This weekend, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum celebrates our cultural love affair with lawns by opening the new outdoor and indoor exhibition, Lawn Nation: Art and Science of the American Lawn. This living installation presents the work of some 30 artists, who examine the idea of lawns through the prisms of conservation, science, history and art.

Through the use of photography, video, interactive displays, and living gardens and grass, everything from lawn mowers to fertilizer to irrigation are examined. Outside the museum, the lawn of the future sprouts up, looking at a range of turfgrass alternatives such as low maintenance ground cover, food plants, and medicinal herbs. 

Overseeing the Notebaert’s new installation is Jill Riddell, the museum’s vice president of exhibits. She joins host Sam Weller for a talk on the exhibition, and what it says about our culture.