. Really like I was enveloped within a different world. When you moved through the Sound Garden the sound changed- you would have different aural experiences. Even if you were sitting in one place, people would bring the sounds near or away from you and it was layered.“ – Beth

“This is an innovative way of using space! I am more peaceful now. Thank you for the vibes!” – Dex

“I felt present and safe and cozy and at peace. Favorite part was reading all of the poems and taking solo space. I was surprised by how I sunk into it.” – Jenni

“An amazing experience. Peaceful, free, connecting with nature and other people.” – Chris

About the Artists

Composer / Historian JG Everest was born and raised in Imnížaska, Mni Sota Makoče (St Paul, MN) and is currently based in Minneapolis. As a composer, designer, director, and performer, he focuses on creating immersive site-specific sound + performance installations for outdoor public natural spaces, with an intention of providing transformative self-guided experiences that connect us more meaningfully to each other and the natural world. His deeper intention is to create spaces for healing, reflection, connection, and rejuvenation through spatial compositions and sonic architectures that accompany the sounds and ‘dances’ that are already occurring in nature.

To do this, he has designed and built an “instrument” through which he can install and “play” / perform his site-specific, spatial compositions through 70+ small, wireless speakers, each playing a different part of the whole piece of music, housed in handmade vessels that serve as objects in the installation (wooden birdhouses, felt sculptures), and distributed over 3-5 acres. He then often accompanies the installation live, with other members of his roving Free Range Orchestra ensemble and other performers including poets, dancers, and visual artists. 

JG Everest has composed, designed, directed and produced over 100 of his Sound Garden sound installation events since 2016, at sites across Minnesota, as well as in Wisconsin, California, Canada, and the U.K. He is the founder and Artistic Director of Wavelets Creative.

Learn more here.

Wavelets Creative is an artist-run non-profit community arts organization that collaboratively produces immersive artistic experiences that inspire a reorientation to the natural world, our shared past, and our own creative possibilities. There are more than 50 artists, composers, performers, culture bearers, and teaching artists in the organization. Since its founding in 2016, Wavelets has developed and presented over 130 different community-based interactive arts events, regularly partnering with local arts and community organizations such as schools, libraries, health clinics, parks, farmers markets, neighborhood organizations, and environmental learning centers.

Learn more here.

Jim Proctor, Sculptor & Teaching Artist

Jim Proctor’s sculptures are constructed of gathered plant materials and can be described as delicate, elegant and original.  His small sculptural works are often measured in inches and crafted from acorns, thorns, plant hairs, stems, winged seeds, and roots which he gathers locally and regionally.

Jim was born in Ohio and studied art at St. Olaf College, graduating in 1992. While at St. Olaf, Jim began to experiment with incorporating plant materials into his landscape and plant inspired paintings. Ultimately, the paint and paper disappeared and he found himself simply recombining plant forms to create sculptural works.

Inspired in large part by his own buckthorn removal work in the natural areas of Northfield and his current home, Minneapolis, he was moved to create public artwork, adapting his methods to bring about a vision of the stark yet unnoticed changes in our natural surroundings, and to promote the cause of ecological restoration.

Learn more here.

Chavonn Shen, Poet, Writer & Teaching Artist

Chavonn Williams Shen (she/they) is from Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was a 2022 McKnight Writing fellow and a first runner-up for The Los Angeles Review Flash Fiction Contest. She was also a Best of the Net Award finalist, a Pushcart Prize nominee, a winner of the Loft Literary Center’s Mentor Series, a fellow with the Givens Foundation for African American Literature, and an instructor for the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop. A Bread Loaf, Tin House, VONA, and Hurston/Wright workshop alum, her writing has appeared in: Diode, Anomaly, AGNI, and others. Her debut book, Still Life with Rope and River, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press. Chavonn has been a collaborating poet and teaching artist in composer JG Everest’s ongoing Sound Gardens project since 2018.

Learn more here.

This Activity is Made Possible By:

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.