ABOUT CRAIGARDAN
Craigardan is an international residency program in the heart of New York State’s six-million-acre Adirondack Park. We’re a nonprofit arts organization on an educational working farm that leverages collective creativity for social good. Join us on campus this year! Craigardan provides CREATIVE RESIDENCIES to artists and scholars from around the region and around the world. We also offer PUBLIC PROGRAMS such as classes, workshops, and events throughout the season. And all of this is set within our working COMMUNITY FARM, with educational opportunities and foodaccess programs including our popular Farm Store.
PROGRAMS + EVENTS
Read through this guide and circle all of the things that interest you. From food and farming to artist talks and inspiring classes, there’s something for everyone. Please note: some offerings require advance registration.
Read full program details and instructor bios online. Keep up with Craigardan news and additional offerings throughout the year by following us on social media (@craigardan), or sign up for our email newsletter on our website.
TO REGISTER
Visit www.craigardan.org/events to read full program descriptions, find more event details, and to register. Program locations on campus will vary — online descriptions will specify parking and meeting locations either at the farm or on the main campus.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
The farm, farm store, and our office is open to the public Monday through Saturday, 9am-6pm. The main campus is only open to the public during events and
classes. Otherwise, main campus visits can be arranged by phone 518.242.6535 or email info@craigardan.org.
RESIDENCIES
Creative Residencies are available to artists and scholars from around the region and around the world. We support individuals and groups working in more than 25 different disciplines, at all stages of their careers, and provide more than $125,000 in scholarships and fellowships each year. The application period for 2026 residencies is open from September 1 through January 15. Learn more online at craigardan.org/residencies
SUPPORT
2025 Public Programs are made possible by the generosity of participants and individual donors like you, with additional support from the Essex County Arts Council, and the vision of numerous foundations and grantors. Craigardan’s Residency Program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
*PROGRAM FEE STRUCTURE
While many of our programs are free (with thanks to your support - see above), we also offer classes and events with a fee. There are three prices to choose from on a sliding scale:
subsidized | regular fee | help others
Upon registration, we trust you to choose the right fee that matches what you can afford. Do you need financial assistance? Can you pay the regular rate? Do you have the ability to pay a bit more and make funds available for others?
If in doubt, give us a call at 518.242.6535 or email program@craigardan.org
Public Programs + Events: Read full descriptions and register online at craigardan.org/events
Year-Round
RESOURCE FREE FOOD FRIDGE
Offered in solidarity, not charity! Everyone deserves access to healthy, fresh, local food — no questions asked. Take what you need and/or donate what you can. Please help us spread the word to individuals and families who could benefit from free access to local food. In addition to our farm, more than 14 farms and individuals contribute to the fridge each year.
The Summer fridge is available 24/7 on the front porch of the farm store from April through November.
The Winter fridge is available inside the Farm Store during our open hours: MondaySaturday 9am - 6pm, from November through March.
The Free Food Fridge is supported in part by the Adirondack Foundation, the Glenn and Carol Pearsall Adirondack Foundation, and the Empty Bowls, Full Heart fundraiser. Please contact program@craigardan.org with any inquiries and/or if you are interested in donating food.
May - October
RESOURCE COMMUNITY GARDEN BEDS
May 1 - November 1 // Sliding Scale Fee
Our accessible community garden beds provide an opportunity for you to grow your own veggies, herbs, and flowers - with help!
Our professional farm staff will work with you and your family to meet your needs and can provide soil, compost, garden tools, seeds and starts, and even periodic watering and weeding. You can request as little or as much assistance as you need. This is the perfect opportunity for groups or families to begin learning, growing, and harvesting their own organic food with minimal investment. We have a limited number of beds, advance registration is required.
April - November
Year-Round
RESOURCE FARM AND STUDIO TOURS + HANDS-ON EDUCATION
We welcome school field trips, college courses, guided family farm walks, and organizational partnerships that open up the world of art, pottery, ber, ecology, culinary education, and responsible agriculture to the community. We are able to design or host educational programs to meet the needs of diverse groups, skill levels, and interests. To inquire, please email program@craigardan.org.
RESOURCE EGGSHARE / FREE COMPOSTING
Sign up for EggShare and turn your kitchen scraps into free eggs. For every 7 buckets of compost you bring to the farm, receive a free dozen eggs — it’s like getting paid to keep your food waste out of the trash!
We also accept organic materials and food waste for composting that cannot be fed out to our chickens and pigs — at no charge (but does not count towards the EggShare program). The compost will result in soil to fill our accessible raised beds used for education and community gardening. Stop by the farm store to learn more and to sign up. One-time $14 fee includes a compost bucket, instructions, and first free dozen eggs.
February 7 - 17
WORKSHOP CLAY, FOOD + FIRE!
PORTUGAL - INTERNATIONAL RETREAT with Sam Taylor and Mark Shapiro
$4950 | $3950 | $6450
Joined by American potters Sam Taylor and Mark Shapiro, we are hosting a very special program in collaboration with Clay Kitchen Portugal; a ceramic retreat center for lovers of clay, wood firing, and hands-on ceramic education overlooking the stunning landscape of Ribeira da Azenha in Southwest Portugal.
This 10-day program is about clay; but it is also about place: people, food, culture, and the exchange of skills and ideas in a beautiful location with a rich history. We’ll watch and learn from master potters, we’ll make good work, but we’ll also experience the art of living + building community in a whole new way. All participants will be staying at the beautiful Três Marias, which is only a short walk from the studio. Located in Southwest Portugal, halfway between Porto Covo and Vila Nova de Milfontes, Três Marias is a country guesthouse integrated in an Alentejo property, where the large plains merge with the hills of the Serra do Cercal in a scene reminiscent of African landscapes. Program Fees. Fees include accommodations, all meals, studio space, instruction, and outings. Travel is not included. More information and registration online.
**Stay Tuned for our 2026 International Retreat!
April 28 - May 5
WORKSHOP 2025 SPRING WRITERS INTENSIVE with Kate Moses
$1500 | $2800
Join us for a week-long writing retreat in the Adirondacks and experience fresh local food, beautiful spring views, and a full literary curriculum!
This writing-intensive retreat with acclaimed writer and mentor Kate Moses is designed for writers of literary narrative projects – fiction, memoir, creative nonfiction, and hybrid works (also including poetry, drama, or images) – at any stage of the writing process, whether in an advanced draft of a long-form manuscript, in the early phase of exploring a nascent literary idea, or anywhere in between. All participants will receive individualized conferencing with Kate and can choose from the daily group craft & process sessions appropriate to their current needs.
The writer’s retreat will offer sanctuary and time in which to write, make room for the imaginative wandering that leads to writing, and provide guidance and mentorship as desired and appropriate for each writer. This opportunity is designed for writers deeply committed to their craft, whether they are published or yet to be published. It's important to note that this is not a pampered retreat but a focused environment where serious writers can intensively immerse themselves in process and develop their work. Program Fees. Fees include accommodations, all meals, and the program + curriculum for the week for each participant. Travel and optional longer manuscript reviews are not included. More information and registration online.
September 1 - 8
WORKSHOP WOOD KILN FIRING with Kyle
Brumsted
$850 | $1300 | $1850
Join us for a week-long workshop to gain hands-on experience learning about the exciting process of ring with Kyle Brumsted.
This workshop is intended for ceramic artists of all levels who are interested in learning more about atmospheric firing. Participants will spend the week at the beautiful Craigardan campus, glazing, loading and firing our wood/salt kiln as a group, with instruction and feedback from Kyle at each step along the way. While the kiln cools, there will be time for group outings to hike and swim, and demonstrations in the ceramic studio. Everyone will be required to bring 2-3 cubic feet of high-fire bisqueware, but no prior wood firing knowledge is necessary. The workshop will focus on learning the foundational techniques and theories of atmospheric firing through a full firing cycle of the Craigardan wood and salt kiln. After an in-depth explanation of how the atmosphere affects different surfaces, participants will prepare their own work to fire with provided slips, glazes and, wadding. Next, a full day will be spent loading the kiln; understanding the best practices for an even firing and successful surfaces. The third day is the firing itself — everyone will be taking shifts to stoke the kiln and bring it up to temperature before the excitement of salting. While the kiln cools, there will be demonstrations in the studio and excursions into nature. After we unload the kiln together and assess the results as a group, there will be opportunity for individual feedback from Kyle.
Program Fees. Fees include accommodations, food, materials, and the program + instruction for the week for each participant. More information and registration online.
MTB
BEGINNER RIDES
Tuesdays June 3 - Sept 23
WEEKLY EVENT TUESDAY BEGINNER MTB RIDES with Mark Nassan
Every Tuesday Evening, June - September 6:30pm - 8pm // FREE
Join us at the Blueberry Hill Trails in Elizabethtown every Tuesday evening (weather permitting) for group mountain bike rides with local guru Mark Nassan. This is geared towards beginners but all levels are welcome for this fun, supportive, laidback group ride. Mark provides skills, tips, and techniques along the way, so you’re sure to learn something new every time.
Meet at the Bronson Way parking area with your bike, helmet, water, and snacks. Registration is not necessary — feel free to bring a friend and spread the word.
Thursday, April 24
CLASS BICYCLE MAINTENANCE with Mark Nassan
5:00pm - 7:00pm // $20 or $40 if you bring a bike
Mark Nassan has over 35 years of experience as a bike mechanic. Come join us and learn basic bicycle maintenance that will allow you to get back on the road or trail with confidence in no time. Save money and time, and learn new skills to ensure a safe and smooth ride wherever your adventures may take you. Advance registration is required.
Thursday May 8
EVENT BRIDGING DIVIDES DISCUSSION SERIES: Mental Health in the Arts (and in everything else!)
6pm - 7:30pm // FREE
We will have a conversation with writers Michele Parker Randall, Gregory Amos, and Jumi Bellow about their experiences with mental health, their creative journeys in response to those experiences, and mental health as a spectrum which is experienced differently by all of us. This will be a vivid conversation that may trigger some participants, and we will provide resources for those who wish to learn more or seek help. This discussion will also be livestreamed, and registration is required for those who wish to join remotely.
Thursday, May 15
CLASS BICYCLE MAINTENANCE with Mark Nassan
5:00pm - 7:00pm // $20 or $40 if you bring a bike
Mark Nassan has over 35 years of experience as a bike mechanic. Come learn basic bicycle maintenance that will allow you to get back on the road or trail with confidence in no time. Save money and time and learn new skills to ensure a safe and smooth ride wherever your adventures may take you. Advance registration is required.
Tuesdays May 13- June 17
CLASS POTTERY ON THE WHEEL with Macayla Sandusky
Tuesday evenings, May 13 - June 17
6pm - 8pm // *choose: $140 | $180 | $220
Join us in the clay studio this summer for this alllevels, 6-week pottery class. We’ll get our hands dirty and make great pots!
This fun class guides the beginner through basic techniques: working with clay, the centering process, pulling cylinders, and creating functional ware on the wheel. For more advanced students, we will teach new tips and techniques for getting the right form and making larger pieces. We will be learning basic glazing techniques, and preparing our pots to fire in Each participant will take home finished functional ware.
Class fee includes materials, firings, instruction, and five optional open studio sessions on Saturday mornings. Advance registration is required.
Thursdays May 15- June 19
CLASS DREAMY FORMS AND SURFACES with Macayla Sandusky
Thursday evenings, May 15 - June 19
6pm - 8pm // *choose: $140 | $180 | $220
Make functional coil-thrown vessels using surface decoration techniques to illustrate imaginative narratives.
Learn how to build textured mugs with coils as well as throwing on the wheel. Water carving, sgraffito, and glaze inlay techniques will demonstrate layering to achieve surface depth on pottery. Materials such as slips, oxides, matte and glossy glazes will provide multi-textured interfaces to experiment with achieving blurred and whimsical effects. With interactive image building through drawing and stencil making, students will develop dreamy designs that respond to form. This course is an accessible way to engage with ceramic surface decoration, especially for those who feel stumped by glazing.
Class fee includes materials, firings, instruction, and five optional open studio sessions on Saturday mornings. Advance registration is required.
Saturday May 17
EVENT SPRING LAMB JAM
11am - 2pm // FREE
Come experience the sights, sounds, and textures of farm life as we celebrate the arrival of Spring! From meeting our playful lambs to exploring the world of bees, learning about composting, and getting creative with wool, this family-focused event is perfect for all ages.
Meet the Lambs. Come see our baby lambs bouncing joyfully in the pasture. Give them some scratches and learn about our lively Tunis sheep—a heritage breed known for their soft wool and sweet personalities.
Beehive Inspection. Join our beekeepers for a close-up look inside Craigardan’s hives. Learn about bee behavior, honey production, and pollination, plus try to spot the queen! Taste-test honey from a few local hives and compare with the grocery store version.
Composting 101. Learn how to compost food scraps, leaf litter, and more in your own backyard. We’ll cover different composting methods, managing wildlife, and how to make high-quality compost.
Felting Activity. Get hands-on with one of the oldest and easiest textile arts. Learn multiple felting techniques and create a wool project to take home, using raw fleece from our very own flock.
Picnic Lunch. Pack lunch to bring, or purchase food while here to enjoy on the farm.
BRIDGING
Thursday, May 22
EVENT BRIDGING DIVIDES DISCUSSION SERIES with the Uncertainty Academy: Data, Art, and Action
Thursday, May 22nd from 6 - 7:30pm // FREE
We will have a conversation with artist Tal Beery, scholar Joshua Moses, and this year’s Uncertainty Academy cohort.
Science and art have at times been viewed as opposing forces, and at other times, as necessary and even intertwined allies. Today, as the urgency of climate change intensifies, the question of how scientific data can effectively communicate and resonate with lived realities on a warming planet has become central. If science seeks to document and explain, art offers ways to reframe, interpret, and connect. Science and art, in different yet complementary ways, shape our understanding of and response to planetary crises. The discussion will also be livestreamed, and registration is required for those who wish to join remotely.
Thursdays, May 30 + June 5
Saturday, June 21
CLASS POETRY: PLAYING WITH WORDS with Theresa-Xuan Bui
6pm - 7:15pm // *choose: $10 | $20 | $30 per class
Join Teaching Fellow Theresa-Xuan Bui for an immersive course that explores experimental writing practices. By engaging with unconventional exercises, participants will learn to embrace spontaneity in their writing, unlocking new dimensions of creativity and self-expression. We’ll explore mind-mapping, collage, collaborative group writing, and more. Participants may join one or both sessions. Advance registration is required.
EVENT EMPTY BOWL, FULL HEART MAKERS
DAYS IN THE CLAY STUDIO
10am - 12pm and 1pm - 3pm // FREE
Come join Craigardan and Empty Bowl Full Heart in creating bowls for the 2025 fundraiser to support local food pantries. No experience is necessary! Choose the morning or afternoon session. We’ll be creating bowls by several methods that will later be glazed and fired in the wood kiln. You'll be getting your hands “dirty” with clay and learning how the process works while supporting local food initiatives. This is a fun event for adults and teens 12 and older. Registration is appreciated.
Thursdays June 26 + July 3
CLASS LET’S MAKE ZINES! With Sally Pirie
6pm - 8pm // *choose: $20 | $30 | $40
Join Teaching Fellow and award-winning cartoonist Sally Pirie as we learn how to turn our own smallmoment stories into beautiful mini-magazines (or, “zines’). Zines are the ultimate multi-media experience: In this class we will experiment with words and pictures as we learn and practice the basics of visual storytelling, comic art, and beginning paper bookmaking. Together, we will learn how to make three different types of zines --with lots of variations, tips, tricks, bells, and whistles along the way. This is a class for all levels, from people who have never drawn anything before to those who feel confident in their drawing abilities. Everyone will leave class with at least three completed zines of their own, ready to share! Advance registration is required.
Saturday, July 12
CELEBRATION
Saturday, July 12th
3pm - 8pm
FREE // suggested donation
Join us for our annual summer party! We’ll celebrate the fire that brings us together, the summer harvest, and the community of artists, scholars, and creatives all around us.
As per tradition, we will light all of the fires: the wood kiln, the pizza oven, and the campfire. Each year the event grows as our campus and community continues to grow — and we’ll have a few surprises to share this year.
Come for a fun afternoon full of art, friends, music, and food. We’ll be firing the wood kiln all day and cooking pizza’s in the wood-fired bread oven. Bring family and friends to explore the grounds and new trails, listen to music, hang out by the fires, picnic on the lawn, and celebrate the arts. Pick up some incredible artwork at the studio sale, and learn more about our residency program during a special public roundtable presentation with our alumni and executive director at 5 pm.
ANNUAL BENEFIT
This is a free, “open house” style event. Come and go throughout the afternoon — but we hope that you’ll also consider making a donation to help support Craigardan’s programs and ongoing campus development. Last year’s event helped us award more than $125,000 in scholarships and fellowships to artists and scholars from around the Adirondacks and around the world.
PICNIC DETAILS
During the celebration we’re picnicking on the lawn with gorgeous views overlooking the mountains. Throw a blanket out in the field or choose a table in the tent. Pizzas are available hot out of the wood-fired oven all day; and drinks and snacks are available at the bar.
Learn more and donate online at www.craigardan.org/events
Event Image: Print of a potter firing a wood kiln by Akio Takamori, used with permission courtesy of Vicky Takamori.
Thursday, July 31
Thursdays August 14, 21, 28
EVENT BRIDGING DIVIDES DISCUSSION SERIES: Storytelling; Narrative and Nuance
Thursday, July 31st from 5-6:30pm // FREE
We will have a discussion with artists Michael “Yoko” Amos, Erica Berry, and Gayle Burnett about their work as writers and storytellers, and about using the power of the medium to have difficult conversations that touch on topics such as climate change, racial inequity, and politics. This discussion will also be livestreamed, and registration is required for those who wish to join remotely.
COOKING CLASS FOOD STORIES, THE FOOD SYSTEM AND NOURISHMENT with Jenny Breen
6pm - 8pm // *choose: $140 | $180 | $220
Join 2025 Teaching Fellow Jenny Breen for handson cooking classes that will bring together stories about our food, where it comes from, how we prepare and experience it, and why it matters for our health and the health of our planet. We will practice basic culinary techniques, and play with local, seasonal ingredients while exploring the importance of the quality and sources of our food. We will discuss how to balance affordability, nutrition, flavor, and time, while also letting our creativity loose. Each class will be conversational, and experiential, and together we will prepare a delicious three-part meal while asking and answering important questions about how to nourish people, our communities, and the planet in the kitchen. Class fee includes three dinners. Advance registration is required.
September 9, 16 +18
CLASS FLEECE TO FABRIC with Lauren McElroy
6pm - 8pm // *choose: $140 | $180 | $220
Join 2025 Teaching Fellow Lauren McElroy to learn the timeless techniques for transforming raw wool into beautiful handspun yarn. Utilizing sheep fleeces from the Craigardan farm, students will learn how to skirt, wash, card, comb, and spin the wool into their own usable yarn. With time for both oneon-one instruction and community building, We will engage mindfully in the ancient practice of creating textiles with the work of our hands, intention, and simple hand tools. Join us for this three-session course and take your fiber skills to the next level. Class fee includes all materials, and advance registration is required. Photo courtesy of The Crafters Box
literary
works-in-readings progress scholarly research poetry ceramics + craft music creative inquiry
SERIES
FRIDAY APPLEBARN TALKS with Craigardan’s 2025 Artists-In-Residence
Every Friday: May 9 - September 19 5 - 6pm // FREE
Join us throughout the residency season for this free public series of informal artist talks, readings, and presentations. We’ll learn about works-in-progress from our artists and scholars-in-residence with informative and inspiring presentations across disciplines.
The following weekly schedule includes bios* from the presenting artists for a sneak peek at who you’ll meet. Each artist presents for only 15 minutes, adding up to an alternative Friday “happy” hour. This is a wonderful way to kick off your weekend! Bring a friend, all are welcome.
These presentations take place in the Applebarn on Craigardan’s main campus. The main campus entrance is located two driveways west of the farm store on Rt 9N, look for the “main campus” sign. The Applebarn is the first building on your left as you come up to campus, before the parking areas.
*Please note: the artist bios may have been shortened for publication, and not all presenters may be included at the time of printing. Unabridged bios and current speaker lists can be found on our website at craigardan.org/events.
Adam Vander Tuig is Craigardan’s 2025 John Brown Lives! Fellow. Adam is a theologian, educator, and John Brown enthusiast, born and raised in rural Nebraska. He currently works as the Faith-Based Educator and Researcher at the Highlander Center, a folk and movement school founded in 1932 in the mountains of East Tennessee, and is a recent recipient of a Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship (2023). Adam is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (PhD), Harvard Divinity School (MDiv), Jesus College in the University of Cambridge (MPhil), and Nebraska Wesleyan University (BA). He organizes with Christians for a Free Palestine, facilitates base societies with the Institute for Christian Socialism, and is an ordinand in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He adores and delights in his spouse and three children (one of whom was named after John Brown).
Yvette White is Craigardan’s 2025 First Peoples Fellow. She is an Abstract Mixed Media Artist from the Akwesasne Mohawk Territory. As a wife and mother of two, Yvette has carved a distinctive place for herself within the local art community, transforming the challenges and triumphs of her life into vibrant, thoughtprovoking art. Her educational journey, culminating in degrees from St. Lawrence College via Iohahi:io in 2011 and SUNY Potsdam in 2017, set the stage for her persistent and passionate engagement with the Akwesasne Art World.
Her portfolio delves into themes of profound social and personal significance—addressing intergenerational trauma, confronting sexual assault, advocating for breast cancer awareness, and illuminating the tragedy of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women with her award-winning piece, “Lost and Followed.” This artwork, in particular, has been recognized with a Juror’s Choice award at the 2023 Akwesasne Art Market and Juried Show, marking a significant achievement in her career and in the fight for justice and visibility.
Jumi Bello is a disabled black woman writer from Washington DC who writes about madness and the future. After spending the majority of her twenties living overseas in Asia
as a high school teacher, Jumi received her MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writer’s Workshop and is now an English + Creative Writing PhD candidate at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Her doctoral research focuses on contemporary American literature, speculative fiction, disability studies, mad studies, and carceral studies.
As a writer, Jumi is focused on producing work that radically reimagines how the world understands carceral ableism and care within the context of supporting people of color who live with psychiatric disability. For her doctoral dissertation, she is completing a draft of a literary speculative novel about radical mental healthcare, disability justice, and Black Panther Party activism in twentieth-century Chicago. Her work has been supported by various literary institutions including StoryStudio Chicago, the Lighthouse Writer’s Workshop, Corporeal Writing, Tin House, Roots Wounds Words, Writing x Writers, Hurston/Wright Foundation, the Black Mountain Institute, and Kenyon Review Writer’s Workshop. Jumi lives in the Midwest with her husband and stepson.
MAY 16
Lu Chekowsky (she/they) is an Emmy-winning writer and creative director who built a successful career in media through gut, intuition and addiction to approval. Her forthcoming book, DON’T BUY WHAT I’M SELLING (Little, Brown 2026) is part memoir about Lu's lifelong relationship to advertising and part manifesto about how others can break free from the grasp of advertising's relentless, targeted influence. Lu’s poems and essays have appeared in The Rumpus, Pigeon Pages, The Maine Review, and others. Her work has been supported by MASS MoCA, Vermont Studio Center and Monson Arts. She is currently a New York State Council on the Arts/New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow in Nonfiction Literature.
Gregory “Greggo” Amos began his professional career as a writer in 1987 with a reflective essay published in Essence magazine. In addition to magazine writing, Greggo co-wrote a story for the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Other freelance credits include co-writing the selfhelp book The Power in You with cookie mogul
Wally “Famous” Amos (Greggo’s father).
Greggo also wrote columns for Road Bike magazine and remains an avid motorcyclist. Other types of writing include copywriting for the Irvine, CA advertising agency Lansdale Carr & Baum; grant writing for the development agency CARE International, the New Yorkbased workforce development nonprofit STRIVE, and the Lancaster-based community development financial institution Community First Fund. He worked as a copywriter and marketing and communications professional for Stevens & Lee, an Amlaw 200 law firm.
Greggo stopped writing because of worsening mental health brought on by bipolar illness. He recently began writing again and is currently working on a memoir titled I Changed My Mind. Greggo is also a public speaker and openly shares the ups and downs of his journey from mentally ill to mentally healthy.
Born in the Bronx, New York, Greggo resides in Medellín, Colombia. He is a graduate of Cornell University.
Kayleigh Woodward’s calling is to create paintings. She is a graduate of the University of the Pacific, with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. For the past four years, she has been trained in a variety of studio mediums and has developed her craft, as well as grown into her personal style. She derives all of her ideas from nature and has a profound ambition to depict all of God’s glory through her work. Her primary goal as a contemporary artist is to evoke reverence and appreciation for creation.
MAY 30
Theresa-Xuan Bui (they/them) is a Craigardan 2025 Teaching Fellow. Theresa is a queer interdisciplinary poet exploring the intersections of the personal and political as a means to critically imagine the future. They are a child of the Bui household, a legacy of Vietnamese refugees and vanguard AsianAmericans. Born and raised in Bronx, NY, Theresa moved to Houston, TX before pursuing a BFA at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MIC/A). Their work has been exhibited at the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, Tang Teaching Museum, Arlington Arts Center, Yale School of Architecture, Seattle
Asian American Film Festival, and Washington Project for the Arts.
Jodi Ferrier is a Washington, DC-based artist whose work merges abstraction and representation through bold, expressive brushwork. After earning her BFA and a career in graphic design, she returned to painting in 2015, developing a dynamic practice that captures fleeting moments with energy and spontaneity. Her work has been exhibited widely in the DC area and is held in private, corporate, and public collections. Ferrier has been awarded multiple artist residencies and fellowships, including support from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Margaret Wiss (she/her) holds a Doctor of Physical Therapy from Columbia University, Master of Fine Arts in Dance with a concentration in choreography from NYU Tisch School for the Arts and a Bachelor of Arts in Dance Kinesiology from Mount Holyoke College. Her choreographic and screendance work has been presented across the United States and she has been commissioned by PDX Contemporary Ballet, North Atlantic Dance Theatre, The Harvard Ballet Company, and the Five College Dance Department. She has taught for Mount Holyoke College and Tisch School for the Arts Dance Department Future Dance Makers and Dancers Program. Wiss has performed professionally in Boston and has worked with Pilobolus Dance Theater, Sidra Bell, Jennifer Hart, and Kinsun Chan. She values the vitality of collaboration and is currently researching and writing a book on the subject.
JUNE 6
Martha Vining grew up on a small dairy farm in northern New York state and later graduated from St. Lawrence University with a degree in art history. She eventually followed her passion for cooking by graduating from the Cordon Bleu, London and eventually landed in Asheville, NC. Martha has worked in many different aspects of food production throughout her culinary career including cooking, baking, production management and teaching. She has done countless cooking demonstrations at Biltmore Estate and was a culinary arts instructor for Job Corps, a federal program for at-risk youth.
Martha continues to teach a variety of weeklong cooking classes at John C Campbell Folkschool in Brasstown, NC. These days Martha is involved in a local food pantry/ garden near Asheville where she does cooking segments on local TV station WLOS ‘Carolina Kitchen’ using food pantry and garden ingredients. She has had an ongoing interest in 19th century cookbooks and the role of community cookbooks in recipe development.
Macayla Sandusky is a Brooklyn-based ceramic artist and educator whose work is a practice of self-reflection and translation of memory. Through the fuzziness of recollecting, a stretching and blurring of imagery emerges. Layering, laboring, and repetition as part of the making process provide a foundation to convey how clay records information.
Mako received a BFA from The University of Arkansas in 2018 and currently teaches ceramic classes to adults at community studios in New York City.
JUNE 13
Sidney Hale is a painter from Hampton Roads, Virginia. Through vibrant, large-scale oil paintings, Hale’s work investigates the contemporary lesbian experience, speaking to the unique position of lesbian identity in a patriarchal society. Central themes of her work include gender exploration, purity culture, and corporeality. Hale attended James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, receiving a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art.
S.M. Hutner (she/her) writes fabulist fiction from her home in Cleveland, Ohio. Her writing is forthcoming in the Northeast Ohio Sewer District’s Ode to Infrastructure and has appeared in Blink-Ink and on the RadioFreeWrite podcast. She is also a founding member of the 1614 Writers. She earned an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Georgia College and State University.
Muriel Luderowski grew up in a bilingual (French/Flemish) family in Antwerp, Belgium and earned an MA in Linguistics from the Université catholique de Louvain - Institut Libre Marie Haps (Brussels). In 1978, she moved to Brooklyn, NY with her late husband, Nils Luderowski. When Muriel and Nils moved from Brooklyn to Keene, NY in 1997, it marked
Muriel’s departure from corporate finance and entrance into a decades-long relationship with visual art. As a development consultant for The Mattress Factory, an installation art museum in Pittsburgh, PA, Muriel cultivated the museum’s commitment to its neighborhood, and developed a growing interest in how art impacts a community’s identity. After completing an MA in Art History at Concordia University (Montreal), Muriel became affiliated with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and served on their Voluntary Docent Board. As a docent in Montreal, she enjoys the challenge of conveying the interrelatedness of art and its built architectural environment. Muriel lives in an 1825 brick house, a museum in and of itself, in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains.
JUNE 20
Michelle Lizet Flores is a graduate of the FSU and NYU creative writing programs. She is the Department Chair of Creative Writing at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, FL. She has previously been published in magazines and journals such as the NCTE English Journal, The Rio Grande Review, and Salt Hill Journal. A finalist for the Juan Felipe Herrera Award for Poetry, she is the author of the chapbooks Cuentos from the Swamp and Memoria, as well as the picture book, Carlito the Bat Learns to Trick or Treat Her short fiction can be found in the anthology, Places We Build in the Universe through Flowersong Press. Her first full-length collection of poetry, Invasive Species, is available through Finishing Line Press
Jake Sell Hicks (he/they) moves through the world attempting to understand the relationships between people and place. He has a masters in human geography, during which he studied indigeneity, political possibility, and ephemeral intentional communities. His undergrad was a seriously frivolous jaunt through fine arts, visual culture, s.t.s, and queer studies.
Jake grew up in the forests of the Indian River Lakes region of New York. He currently works as a wilderness guide in what is now called the Delaware Water Gap, but has also been an artist of diverse media, as well as having a few small publications of his writings. He has previously been a part of organized
sociopolitical efforts of several varieties, mainly in Rochester, NY and Pocahontas County, WV. He has moved a lot, traveled a lot, and compared the lifeways of many Peoples.
Gaby Del Valle is a writer and critic whose work focuses on immigration policy, right-wing political movements, and where the two intersect. Her recent work has examined violent reactions to demographic change, from the 2019 shooting in El Paso to the resurgence of pronatalism among liberals and conservatives alike. Her writing has appeared in The Baffler, The Nation, The Drift, Politico Magazine, The New York Review of Books, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications. “The Most Surveilled Place in America,” her report on the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border published in The Verge, was a finalist for the 2023 Livingston Award for National Reporting. She is currently working on her first book, BLOOD AND SOIL, a history of the origins of the conservation movement in the United States and early environmentalists’ ties to eugenicist and nativist movements, to be published by Bloomsbury Press in 2027.
JUNE 27
E. Caris Rosefield (she/her) is a queer writer, educator, and recent graduate of the MFA Program in Poetry at Rutgers UniversityNewark. Currently a high school teacher, she has also taught creative writing and literature for several universities and nonprofits, including the New England Literature Program, a cooperative education program based out of the University of Michigan, and juvenile justice organizations where she organized poetry workshops and readings. She currently serves as a mentor for the PEN Prison Writing Mentorship Program. Her work has been recognized with fellowships and residencies from Kenyon Review, Fine Arts Work Center, Art Farm, the Sitka Fellows Program, Academy for Teachers, and Craigardan. Her writing appears in Sweet Tree Review, Arkana, and elsewhere.
Erynn Richardson is a Southern California–based artist whose multidisciplinary practice draws deeply from folklore, myth, and the natural world. Working in drawing, watercolor, printmaking, and embroidery, she creates narratives that explore the delicate interplay between humans, animals, and nature. Her
work invites viewers to rediscover a sense of wonder—a call to reflect on both the beauty and fragility of our bond with the natural world. Richardson earned her BA and MA in Painting from CSU Northridge, and completed her MFA at CSU Long Beach in printmaking. She is currently a professor of drawing, printmaking, and design at the College of the Desert.
Sally Pirie is a Craigrdan 2025 Teaching Fellow. She was born in Northern Japan and grew up across Asia and the Pacific, spending her summers with her grandparents in Jackson, Mississippi, where she came to know the work of fellow Mississippian Walter Ingliss Anderson, who described art as a “process for grasping” and the world as a magical place full of animal “familiars.” Sally is a graduate of Punahou School, Grinnell College, and the University of Colorado. She is currently Professor of Child and Family Studies at the University of Massachusetts. An anthropologist of childhood and arts-based research, Professor Pirie’s areas of research focus include comics-based research, gender diversity in childhood, and feminized labor systems. As an award-winning graphic novelist and newspaper cartoonist, she now combines her work in gender and culture with illustration, non-fiction comics, zinemaking, linocut printmaking, collage, and painting to explore questions about corporeality, imagination, and human development. Anderson’s “familiars” are with her still.
JULY 4
Kyle Brumsted is a Brooklyn-based artist originally from Ithaca, NY. He has worked as an apprentice, technician, teacher, and resident artist at studios throughout the U.S. and Canada. After completing an apprenticeship at Atelier Spirale in Montreal and an internship at Baltimore Clayworks, Kyle was awarded the 2018 Teaching Fellowship at Craigardan, where he spent the year as a resident artist. Since then, Kyle has gone on to teach at many ceramic studios including The East Side Pot Shop and The Contemporary Austin, where he also worked as the salt kiln technician. Currently, Kyle is an instructor at BKLYN Clay and Greenwich House Pottery and a fabricator at KWH Furniture.
Among many other things, Kyle is interested in making finely crafted functional pots, building community through the joy of collective making and knowledge-sharing, and firing atmospheric kilns.
Bodi-Yemisi Anton Babatola is Craigardan’s 2025 Trilium Fellow. Bodi is a writer, performer, and educator. He uses words and voice to express stories woven from dreams, romance, grief, and ancestry. Bodi has taken the stage at events such as One World Poetry Night (2025) and DecoloNoize (2024) in Berlin, Germany, and, in previous years, as a member of the Fasia Jansen Ensemble (2020) and Simone Dede Ayivi’s Solidaritätsstück (2019). For more than a decade, Bodi has focused on empowering Black youth and art students as an educator. Bodi’s work is deeply inspired by the creation of Black queer joy, crip softness, and chosen family bonds. They are currently working towards publishing their poetry and crafting diverse collaborations with fellow artists from the margins as a form of resistance.
Chelsea Dodds is a writer and teacher from Connecticut. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Southern Connecticut State University, and her work has recently appeared in The Forge, Maudlin House, Rejection Letters, Poetry Super Highway, and the 2024 Connecticut Literary Anthology (Woodhall Press). Chelsea's current works-in-progress aim to disrupt societal expectations for women and explore how anxiety and trauma manifest themselves in the body.
JULY
17
Curt Confer is a visual artist who uses his body to translate language into slow sequences of movement. His work invites visitors into a shared space to reflect on themes of loss, memory, and interconnectivity. Using texts from queer theory, philosophy, social history, and poetry to inform his scripts, Curt interprets linguistic selections through the frame of his body, moving quietly or whispering within live tableaus made of light, sound, and found materials. His work also includes drawings and videos that further his exploration of how embodied knowledge is held onto and exchanged.
After graduating from Hamilton College in 2002 with a Bachelor of Arts in Studio Art and Theater, Curt earned a Master of Fine Arts from New York University in 2007. Since then he has exhibited at several institutions and galleries including Columbia University, The School of Visual Arts, Carrie Able Gallery, and Site:Brooklyn. As an educator, Curt’s research into the history of performance art and experimental theater informs his curricula, which integrate performance with the visual arts. After completing a Master of Arts in Teaching at the School of Visual Arts in 2016, he served as an Adjunct Professor in the same program and currently teaches part-time in the BFA Fine Arts Program at Parsons, The New School. Curt was a recipient of the Dietrich Inchworm Grant through Hamilton College in 2018 and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
Daniel Mistir wants to inspire an emotion inside somebody that they have not had in a while. That is why he watches films and reads books. Not to escape, but to experience something that’s been dormant inside, like love. Daniel started writing while in college majoring in Biomedical Engineering. His Ethiopian parents could not support his desire to write without proof of potential. So, in secret, he wrote and published a novel inspired by the stories they shared about where they grew up. That’s love to him.
Now, he’s finishing his Master's at the American Film Institute Conservatory, a SoHo House Fellow, and in post-production for a short film he directed. Daniel has followed his hunch and worked on projects with people around him, with a healthy naivete that’s allowed him to do everything before the age of 26. Raised in Sacramento, CA, you can find him writing another novel in Hollywood Hills, CA.
JULY
25
Arista Wilson is a painter and ceramicist from Virginia, United States. She received her Bachelors of Fine Arts in Ceramics from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2023. She has taught classes and workshops at various community studios including Baltimore Clayworks, as well as a month-long ceramic intensive at the Fish Factory Creative Centre Stöðvarfjörður, Iceland, and assisted at the
Arrowmont School of Craft in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. She has completed residencies at the Fish Factory Creative Centre and the Watershed Center for Ceramic Arts. Arista has exhibited work in numerous group shows including The Clay Studio, Mudflat Studio, and Sawtooth Center among others, and solo shows in Gateway Gallery and Middendorf Gallery. She has travelled along the East Coast of America selling her work at fine art fairs, and her work is in private collections around the world.
Annie Furman is a writer, theater-maker, and educator raised predominately by horses and sugar maples in Upstate New York. After earning her BA in theater and linguistics at Dartmouth College, she worked as an environmental and outdoor educator for several years in New York’s Adirondack State Park and New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest. She is currently pursing her MFA Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of British Columbia Okanagan, where her thesis project Lifeworlds explores applications of theater and dialogical art in environmental education curricula. Her plays, poetry, and short stories have appeared in publications including All Good Things Must Begin: Short Plays Imagining the Future, Fire Season, and Solarpunk Magazine (forthcoming).
AUGUST
1
Mackenzie Pikaart is a clay artist who’s practice explores relationships between her past selves and present memory, form and erosion, texture and color. Her work takes shape in functional objects for the home. By using somewhat playful shapes and colors, she creates a mirage where the viewer may only focus on the immediate attraction, but with deeper investigation the voice of loneliness speaks loudly.
Mackenzie is inspired by architecture, poetry, instrumental music, and rainy days. In all of these the tension of togetherness and being alone create beauty in the in between. She searches her memory for times of peace, self love, others acceptance, and through that search reveals uneasy moments, times she wishes to forget, but also moments of joy, love and a depth of personal understanding. Her works are meant for daily use, a reminder of
living through all that life is. Mackenzie received her BFA in Crafts/ Ceramics from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia where she currently lives and works.
Maya Miller is a potter, writer, and farmer originally from California. Currently a student at Oberlin College, Maya is studying Creative Writing, Gender, Feminist and Sexuality Studies, and Studio Art. Her pottery is sold through SilverWear Gallery in Ojo Sarco, New Mexico, and her poetry and prose have been published in Chicago Quarterly Review, Dialogist, and Cleaver, among others. Having spent time farming during and before college, Maya is inspired by clay, soil, the environment, and its relationship with the body.
AUGUST 8
Holly Hanessian is Craigardan’s 2025 Master Artist Fellow. She uses her internal compass for making art that is tied to connecting people together and community building. Past projects ranged from hurricane mitigation, designing sustainable water systems, to investigating agricultural justice issues. These artworks addressed historical and structural problems that require us to change the ways we think about water scarcity in the environment or who grows our food.
Holly is now redirecting her gaze to making art that holds locally grown food and is placed in handmade vessels to celebrate the collaborative power of food and community. Her background in education, leadership, mutual aid, and ceramics will support communities, gather neighbors, and celebrate each other. Her past achievements include Professor of Art at Florida State University, Past President, and Fellow of the Council for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. She is an active member of the International Academy of Ceramics, Artaxis.org., Access.Ceramics.org and was part of the Socially Engaged Craft Collective.
Rachel Berggren is a community builder and systems thinker who helps create and strengthen networks that enhance a community's ability to work together in developing regionally sustainable and accessible ways of nourishing each other. Operating from a foundation in sustainable
food systems, non-profit leadership, strategic planning, innovation, and organizational/ community capacity building, Rachel engages at the individual, community, and systems level as a food systems and community development consultant. She is deeply passionate about facilitating collective processes to co-create communities and ways of being that are resilient, equitable, and rooted in the needs of the whole from the earth to the people.
With the perspective of an anthropologist and the soul of a spiritual journeyer, Rachel loves to engage in many ways of connecting with people, from leading song circles to blogging and podcasting about the human experience, to participating in and leading embodiment processes. She is currently training in a somatic psychotherapy program as well as a retreat process modality focused on cultivating more aliveness, healing, and connection. She aims to bring all of these threads together to create communities and spaces that support us all to thrive.
AUGUST 15
Linda Pagani is an interdisciplinary artist whose early photographic work initiated a career-long inquiry into the sensorial experience of an environment. In recent work she regenerates the built structure, adorning walls with sculptural elements, while continuing in her investigation on emotional connection with our surrounds. Early exposure to artisanship has greatly influenced Pagani’s process and materials. Working with older technologies (analog camera, paper-making, enameling) and materials (copper, porcelain, glass), she bases her work in quiet and studied form.
Pagani studied Interior Architecture at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and went on to complete a four-year Studio Diploma in Fine Arts at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, Boston. She has received numerous awards and fellowships for her work, including the Karsh Prize in Photography, and her alma mater’s prestigious SMFA Traveling Fellowship. Her work is held in private and public collections, including the Brigham Women’s Hospital Collection, and the
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She lives in Lexington, MA.
Kate Moses is a literary mentor and has been passionate about guiding writers toward realizing the full potential of their literary projects for over 30 years. She has been an actively publishing writer of fiction, creative nonfiction, and literary criticism for just as long. Her award-winning first novel, Wintering, has been published to international accolades in 16 languages. Cakewalk: A Memoir was chosen by NPR as one of its favorite memoirs of 2010. Kate is also the coeditor of two bestselling anthologies of essays on motherhood, Mothers Who Think and Because I Said So. Kate and her books have received numerous commendations including an American Book Award, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, a Prix des Lectrices de Elle, a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, a Poets & Writers Debut Fiction selection, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship as well as fellowships from Djerassi Resident Artist Program, Hedgebrook, Karuna, The Lighthouse Works, and MacDowell.
Kate holds an MFA in Fiction from San Francisco State University and a Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa, from the University of the Pacific.
AUGUST 22
Hannah Apuzzo is a Hudson Valley based artist. Primarily working with clay, they have also experimented with weaving, encaustic, and decals in their work. They draw inspiration from their local community and the nature of where they grew up. Mostly inspired by queer culture and community Hannah aims to create work that ties people together and creates space for groups that are typically excluded.
Shelby Loebker is a writer and arts administrator whose work focuses on nonprofit program measurement, audience development, and the exponential value of community in arts and art in communities. Shelby holds a BFA in Writing from the Savannah College of Art and Design and recently obtained an MA in Arts Administration from Baruch University. Originally from rural Ohio, Shelby now lives in North Carolina – by
way of Savannah and Brooklyn, of course. They plan to continue studying artist networks, consulting for nonprofit arts organizations, and writing in the notes app.
AUGUST 29
Jenny Breen is Craigardan’s 2025 Teaching Fellow. Jenny has been working at the intersection of human, community and environmental health in the Twin Cities and throughout the country for over 30 years. She co-creates training and learning experiences for individuals, communities, organizations and colleagues to explore and expand food, health and sustainability skills, and builds programming and community engagement based in human and planetary health, wellbeing, equity, justice and joy.
Jenny’s content and classes utilize cooking and basic nutrition to address human and community health including challenging the environmental and structural barriers within our systems. Culinary ‘medicine’ and regenerative food systems are foundational to her teaching, Jenny hopes for this collective work to impact the upstream effects of injustice within the food system and throughout our communities. All of Jenny's work in the kitchen happens within a culture of joy, connection and satisfaction which she believes to be fundamental to human and planetary wellbeing.
Alec Tiger (Muscogee Creek Nation) is a writer working primarily in fiction. Alec is an upcoming graduate of the Institute of American Indian Arts MFA program, and has a background in philosophy and economics at the University of Colorado. Alec’s fiction blends historical and contemporary narratives of Muscogee people, as well as engagement and vitalization of traditional stories. Alec was awarded the Harpo Foundation Native American Fellowship at the Vermont Studio Center 2024, and was a finalist in Narrative Magazines 2024 Fall Story contest.
Outside of writing, Alec works in economic and community development with urban Indigenous populations in the pacific northwest, and Tribal Nations across the United States. He currently lives in New York.
Shawndel Fraser is an Environmental Psychologist, Public Intellectual, and Artist whose work and words catalyze transformation through interdisciplinary engagement. She creates a new nature–culture imagination by developing pragmatic solutions rooted in the social and natural sciences, esoteric wisdom, artistic practice, and healing modalities to create safe(r)environments.
As a generalist / multi-disciplinary artist, Shawndel may employ ceramics, fiber art, digital media, writing, bookbinding, metals, jewelry, papermaking, and traditional crafts as needed. As a social scientist and open “Ajna” thinker, she weaves connections between philosophy, current events, (socio)cultural norms, aesthetics, pride, and practices. Her goal is ultimately to uncover opportunities for “inner-personal alchemy” to drive cultural transformation and consilience rooted in ecofeminist deep-ecology.
SEPTEMBER 12
Carly Marie DeMento is a poet and writer for climate-change startups living in her hometown, San Diego, California. She recently began to submit her poetry at the age of 40. Her work has appeared in the North American Review, Kestrel, Green Hills Literary Lantern and been featured in poem gumball machines and hung in kitchens. With support from Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and Craigardan's Creative Residency, she was a 2023 finalist for the James Hearst Poetry Prize and the Laurence Goldstein Poetry Prize. In 2024, Carly was a featured reader at the 2024 San Diego Writer's Festival and co-founded the Ta-ku (taco haiku) series for the San Diego Poetry Annual. Beyond writing and publishing poetry, Carly uses her background as the front-woman of an indie rock band to organize events that bring poets of different ages and backgrounds together at independent bookstores and cocktail bars across California. She has also been a guest teacher, creating and teaching poetry workshops for teenage writers and visual artists.
As a woman coping with infertility and the near-certainty that her blood line will end with her, Carly hopes to use her poetry to spark creativity in others and create community that
weaves our social fabric together beyond our blood families.
Hannah Plummer is a New Jersey-based land and installation artist who focuses on processdriven and site-specific practices. While earning a degree in Fine Arts from Massachusetts's Gordon College, Hannah discovered great peace in creating land art in the Chebacco Woods and rocky coastline of the surrounding North Shore. In her current land art practice, Hannah takes a special interest in topics of permanence through ephemeral compositions that last mere minutes to days in nature. In working outdoors, Hannah partners with the elements, finding joy through adjusting her process or surrendering her piece to the rain, wind, or river current, but ultimately, to time. By allowing her piece to return from which it came, her work becomes reconstituted, as if it never existed. Through her practice, she explores the intrinsic and transformative value of creative expression and experimentation in our daily lives - a restorative and generative act that fosters connection with others, our material surroundings, and the intangible. Her work embodies a reverence for the interconnectedness of art, nature, and faith, offering glimpses into the beauty of not product-oriented, but process-focused art.
Dr. Lise Deguire is a clinical psychologist, author, activist, and burn survivor. After being severely burned as a four-year-old, she spent much of her childhood in the hospital, undergoing surgical procedures. Dr. Deguire is the author of the multiple award-winning book, Flashback Girl: Lessons on Resilience from a Burn Survivor. She is also the co-editor of Disfigurement: Understanding Visible Difference
Dr. Deguire attended Tufts University, graduating summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. She earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from Widener University and is in solo practice in New Jersey. Dr. Deguire has appeared on NPR, NBC, ABC, FOX, and Sirius XM. She is a TEDx speaker, a national keynote speaker and has presented for The American Psychological Association, the World Burn Congress, The Security and Exchange Commission, and The American Burn Association. Her work has been featured in
Huffington Post, Psychology Today, The Psychotherapy Networker, Thrive Global and Tiny Buddha. Dr. Deguire blogs regularly about psychological resilience and was recently awarded her second artists’ residency at Craigardan.
SEPTEMBER 19
Lauren McElroy is Craigardan’s 2025 Teaching Fellow. Lauren is a queer, Black, experimental fiber artist currently working in knitwear design, punch needle embroidery, and on themselves. They have been published in Interweave Knits, Vogue Knitting, Making Magazine, Spin Off Magazine, Knitstrips Interactive Knitting, Ply Magazine, is a season 7 Knitstar, and has created over 60 knitting patterns.
Elissa Lash is a writer and performer. Her writing has been featured in The Rumpus, CRAFT, Atticus Review, Tangled Locks, Chicago Story Press, Silver Rose Quarterly and other publications. She won the 2024 CRAFT Literary essay contest and was nominated for the 2024 Best of the Net anthology. Her essay Whore Mother was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Elissa's memoir in progress, about her body's role as sex worker and mother, was a finalist for the Kenyon Review's Developmental Editing Fellowship. She's workshopped with Nick Flynn, Sabrina Orah Mark, Beth Kanter, Chloe Caldwell, and Margo Steines. Elissa lives in Massachusetts with her partner and children.
When she's not writing, she's practicing real estate, advocating for affordable housing, performing improv comedy, mothering two amazing teenagers, doing yoga, cooking, brewing potions and making magic, or minding her flock of chickens.
Elise Jeanmaire is a transgender writer living in Providence, RI. She was a finalist for the 2024 American Short(er) Fiction Contest and the 2024 Whitefish Montana Prize for Humor. Her short stories have been published in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Motif, and the upcoming _Figuration. When she’s not writing, she plays in an indie band called Long Stories, drives her very old and very feeble moped (Francoise) around Providence, and sleeps comfortably in the spooky home of a former mobster.
CRAIGARDAN (krā gärden) is a RESIDENCY PROGRAM that supports artists and scholars from around the region and around the world. We bring people together for place-based and interdisciplinary learning; providing creative residencies, educational courses, and events that span diverse artistic and knowledge disciplines in order to foster: CURIOSITY
INQUIRY and COLLABORATION. We generate positive social change through collective creativity.
CONTACT
CRAIGARDAN
www.craigardan.org info@craigardan.org
518.242.6535 9216 NYS Route 9N Elizabethtown, NY 12932
