About Craigardan

We’re an arts and community

And we’re building a new Adirondack campus.

Craigardan is a nonprofit arts organization and educational working farm that leverages collective creativity for social good.

Located in the Adirondack Park of upstate New York, we bring people together for place-based and interdisciplinary learning; providing creative residencies, courses, and events that span diverse artistic and knowledge disciplines in order to foster curiosity, inquiry, and collaboration.

organization farm

Craigardan (krā gärden)

Designed by Adirondack architect Nils Luderowski

Board + Staff

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mary Barringer, president

Allison Eddy, vice-president

Lorene Garrett, treasurer

Kate Moses, secretary

Ronald Banaszek

Story Bellows

Austin Frerick

Muriel Luderowski

Loren Michael Mortimer

David Speert

STAFF

Emma Ainsworth, farmer

Theresa-Xuan Bui, administrative coordinator

Vanessa Crowley, program coordinator

Michele Drozd, executive director

FOUNDED IN 2016

By Michele Drozd and Lanse Stover

“Although there are many places where people working in different media might encounter each other at meals or in more formal exchanges, I think the size of Craigardan and the way that collaboration and interdisciplinary connection are built into the mission really allow that to happen to a much greater degree than any place I’ve ever been.

The sense of the particular lodged within and allowing for a larger field of inquiry seems a very important and precious part of Craigardan. This is echoed by its being grounded in a very specific place, with a history and climate and landscape and local concerns particular to where it is, while at the same time welcoming and encouraging perspectives from beyond the place that homes it. Those multiple perspectives are a wonderful part of Craigardan.”

Mary Barringer

Mission + Vision

Craigardan is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a mission to encourage the human imagination to interpret the world with philosophical, ecological, and artistic perspective.

We envision an Adirondack region defined by its makers who are committed to the development of sustainable systems that integrate the needs of human communities with the integrity of the natural world.

WHAT WE DO

Craigardan supports ceramic, literary, visual, and performance artists, as well as farmers, chefs, activists, scholars, and researchers from the Adirondack region and around the world. We cultivate a dynamic that amplifies each individual’s work and activates collective creativity within the community. We believe that fostering the interaction between artists and the local public is as important as providing sheltered time to artists to further their creative practices.

As an organization deeply rooted in this region’s unique history, Craigardan exists at the nexus of processes (re)making this region’s present and future: environmental conservation, the resurgence of small farms, rural economic revitalization, and cultural/social activism.

By developing interdependent connections within our local Adirondack community, we nurture a deep sense of place through people, culture, food, stories, and the exchange of ideas and skills. With a built-in focus on equitable exchange across a wide range of disciplines, Craigardan offers an experience that ties the creative process to larger contexts. This experience leads to new questions and new initiatives; and it generates positive social change through collective creativity.

New Campus

Craigardan’s new campus brings opportunities for creative exchange to our community. We connect the history and ecology of the Adirondacks with the diversity of the world’s brightest artists and thinkers through CREATIVE RESIDENCIES, PUBLIC PROGRAMS, and our COMMUNITY FARM

THE UNIVERSALLY DESIGNED CAMPUS:

• Restores, preserves and stewards all 320 acres for generations to come under the guidance of conservation professionals and best practices for careful and sensitive use of wild lands.

• Allows our programs to support people with all physical abilities; economic and cultural backgrounds; and ways of being.

• Provides the setting for classes, workshops, kid’s camps, lectures, and events that enrich the lives of adults and children in our rural community.

• Welcomes artists and scholars of all ages, skills, and cultures to further their work and expand their creative process while in-residence.

• Allows creative professionals to access the tools, materials, time, and support they need to collaborate across disciplines in a setting that encourages them to view the world and their work with philosophical, ecological, and artistic perspective.

• Provides local residents with a home for creative expression and learning with unprecedented opportunities to exchange skills and ideas with artists and thinkers of national and international renown.

• Includes housing for up to 20 visiting artists; interdisciplinary studios for creative innovation; a community farm for year-round culinary research, food production, and education; a center for classrooms, events, and gallery exhibitions; and multi-use trails for exploration and recreation.

Residencies + Fellowships

Craigardan is a center for creative residencies. We host and support the work of multi- and interdisciplinary artists and thinkers from around the region and around the world. Individuals and groups can apply for residencies at Craigardan from one week to three months.

• RESIDENT INTERNSHIPS: Available in the clay studio, on the farm, or across disciplines.

• CERAMIC ARTS: For ceramic artists working independently, at any stage of their career.

• CULINARY ARTS: Professional kitchen studio space in a creative residency structure for chefs, bakers, food professionals, and experimental multidisciplinary artists.

• PLACE-BASED: Open to individuals of all creative backgrounds and disciplines who wish to push the boundaries of their field here, in the Adirondacks.

• LITERARY ARTS: Open to creative writers of all genres, at any stage of their career.

• SCHOLARS: Professors, students, researchers, and thinkers in all disciplines find broadened perspectives within the creative community.

• VISUAL ARTS: Artists working in traditional and non-traditional media.

• FELLOWSHIPS + FINANCIAL AID: All accepted artists are awarded a partial scholarship. Additional financial aid is available in the form of work exchange opportunities and full fellowships.

“I came back different than when I left and felt so much gratitude for Craigardan and its people. When I arrived what I hoped to do was in the realm of the theoretical, now it is real.”

Andrea Volpe

Public Programs

Craigardan has a reputation for offering high-quality interdisciplinary programs for all ages that nurture the creative process and strengthen ideas of place, purpose and community. (And sharing delicious food is a part of all we do.) These programs include:

• COMMUNITY CLASSES: all levels of arts classes, ceramics, culinary arts, and special offerings by teaching fellows.

• APPLEBARN PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES: a free weekly summer series of artist talks, readings, and research presentations on a wide range of topics.

• WOOD KILN FIRINGS: regular events that bring artists-inresidence and the local community together with food, fire, ritual, camaraderie, hard work, and the shared goal of finishing the artwork of our potters.

• WORKSHOPS: single and multi-day immersive retreats and week-long kids camps taught by experts in their field. Themes range from the arts to wellness, culinary, historical, archeological, agricultural, and even international offerings.

• SUMMITS AND EVENTS: Craigardan partners with regional leaders to present an annual food justice summit We hold annual empty bowl food pantry fundraisers, community makers days, food justice dinners, and ground breaking workshops with the Racial Equity Institute and other partners.

• GALLERY OPENINGS AND ARTIST PERFORMANCES: Past events have included a range of presentations such as: Playing in Earnest: A Life of W.H. Auden in Songs, NeoShamanism and its Discontents, Cooking Food / Creating Sex, Traditional Andean Weaving, Climate Change and Adaptive Food Culture, and Rural Food Justice.

• BOOKGARDAN: a year-long mentorship and literary program for women writers in partnership with Birds & Muses.

“A manuscript of poems takes maybe four or five key turns in its development, each of which I must wait for before moving on; the last key turn in the book I’m finishing now happened at Craigardan; I am increasingly unsure it could have happened anywhere else.”

Christian Barter

Community Farm

Craigardan was one of the very first artist residency programs in the world to include agriculture and culinary arts and to be set within an educational working farm. In addition to providing food to program participants and to the public, the fully diversified farm and working forest activates place beyond beauty and sets the stage for creative thinking. The setting reflects our region’s current and historic ties to agriculture, environmental conservation, and arts and culture.

Serving as a nexus between art and life, work and play, wild and cultivated, the farm is a medium through which we learn interwoven social, ecological, and financial frameworks for understanding process and making decisions. Our working landscape serves as a direct and indirect mode of education, inspiration, and social change. The farm is open to the public daily and offers a number of programs including:

• THE FARM STORE + PROFITS TO FARMERS: Year-round public access to fresh food at fair prices. Local farmers and producers receive 100% of the profits from farm store sales.

• EGG SHARE: We trade free eggs for our neighbor’s kitchen waste.

• GARDAN SHARE: Free weekly farm shares and hands-on educational opportunities for families in need.

• VOLUNTEER: Help on the farm, learn new skills, and take home some of the harvest.

• FREE FOOD FRIDGE: In solidarity, not charity. Available 24/7 on the front porch of the store.

• COMMUNITY DAYS: Seasonal community events, school field trips, guided family farm walks, and organizational partnerships that open up the world of responsible agriculture to the public.

Accountability

Craigardan occupies the Indigenous lands and waters of the Kanienʼkehá:ka people, keepers of the Eastern Door of the Six Nations Rotinoshoni. We acknowledge that Kanienʼkehá:ka people still safeguard the mountains, valleys, rivers, and lakes of Kohserà:ke, as their ancestors had done for millennia. We bring our minds together as one as we give our greetings and our thanks to the Kanienʼkehá:ka people and their relatives among the Six Nations for being on their land today.

We affirm our obligations to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. We honor the Great Law of Peace and Indigenous treaties that made these lifegiving spaces a shared “dish with one spoon” with Wabanaki and Anishinaabe peoples who have held these lands as sacred since time immemorial.

We recognize our Indigenous neighbors at Akwesasne Mohawk Territory, Ganienkeh Territory, Kanatsiohareke Mohawk Community, Kahnawake Mohawk Territory, Mohawks of Kanesatake, Oneida Indian Nation, Abenaki Nation at Missisquoi, the Koasek Band of the Koas Abenaki Nation, Elnu Abenaki Tribe, the Nulhegan Abenaki Tribe, and the Abenakis at Odanak as the original stewards of the land and their past, present, and future connections to their sacred spaces within the Adirondack Park.

We accept responsibility for deceptive land sales and broken treaties that enabled non-Native settlers to establish a farm now called Craigardan on Indigenous land more than two centuries ago. We commit ourselves to healing the intergenerational traumas of colonization, racial discrimination, and environmental degradation through mutually beneficial alliances with our Indigenous neighbors to build sustainable systems that integrate the needs of human communities with the integrity of the natural world.

Understanding Place

CULTIVATING NEW SOIL

When we relocated Craigardan to Elizabethtown in 2019, we imagined the possibilities for expanding our interdisciplinary arts program and extending its impact well beyond the borders of the Adirondacks. We are rooted in the stories of this place and thinking globally.

New York State’s Adirondack region is a state park. It is a patchwork of private and public lands, preserved as forever wild. Located on the flanks of Iononténion (Hurricane Mountain), Craigardan now stewards 320+ acres of field and forest in various stages of regeneration. In the early 1800s, Manoah Miller set out to create a homestead including a forge, sawmill, and kiln on these lands stolen from the native Kanienʼkehá:ka people. Not much of the Miller settlement remains, but the land continues to tell the story and we are listening. We strive to develop a deepened understanding of place, and to allow this understanding to inform our collective work and to guide our path forward.

Since 2019 we have been collaborating with a team of architects, designers, conservation specialists, engineers, craftsmen, artists, historians, and forestry experts to create a new home for Craigardan, to share these stories of place, and to write new ones.

In 2020 we opened the original farmhouse as Craigardan’s new farm store, returning all profits to local farmers. We began to farm the land again, and to gave the food to families who need it. In 2021 we built the summer barn, launched a Community Farm Program, and began work on the new campus site. The main arts campus is located 1/3 mile into the forest, which is in a state of repair after years of logging. We are working within its various stages of regrowth as we continue to farm, turn skidder tracks into trails, rebuild soil, recover pastures, and construct the new buildings. In 2022 we re-opened our summer residency program, supporting more than 65 artists and scholars.

Come Be You

EQUITY VISION

We create space, hold space, and build space to benefit all. We believe in providing equitable opportunities for all people. We are intentionally focused on the support and implementation of inclusivity, with the goal of eliminating barriers to participation by Indigenous Peoples, People of Color, people who identify as LGBTQIA+, and people with disabilities, as well as all who are historically underserved, under-resourced, and underrepresented. Craigardan is antiracist. We reject racial hatred, bias, systemic racism, and the oppression of marginalized groups. We are actively raising our own awareness of and unconscious complicity in systemic racism through trainings, dialogue, accountability, and truth and reconciliation processes.

OUR VALUES

We inhabit a space of process. We design for movement and change. We support and respect diversity in all forms. We are responsive as much as generative. We leverage collective creativity for social good. We think forever.

“Craigardan gave me the space and the tools to let my mind open and dive into a deeper exploration of myself and the world around me. It turned my life upside down in the best possible way.”

Katharine Wyatt

“At Craigardan I experienced the unparalleled bliss of time to focus on my work, to write and think amidst extraordinary beauty. Just seeing the Adirondack mountains outside my window lifted my spirits every dawn, when I sat down to write. ”

Jennifer Steil

“I’m grateful to Craigardan for an incredible experience that changed my life. Sharing a farmhouse with three working writers, dedicated to our solitary craft, gave me permission to call myself a writer.”

Lorene Garrett

Clay + Social Good

Although Craigardan supports creative practice across many disciplines, clay is at our core. Clay’s inherent qualities teach us about process and constantly remind us that change — and transformation — is an inextricable part of creative practice.

As creative people we are constantly shaping, and being shaped by the world around us. We believe that as participants in a community it is a part of our larger process to leverage the collective creativity within Craigardan for positive social change. This includes strengthening our local food system, advocating for racial equity, and promoting our rural, cultural vitality. We are committed to doing the work that effects innovative, actionable transformation in the Adirondacks and beyond by providing:

• RACIAL EQUITY TRAININGS: We partner with the Racial Equity Institute, visionary donors, and other institutions to provide low-cost workshops to the public.

• THOUSANDS OF POUNDS OF FREE LOCAL FOOD: We grow, purchase, and give away fresh local food every day.

• DIRECT SUPPORT TO LOCAL FARMERS: We provide funds to farmers through our Profits to Farmers program and regional food justice work.

• ACCESS TO FRESH LOCAL FOOD: We provide our neighbors with year-round, 6-

“I really did feel like I was an integral part of a beautiful place. The critique session of my manuscript was a vital component of helping me understand what I wanted to say. The kindness and constructive feedback from the group was amazing. The positive energy and the community there were true gifts.”

Theresa Senato Edwards

days-per-week access to food in the farm store.

• ACCESS TO EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES: We design classes and workshops in the arts and agriculture for all ages and abilities.

• FELLOWSHIPS TO ARTISTS: We match the generosity of donors with historically underrepresented residency applicants who need support.

• THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS IN ARTIST SCHOLARSHIPS: We provide $20,000 in artist scholarships each summer.

• GARDAN JOURNAL PUBLICATION: We publish a bi-annual journal to connect and amplify the work of artists in our region and around the world.

• EDUCATIONAL INTERNSHIPS: We provide one-on-one mentorship through our experiential internship program in the arts and agriculture.

• REGIONAL FOOD JUSTICE LEADERSHIP: We are a founding partner of the regional Food Justice Working Group and the Adirondack Food Systems Network.

• LOCAL PARTNERSHIPS: We convene and partner with leaders across sectors for summits, events, and discussions that lead to grassroots and grasstops change.

“To find my voice as an artist, and to leave with a direction and a good idea of what I wanted to do and who I wanted to be, that was a big accomplishment.”

Kyle Brumsted

“While at Craigardan, I felt a sense of motivation - that there were people on my team, and that the process of doing the work was valuable in-and-of-itself. The end product was less important than the process and the act of sharing that process. Which is very valuable in a residency.”

Jeff Mertz

CONTACT / LEARN MORE / APPLY

CRAIGARDAN

www.craigardan.org

info@craigardan.org

518.242.6535

9216 NYS Route 9N Elizabethtown, NY 12932

Photography by Jeff Mertz