4 minute read
GOAL 3
GOAL 3 EXPLORE RELATION SHIPS
bring people together to gain new perspectives and explore RELATIONSHIPS Multi-discipline Cross-discipline Inter-discipline
Open space for the opportunity to say “yes, and...” Explore connections and possibilities introduced by the alchemy of our place, programs, and people.
STRATEGY A // Adopt an All-Program Approach To Welcoming Diversity
In addition to the residency program for visiting artists and scholars, our public programming includes day- and week-long workshops, courses taught by artists and scholars-in-residence, a free lecture series, gallery events, social justice summits, and educational conferences. We will creatively design all of Craigardan’s programs to support self-exploration and discovery. And we will actively seek diverse audiences and encourage multiple perspectives at all times.
Support multiple creative disciplines on-campus at all times and provide the appropriate time, tools, and space for productive and reflective work.
Provide opportunities for individuals in different disciplines to engage with one another, share experience and knowledge, and generate or collaborate on new processes and ideas.
Develop flexible pathways for individuals and groups to work within and across multiple disciplines and encourage new modes of interdisciplinarity.
STRATEGY B // Expand an All-Property Approach To Inspiring Exploration
At our original, temporary location, the organization was confined to existing buildings on a small land base with inherent limitations and inaccessible spaces for people with physical challenges. Hemmed in by close neighbors and a busy road, the parameters required constant creative use of limited space to provide privacy, interaction, collaboration, and a strong sense of community. With the help of architect and designer Nils Luderowski, we are carefully designing Craigardan’s new buildings, farm, studios, flex spaces, ancillary spaces, and off-campus access in order to encourage and inspire exploration outside of a participant’s current way of thinking, doing, and making.
OBJECTIVE 1 // Provide In-Studio Space
Open and allow space for the individual, formal creative process to take place in private, universally accessible, safe studios.
OBJECTIVE 2 // Provide On-Campus Space
Design and create communal spaces for casual engagement that open possibilities for serendipitous exchange. Formal and informal gatherings at the kiln, the preparation of shared meals, and comfortable fireside time allow for the development of new relationships.
Provide access to the world outside and hold space for participants to find inspiration in nature, ferment new ideas, and advance self-discovery through exploring the Adirondacks.
STRATEGY C // Strengthen an All-Community Approach To Fostering Relationships
At Craigardan, the building of bonds between visiting artists and the local public is a cornerstone of the program. We constantly strive to facilitate dialogue and respectful exchange among and between all communities: visiting, regional, Indigenous, international, disadvantaged, privileged, scientific, and artistic. We will expand on this approach with intentional outreach and greater inclusion beyond our existing relationships.
OBJECTIVE 1 // Invite the Greater Craigardan Community
Maintain a creative working relationship among staff, board, volunteers, alumni, teachers, ambassadors, partners, and donors. Bring the Craigardan community together whenever possible through multiple avenues.
Create and nurture reciprocal relationships with Native American communities through the arts, which allows us to learn from Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Indigenous Ways of Being as we begin to forge land-based decolonial alliances, dismantle historic structures of inequity, and redress the traumas of racism and dispossession.
OBJECTIVE 3 // Invite North Country Communities and Beyond
Harness the expansive resources in our region and beyond (nationally and internationally) as an extension of the campus through individual relationships, programmatic collaboration, and institutional partnerships.
STRATEGY D // Develop an All-Ecology Approach To Understanding Systems
Programs are an important first step in making the world a better place. However, we are constantly looking to move beyond programs with the goal of understanding and changing whole systems. We have exemplified this effort through our food systems initiatives and other social change work. Looking ahead, we will leverage our interdependent environment (programs, place, and community) as a guide for program participants to explore relationships and develop a deeper understanding of systems.
OBJECTIVE 1 // Understand Webs of Interdependence
Identify those dynamic structures and cycles that are integral to the survival and well-being of a shared ecology. Teach mutual dependence through example by staff, educators, and programs.
OBJECTIVE 2 // Understand Habitat Creation
Aid in the exploration of the relationship of living beings to their environment and to each other. Provide guidance in tending to the day-to-day of experiential learning and living on campus and in community.
OBJECTIVE 3 // Understand Personal Impact
Model the value of vulnerability and adaptability to circumstances, cycles, and change. Create opportunities to investigate how actions influence larger systems. Encourage thinking in terms of systems change.
