Coming Home

It wasn’t always easy for me growing up on a farm. Three miles outside of the town of Bayfield and still too young to drive, I often felt lonely and isolated. I spent my days outdoors wandering through woods and berry rows, or indoors reading books checked out from the public library, drawing pictures, and writing poetry. I appreciated the summer harvest time when students from Northland College drove out to our place for work. I enjoyed the new faces and the conversations that came about while picking in the fields together. I looked forward to my own college days when new faces and conversations wouldn’t just be a seasonal occurrence.

It has been eight years now since I left the farm for college and then a life in the city and increasingly I have found myself missing the quiet, the time for reflection and creation, and even the hard physical labour of working on the farm. In the past few months especially, as I finish up a Master’s program in Creative Writing at Northwestern University and gain experience teaching writing to both peers and high school students, I’ve realized I’m ready to come home. But when I return I don’t want to just come back with books and memories from my life away, I want to bring the discussions from my Oberlin and Northwestern classrooms, Chicago coffee shops, and my dining room table back with me as well—into the blueberry rows and into the surrounding communities of the Bay Area.. I want to share this place of reflection and creation—the Bayfield farm I grew up on—with the artists I have come to know in my time away and in turn I want to share the inspiring work of these artists with the community within which I was raised.

Project Description

DOWN THE ROAD
By 2012 I hope to open an artist’s retreat on a piece of land adjacent to my parent’s blueberry farm (Highland Valley Farm). The retreat would provide room and board for up to six visiting artists. Artists would have their day divided between communal meals, farm work, independent study, and group workshopping sessions. Artists would be paid for their work on the farm at the same rate the farm pays our other seasonal workers, and they would be able to use this money to offset program expenses. Throughout the week they would experience a combination of quiet and community, labor and rest. Throughout the work week, they would be stimulated by their peers while working together in the fields, the kitchen, and the “classroom.” At the weeks end they would have the opportunity to share their art and teach their craft to community members.

THIS SUMMER
As part of this planning process, I am organizing two week-long trial runs to take place on the farm this summer. Because of the tight living quarters, participation will be limited to 5 artists each week and artists must be comfortable sharing living space. The daily schedule will follow the routine I have imagined for the future with the work day split between farm labor and creative study. Participants will also be responsible for facilitating an early morning discussion related to the themes of their work and leading preparation for one of the dinner meals.

Trial-Run 2008

Week One: July 28 - August 2
Week Two: August 4 - August 9

Daily Schedule
-early morning coffee and discussion*
~four hours of farm work
-lunch
-independent creative time
-dinner*

*Each participant will be responsible for facilitating one discussion and one dinner.

5 participants each week
Fees: $200 due with registration to cover room and board;
participants can expect to make most of this back at the end of their stay as compensation for farm labor
Registration Deadline: June 15