Exploring Mindfulness and Change in Olana’s Farm
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Saturday, August 17, 10:00am-12:00pm
Why do so many turn to farms and gardens in moments of personal, social and ecological turbulence? From about 1861 to 1870, the farm, orchard and garden below Frederic and Isabel Church’s first house at Olana, Cosy Cottage, was a place to ground their daily lives. The landscape they helped shape and tend was their home through moments of Church’s artistic success, travel, the Civil War, and profound personal loss. Today, the once productive farm looks different. A rewilding meadow and honeybee hives stand where there were once peach, cherry and apple trees. During this program, participants will walk through the historic farm, using their senses to tune into the living world of plants and animals. Use sketching and journaling to gather plant impressions and explore who continues to inhabit the farm now. The program will include opportunities for sharing and discussion and will end with seasonal snacks.
Jill Jakimetz has spent the past twenty years engaging in art, literature, ecology, food production and history, and how our ideas about Nature shape the landscapes we live in and the nature of our inner lives. She is a sometimes-farmer, former Fulbright student fellow studying “farming for nature” initiatives and is a certified Forest Therapy Guide. She is a resident of Columbia County and has worked with local initiatives including The Institute for Mindful Agriculture and the Farmscape Ecology Program at Hawthorne Valley.
Advance registration required. $5 for Columbia and Greene County residents, $10 for members, $15 for non-members. For more information, please contact education@olana.org or call (518) 751-6938.