Mobile Exhibition: Home Grown

LCA and Unpacked Mobile Gallery present the return of the Roving Art Exhibit, an exhibition on a moving truck, from October 1-13, 2026.

LCA launched its first mobile exhibition in fall of 2025 with great success. That exhibit reached 640 people at 14 locations over 10 days and included tours and workshops at parks, rural libraries, Boys and Girls Clubs, churches and community centers. Based on the positive response, and with support of the Michigan City Community Enrichment Corporation and Lynn and Allen Turner, the mobile exhibit returns. This year, we will present Home Grown, curated by Naomi Elson and Lauren Iacoponi.

The mobile exhibit will travel to 13 locations across 14 days, providing over 22 docent-led tours and workshops directly within the community. This groundbreaking initiative marks the first of its kind in La Porte County, bringing the enriching experience of art directly to communities. Stops include Paladin, Inc., Boys and Girls Clubs, Barker Middle School and the Westville Pumpkin Festival.

Home Grown brings together artists who work with materials and processes connected to the natural world. Their practices include mycology, the study and use of fungi; natural dyes, colors made from plants, flowers and other natural materials; earth pigments, natural watercolor paints made from rock and soil; handmade paper, growing plants used to make paper and other nature-based art forms.

The exhibition invites visitors to think about what it means to care for the environment. Several artists in Home Grown practice bioregionalism, caring for, cultivating and working with the prairie environment native to the Midwest. Bioregionalism means living in harmony with your local environment. Rather than treating nature as a resource separate from people, these artists recognize that people, plants, animals, soil, water and climate are all connected. Artists become active caretakers, or stewards, of the land by growing native plants, removing invasive plant species, maintaining community gardens and creating art gardens where plants are grown specifically to produce natural pigments, dyes, and fibers for their artwork. Home Grown reminds us that caring for the places we live is also a way of caring for ourselves, our communities and the living world we all share.

This program is made possible by grants from the Michigan City Community Enrichment Corporation (MCCEC) and philanthropists, Lynn and Allen Turner, enabling LCA to expand its free community art outreach and engagement programs. Unpacked’s curatorial mission encompasses the value of art as an experience, and fosters the relationship between institutions, society and artists.

Image: Bonnie Zimmer, Vessel for Dad (View 2), 41" h. x 18 x 18"