CELEBRATING THE FIRE THAT BRINGS US TOGETHER
WELCOME TO THE 3RD ANNUAL SUMMER FIRING!
We come together to celebrate the warmth and fire of creativity that connects and sustains us.
We’ll light our many fires: the wood kiln, the pizza oven, and the campfire.
Craigardan’s main campus will be open from 3-8pm, firing the wood kiln and cooking pizzas in the wood-fired bread oven. There will be music by DJ Yoko, a studio sale of pottery + artwork, and a special public presentation by our alumni artists + scholars. Come with family and friends to explore the grounds and trails, hang out by the fires, picnic on the lawn, and get your hands on some art.
This is a free, “open house” style event and 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 this year.
5AM -
10PM
// WOOD KILN FIRNG
We’ll start the fire the night before with a toast to the kiln and the kiln gods, and arrive at 5am on Saturday morning to start stoking the fire. We’ll slowly raise the temperature of the kiln all day until it reaches 2350 degrees Fahrenheit. Learn more about the kiln firing process on page 7.
5PM // WELCOME + ALUMNI ROUNDTABLE
Join Craigardan’s executive director, along with the staff and board to kick off the next phase of our campus construction plans. We’ll have a conversation with past artists-inresidence to hear about their experience, their work, and what spending time in the Adirondacks does for their creative practice.
3PM -
8PM
// SELF-GUIDED TRAIL WALKS
We invite you to check out our first few trails in the new network with thanks to our generous trail donors. Refer to the map on page 12 for a few walking options. The trails require proper footwear and vary in length and grade. Please note: these trails are not yet open to the public after today’s event.
3PM - 8PM // STUDIO / POTTERY SALE
Check out our sale of pottery and artwork by Craigardan artists past and present. All artwork is “by donation” with price suggestions on the pieces. Look for a treasure and get a really good deal.
3PM - 8PM // MUSIC BY YOKO
Michael “Yoko” Amos will DJ throughout the day. Yoko was a 2023 artist-in-residence at Craigardan with a focus on storytelling.
3PM
-
8PM
// PIZZA + MORE
Personal-sized pizzas by Courtney Marvin of The Drifter’s Loaf will be available hot from the oven all day. Other snacks and a variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks are available at the bar.
ABOUT CRAIGARDAN
Craigardan is an interdisciplinary residency program in the heart of New York State’s six-million-acre Adirondack Park. We’re a nonprofit arts organization and educational working farm that leverages collective creativity for social good.
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 food-access programs including our popular Farm Store.
TODAY’S EVENT
The annual Summer Firing helps Craigardan raise the funds necessary to provide more than $125,000 annually in scholarships, fellowships, and program support to artists and scholars from around the Adirondacks and around the world. All capital donations will go towards the construction of the Main House, our next year-round public building on campus.
COVER IMAGE
The print on the cover is by the late ceramic artist Akio Takamori, depicting a wood kiln firing. This image is used with permission by Vicky Takamori. Image restoration of the original poster is thanks to Ben Stechschulte.
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 and our capital construction is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
#CRAISUMMERFIRING
Cant attend in person? We invite the extended Craigardan community around the world to come together in solidarity on July 13th with a fire of their own. Kiln, campfire, cooking flame, or candle — light a fire in honor of the power of creativity that brings us together. Snap a photo, use the hashtag #craisummerfiring, and we’ll send you a gift!
CRAIGARDAN LEADEDRSHIP
All of this is possible at Craigardan because of our incredible community. A heartfelt thanks to these individuals: STAFF
Michele Drozd
Jeremiah Reiner
Cassidy Mae Jackson
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Muriel Mallien Luderowski
Allison Eddy, MD
Gayle Burnett
Loren Michael Mortimer, PhD
Erica Berry
Lu Chekowsky
Elise Jeanmaire
Michele Parker Randall
Lanse Stover
CAMPAIGN ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Susan Bacot-Davis
Elena Borstein
Diane Fish
Jim Herman
Dave Mason
Vinny McClelland
Scott McClelland
Lea Paine Highet
Stephanie Ratcliffe
Mark Shapiro
Pete Suttmeier
Sam Taylor
Aaron Woolf
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Nina Gershon
Dan Keegan
Catherine Ross Haskins
David Speert, MD
Frances Westley, PhD
Everett Moitoza, EdD. MBA
SPECIAL THANKS
This year we are dedicating two new trails in our trail network. We are also celebrating the fall groundbreaking of our next building, the Main House — which has received generous support from our many community members, from the Charles R Wood Foundation, and from FY2024 NYSCA Capital Projects funding, with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
TRAIL NETWORK
With special thanks to:
Anonymous Family for Kathy’s Trail
The Eddy / Gorry Family for Emma’s Trail and Theo’s Trail
Michelle and Larry Zelkowitz for Witz End Trail
Anonymous Family for Chula’s Run
Anonymous Family for Falls Brook Trail
**Consider making a $5000 gift to support the network and name a trail!
THE MAIN HOUSE
Fundraising is in-progress with special thanks to:
The New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature
The Charles R. Wood Foundation
Anonymous individual donor providing a $200,000 matching gift challenge
Anonymous individual donor providing a $150,000 bridge loan
The regional Adirondack community and our international community of artists who’s many contributions helped make the Main House possible.
North Woods Engineering
Nils and Muriel Luderowski
Bellwether Craftsmen LLC
FOOD + DRINKS
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 cookies are available at the bar.
Food and drinks can be purchased individually, and they’re also included with an advance donation.
AT THE BAR
Beer
Wine
Seltzer
Soda
Cookies
Chips / snack bags
AT THE OVEN
Cheese pizza
Gluten-free pizza
Local veggie pizza
We can accept cash, credit cards, or checks. Please pay for food and drinks with staff at the welcome table, where you’ll receive food/drink tokens. All proceeds go towards supporting artists + scholars from around the Adirondack region and around the world.
SUGGESTED DONATIONS
Be a part of our new campus and our work to support interdisciplinary innovation in the Adirondacks and around the world. **All gifts of $10,000 or more will be matched 1:1 by a generous donor!
$25 1 pizza
$40 1 pizza, 1 drink, + donation
$80 2 pizzas, 2 drinks + donation
$150+ 2 pizzas, 2 drinks + supporting gift
Gifts of $200 or more will generously support the new campus
FIRING THE KILN
TEAMWORK, CHEMISTRY, AND MAGIC
Craigardan’s wood kiln was built in 2023 by Sam Taylor and Mark Shapiro. The design is based on a kiln at Dogbar Pottery, with a catenary arch-style single chamber kiln that fires quickly and evenly. The kiln is a focal point of the new campus, and serves as the hearth and heart of our new home. Just as people gather together around a campfire, a wood kiln draws together diverse styles of pottery and sculpture, and a range of artists and craftspeople who fire the kiln as a team.
The process begins at 9am on Friday morning when ceramic artists from across the region bring their work to the kiln. The pots are placed in the kiln according to height on wads of a clay-like mixture that prevents them from sticking to the shelves due to ash buildup. A pot will receive more or less wood ash and salt deposits depending on where it is placed in the kiln. Pots closest to the firebox will show the greatest effects from the fire, but also risk warping or glaze running. As we load the kiln, we include cone packs in various locations in the chamber which hold ceramic cones formulated to melt at very specific temperatures. These cones enable the firing team to read the temperature of the kiln in multiple locations throughout the process in order to gauge and correct the rate of temperature climb and how even the kiln is firing.
Loading the kiln lasts until about 2pm, at which time we brick up the door, leaving openings in a few locations to view the cone packs. At 5pm we place a gas burner in the center opening of the firebox. We circle up and take a moment to reflect on our hard
work and our intentions for the firing. We fill toasting cups with local whiskey and raise them up to the kiln, taking a sip and tossing the rest onto the kiln for the kiln gods. We light the burner and let its flame slowly warm the kiln overnight — drying out any remaining moisture in the pots and the wadding, and preheating the firebox and chimney.
Saturday morning our first crew arrives at 5am to start the campfire in the firebox with kindling, slowly building the fire and the coal bed. At this point we can remove the burner and continue the process with wood alone. The first shift is quiet and calm and the crew sets up an even and steady stoking pattern and prepares for the day. Each firing shift is three hours long and teams switch out throughout the day, overlapping to ensure continuity of stoking and to pass along vital information on rhythm, time and temperature. As the kiln builds heat it requires more precision, more frequent stoking, and skillful decision-making. The final shift of the day ends around 10 or 11pm, when the kiln reaches about 2340 degrees, or cone 10.
A wood-fired kiln is both incredibly primitive and scientifically complex. At its most basic, the kiln captures the heat from a campfire to harden clay and “bake” it into stone. However, throughout the process there are numerous chemical transformations taking place at each temperature stage. An experienced firing team understands the relationship of temperature rise to clay body, atmosphere, and glaze development; and adjusts the frequency and placement of stoking, size of wood, and even type of wood used to match desired results. The atmosphere of the kiln also plays a large role in the results of the pots — a kiln is constantly in a changing state of oxidation and reduction based on the proportion of fuel to oxygen. The atmosphere inside of the kiln is a volatile environment — with flames, air, and wood ash flowing from the firebox, directed by the arch and bag wall, through the pots, posts, and shelves; finding its way to the back wall of the kiln and up through the chimney. The combination of oxidation/reduction, fly ash, temperature, and any introduced salt or soda reacts with the raw materials in the clay body and glazes, creating a wide range of effects, colors, and textures on the pots.
We typically introduce salt into the firing between cone 6 and cone 8, or around 2230 degrees. Salt vaporizes at high temperatures and the sodium vapor combines with silica in the clay, forming a sodium-silicate glaze. This adds to the dynamic atmosphere of the kiln, creating rich surfaces on the pots with flashing, and enhancing the effects of the wood ash.
Once the kiln reaches our target temperature, and is sufficiently even top to bottom and front to back, we stop stoking and open up all of the air vents to oxidize the atmosphere for 10-15 minutes. The kiln is then completely closed and sealed tight to cool slowly for the next 2-3 days before unloading.
The unload and clean up is also a group effort, requiring a full day of unbricking, unstacking, looking at results, cleaning up, grinding, and preparing the kiln and shelves for the next firing. We often study the wares for hours, gleaning as much information about the glazes and the firing as the pots wish to share.
At Craigardan the 5-day firing is a community event, just as it has been for centuries in pottery regions around the world. We invite the public to attend all of our firings for the potluck kiln side dinners — keep an eye on our website for upcoming firings.
PIZZA!
THE OVEN AND THE DOUGH
The beautiful wood-fired oven was a gift to Craigardan from Cavan Drake — a fellow potter, incredible baker, and talented craftsman. We installed the oven in the new Kiln House to allow us to manage both fires simultaneously — our tradition is that when the kiln is firing, so is the oven! Potters need to eat.
Typically we start the fire in the oven at 5am, stoking it throughout the day to build the coal bed and the heat. By late afternoon we can push the coal bed to the back of the oven, clean off the bricks, and begin baking. We’re aiming for a temperature range of 700-900 degrees.
In the morning we make the dough: 12c flour, 6c water, 3T yeast, 3T salt. This is a nokneed dough, so once it’s mixed we let it sit and rise in a bowl covered with a towel in a cool location for 4+ hours before knocking it down, portioning and shaping, and giving the dough balls a second rise. This amount of dough will make approximately 12 pizzas, depending on size. For the sauce, we cook down some frozen tomatoes from last summer’s garden along with a few cans of tomato paste, fresh herbs, garlic, and salt. We stretch the dough on a wooden peel lightly dusted with cornmeal, and top with sauce, cheese and fresh veggies. Bake for 2 minutes or so, watching carefully. Once the pizzas are done and the oven cools, it’s a great time to bake a few loaves of bread, and then finish off with cookies. Today’s pizza is brought to you by our incredible friend and baker, Courtney Marvin of The Drifter’s Loaf.
THIS LAND
UNDERSTANDING PLACE
Craigardan stewards 320+ acres of field and forest off the eastern flanks of Hurricane Mountain. The land is currently in various stages of repair, regrowth, and regeneration after years of severe logging, intense erosion, and generations of dumping. As we do this work, we are digging deeper into its history.
These lands and waters are a part of the Six Nations’ dish with one spoon until deceptive land sales and broken treaties enabled non-native settlers to establish homesteads in the region. In the early 1800s, Manoah Miller set out to create a 3000+ acre settlement here which included a farm, forge, sawmill, and kiln. In the late 1800s, the Adirondack Park was born, and this homestead and the land was divided and sold off among family or neighbors. It has since remained in private hands, surrounded by state lands.
However, these lands belong to the Kanienʼkehá:ka people, keepers of the Eastern Door of the Six Nations Rotinoshoni. And although not much of the Miller settlement remains, we are reminded of their presence here and are still shaped by that history. And as we come to terms with our own presence on Kanienʼkehá:ka land, and as we develop a deepened understanding of place, we allow this understanding to inform our collective work and to guide our path forward. Tending to the land and the water; opening this land back up to the Kanienʼkehá:ka people, and gathering together each year with our community to eat, give thanks, and tell stories around the fire are a few ways in which we are working towards honoring the past while being mindful of the future.
TRAILS + MAP
WITH GRATITUDE
Craigardan’s 320 property is a maze of logging skid roads from previous ownership. As we conduct clean up, reforestation, and stream restoration projects, we are also identifying the best paths to improve and maintain as trails for people and animals.
Kathy’s Trail (anonymous donation): From campus to the lookout. Look for the red trail markers starting from the road at the corner of the Applebarn.
Emma’s Trail (with thanks to the Eddy / Gorry Family): From campus to the farm. Look for the blue trail markers starting from the road below the pond.
Theo’s Trail (with thanks to the Eddy / Gorry Family): Parallel with The Branch, forming a loop with Emma’s Trail and the road. Look for the yellow trail markers starting on the lower part of the road.
Witz End (with thanks to Michelle and Lenny Zelkowitz): A loop from campus. Look for the green trail markers leaving from the parking area.
Falls Brook Trail (anonymous donation): From the intersection of Kathy’s Trail at the third clearing, forming a loop.
Chula’s Run (anonymous donation): From Falls Brook off of the Falls Brook Trail (in progress)
**Please note: the trails are not currently open to the public but we invite you to enjoy the trails today during the event!
BUILDING THE HEARTH
By Mary Barringer
When they left the old place – were driven from it, really – they left a farmhouse, a studio, a refurbished barn with a commercial kitchen and a beautiful common room, and a couple of living spaces. They took everything they could: office furniture and records; all the bricks and pottery equipment; the beds and dressers; the tractor and chest freezers. All of it went into storage all around the county, while they worked out their next move. And when they bought the land, they envisioned the buildings, the gardens, the pens for the animals and spaces for the artists and writers: the new homes for all that stuff that huddled in storage, waiting to be put to use again. Clearing the land and reclaiming it from the damage the loggers had done took longer than they had expected – two years of delays and setbacks and
regulations suddenly and arbitrarily invoked. But now, finally, they had a road curving up through the woods to the clearing. They had an open, level space, a septic field, conduits for the electricity to come up and the water to flow down. They had cabins, perched in their temporary places. And they had a view, across the narrow valley to the peaks, each one named, that rose in the distance. Humans crave a vista: it both enlarges and settles the mind, and the removal of that deep tangle of discarded trees - no longer landscape but defective as lumber – made the long wait and all the struggles seem worthwhile.
You might think that, when it was finally time to build into and up from this land, they would begin with shelter. But no: the very first structure would be a pavilion – a house for the kiln, followed in very short
order by the kiln itself. Before the offices and kitchens, the meeting rooms and work spaces and sleeping quarters, they would make a place for the fire. This would create the conditions for a certain kind of work and a certain kind of commingling. For whether or not they are potters, people will gather there to stack and stoke, talking softly or boisterously, facing each other across and around the kiln. In the heat of the fire and the hours and work of tending it, a community will be warmed and formed: will take shape.
Humans have been gathering around fires for millennia; both the Native people and the Europeans who settled on this land would have understood the centrality of fi re. And although the making of pots, like so many creative practices, is solitary and self-directed, the firing of them requires surrender to a process that can only be partially seen or directed, and in this sense the potter is always collaborating with the kiln. And firing a wood kiln involves many people, and an extra degree of openness to the demands of the kiln and the unpredictability of the results. The kiln is an agent of transformation: what is placed inside it will emerge different, in ways that cannot be predicted or entirely controlled.
What could be a better or more fitting way for Craigardan to begin to inhabit this place?
Craigardan’s kiln is made possible by the generosity of many people. Potters Sam Taylor and Mark Shapiro designed the original kiln in Massachusetts that Craigardan’s new kiln is based on, and they taught the kiln-building workshop and built the kiln in June 2023 on the new campus. Potter and Craigardan cofounder Lanse Stover spent countless
hours preparing for the new build — translating ideas into drawings, counting and ordering materials, organizing equipment, and designing and building the steel structure. Ron Anan, a potter in Massachusetts, donated thousands of dollars worth of bricks and materials to the kiln and the new studio. Robert Segall, a potter and teacher in Jay, NY bequeathed his studio and two kilns to Craigardan. Steve Amstutz, a timberframe master in Wilmington, NY donated his time and designs for the new kiln house. And the craftsman Michael Intrabartola brought the designs to reality — cutting and building the timber frame and much of the kiln. It is with heartfelt thanks to these individuals and to two anonymous donors that the new kiln is possible. Craigardan’s home is now taking shape around the hearth.
BUILDING THE CAMPUS
A CONSIDERED APPROACH TO FUNDRAISING AND BUILDING
We are building an Adirondack center for creative practice where artists, chefs, writers, farmers, and scholars receive the support, the time, and the space they need to explore and innovate, to grow, learn, and educate. Our new campus, with its interdisciplinary studio spaces and community farm, is a hub of individual and collaborative production bringing local community members together with regional, national, and international artists- and scholars-in-residence. It is a place of invention, of discourse and debate, of social engagement, community connection and collective change.
Your support will leave a legacy that brings opportunities for creative exchange to our communities. Together we are connecting the history and vibrancy of the Adirondacks with the diversity of the world’s brightest artists and thinkers.
The new campus will:
• Provide the setting for Craigardan’s classes, workshops, kid’s camps, lectures and events that enrich the lives of adults and children in our rural communities.
• Welcome artists and scholars of all ages, disciplines, skills, and cultures to further their work and expand their creative process while in-residence at Craigardan.
• Allow 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.
• Provide Adirondackers 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.
• Include housing for up to 20 visiting residents and interns; studios for creative innovation in the arts; a community farm for year-round culinary research, food production, and education; a center for classrooms, events, and gallery exhibitions, and multi-use trails that allow for exploration and recreation.
• Follow universal design principals to make Craigardan accessible for everyone.
• Preserve and steward all 320 acres under the guidance of conservation professionals and best practices for careful and sensitive use of wild lands.
As an organization which is both generative and responsive, we designed the buildings and the campus to be constructed in phases — as time and funding allows, and as our programs grow. Each building is flexible in its design, able to serve an immediate need once built, with a long-term plan for how it fits into the finished campus.
The campus design is a collaborative effort between Nils Luderowski, North Woods Engineering, Bellwether Craftsmen, conservation professionals, and a working group of Craigardan’s staff and board. With 17 buildings of various sizes to build or renovate in total, 12 on the main campus and 5 on the farm, plus extensive excavation and infrastructure, the project is a multi-year effort. With incredible financial and in-kind support from the community, we accomplished much of the work in 5 years and as of this summer, only the three, large, main campus buildings remain to be built. We are raising money for these buildings and we hope you’ll join us!
Nils designed three large, camp-like buildings — Home, Main, and Studio — which will be built on the plateau of the main campus (where the artist cabins and bath house sit currently). With the help of grants, foundations, and individual donations we will build one at a time, starting with the Main House. Once Main House is built, the cabins will move out into the property at pre-determined locations along the trails as destination studios.
The Main House will allow our programs to run year-round once again. With the help of the FY24 NYSCA Capital Projects Grant and your support, we will break ground on Main this fall. Main will include a commercial teaching kitchen, a studio kitchen for culinary artists-in-residence, two gallery wings, a gathering and event atrium, a community meeting room, offices, fully accessible bathrooms, and cold and ambient storage. With its culinary arts facilities, the public can expect new and exciting programming including cooking classes and events that showcase the region’s best products prepared by innovative chefs from around the world.
In the meantime, we have many cool things happening at the farm and on campus. Be sure to take a copy of the summer program guide and come to one of our 80+ scheduled courses or events this season. This is all here for you!
MAIN HOUSE IS NEXT
WE ARE BREAKING GROUND THIS FALL!
The Main House will welcome visitors with an atrium event space, two gallery wings, a large teaching kitchen, and conference/classroom space. Once complete, the campus will be open year-round with artists, scholars, and culinary artists in-residence. Expect cooking classes, gallery talks, and new opportunities to learn and engage with creative professionals from around the world.
CRAIGARDAN (krā gärden) is an interdisciplinary RESIDENCY PROGRAM that supports artists and scholars from around the Adirondack region and from around the world. We bring people together for place-based and interdisciplinary learning; providing:
CREATIVE RESIDENCIES
PUBLIC COURSES
COMMUNITY FARM PROGRAMS that span diverse artistic and knowledge disciplines in order to foster:
CURIOSITY
INQUIRY
COLLABORATION which generates positive social change through collective creativity.
CONTACT
CRAIGARDAN
www.craigardan.org info@craigardan.org 518.242.6535 9216 NYS Route 9N Elizabethtown, NY 12932
