This post is a simple shout of gratitude to all the folks who make the PN Farm Arts Initiative possible. From the extended descendants of Aubrey and Constance Morgan who welcomed us to the farm with open arms and some seed money back in 2019, to the table of 25 artists and scientists who gathered for soup around my dining room table back in January of 2020 to start thinking about how we could make this real, to the many volunteers who keep the events happening and new ideas coming, an incredible community is behind this project.
And never mind my family—my husband and daughters, who have lost me more weekends than I can count over the past three years. My amazing sister who baked all of our scones for the first year, setting the tone for the way we take care of people. My mother, who has a knack for showing up for all the heavy lifting, dishwashing, and chicken roasting when life gets full. All my friends and neighbors who have leaned in and believed in this thing, and put in work as webmasters, designers, teachers, event hosts, floor sweepers, dishwashers, thought partners, board members and more.
I could go on, but I’ll take a breath here, and just say thank you. Wouldn’t be here without you.
If you have had more than one conversation with me, you’ll know that there is no metaphor I love more than a tree metaphor. So you’ll be unsurprised to learn that we look at our organizational structure as a tree, with roots in the land and history, a trunk of creative humans who hold us up and get the work done, and a vast canopy of branches and leaves that is the creative community in which we are so lucky to dwell. Together we are one mighty, flexible organism, every growing, shaped by the land and rivers, in relationship to the world around us.
So how appropriate that when we held our first official volunteer event last week, the craft activity Erica proposed was to build a tree together. Erica (who you will meet if you join us for our new monthly crafting hangout in the new year—more to come!) drew a tree, and each participant decorated leaves with their creative dreams and the superpowers/specials skills that they want to bring to PN Farm Arts. The skills are as varied as the handwriting on the leaves, and now we have a new piece of collaborative art for our walls. Win-win-win-win.
Looking for a place to bring your skills? We could use you! You can either fill out our volunteer interest form here, and we’ll get back to you with opportunities, or you can go straight to our SignUp Genius link tree here, and sign up to help with an upcoming event.
Thank you in advance!