Dreamseeds is a visionary exhibition and community healing space, co-created by Hannah Brancato and Sanahara Ama Chandra.

Welcome to Dreamseeds: where you are invited to dream in times of chaos.

Created by Hannah Brancato and Sanahara Ama Chandra, Dreamseeds is a space for making art that moves people from isolation to collective experiences by working with old histories and materials to imagine something new. Dreamseeds cultivates space for visionary and just futures. This socially engaged artistic project and workshop is grounded in our belief that both individual and collective pain and bliss can spark new ideas. These are the seeds with which people can create a more just world.

Below are just some of the dreams we’ve recorded over the last four years.

Dreamseeds through time

This project includes an ever changing series of elements, from various hands on processes like paper making and basket making, a visual art installation, workshop series, sound art, and card deck. Each are avenues to learn from those dreaming and fighting their way into freedom.  It is an homage to their persistence, vision and power.

Dreamseeds launched in 2021 and is inspired by five interviews between Hannah Brancato and anti-sexual violence activists Ignacio Rivera, Jadelynn St Dre, Alexis Flanagan, Sanahara Ama Chandra and Nuala Cabral, and conversations from a series of workshops in Baltimore. The project launch was made possible with support from the Rubys Artist Grant, which is a program of the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation.

An adult, their child, and two other adults making paper at BMA Lexington Market. Everyone is smiling.

Ama and Hannah making paper with a parent and their kid at BMA Lexington Market in 2023. Photo by FAITH McCorkle.

Project History

Dreamseeds began as a series of conversations. In 2020, Hannah interviewed five anti-sexual violence activists to learn about what sustains them in social movements. From these conversations with Nuala Cabral, Ama Chandra, Alexis Flanagan, Ignacio Rivera, and Jadelynn St Dre, and a series of reflective conversations between Hannah and Ama, the collaborators realized that visions for the future were the most important piece of wisdom that each person shared. Scan the QR code below to hear those original interviews.

In 2021, Hannah and Ama joined together to create the vision for Dreamseeds. It would be a socially engaged project that, through visual art, sound healing, and workshops, was designed for dreaming. That year, they were honored to receive the Rubys Artist Grant, which is a program of the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. This funding made it possible for the two artists to launch their collaboration, Dreamseeds, in an exhibition at Gallery CA featuring a paper making and sound healing workshop series, soundscapes, audio interviews, portraits of the original five activists, and a response wall made of recycled paper. Building on the themes of learning from the past and composting the old into the new. 

blue toned image of a black woman with a nose ring, a Black non binary person with blonde hair and big glasses, and a Latine woman with short hair wearing a floral shirt.

Top to Bottom, Left to Right: Hannah Brancato, Nuala Cabral, Sanahara Ama Chandra, Alexis Flanagan, Ignacio Rivera, and Jadelynn St Dre, the original conversants in the Move Slowly project.