WSW ArtFarm
From Seed to Sheet
Women’s Studio Workshop (WSW)
founders Ann Kalmbach, Tana Kellner, Anita Wetzel, and Barbara Leoff Burge had
always envisioned adding a papermaking program to their repertoire of
workshops. Although WSW had been making paper by hand since 1978, the
operations took place in the attic of their James Street two-story house, which
was far from ideal for workshops.
In 1981, WSW purchased a mercantile
building on Binnewater Lane in Rosendale, which originally housed the Rosendale
Cement Company Store and town post office. And by the late ’80s, WSW had a new spacious
paper studio offering programs and classes for both kids and adults. WSW
noticed that artists who came to work in their papermaking studio were
especially interested in working with experimental plant fibers.
WSW had
worked with plant fiber gathered from roadsides, marshes, and local farms (i.e.
daylily, cattail, cornhusk). There were no full-fledged farms in the country
devoted to developing fibers of interest to papermakers. In 1997, WSW
officially teamed up with Phillies Bridge Farm, a fledgling CSA located in
Gardiner, to make their own.
In
2002, however, an opportunity arose to farm much closer to home. WSW’s
long-held dream of establishing a small-scale farm on site was finally coming
true. Operations were relocated to a plot near the main studio and the new site
was dubbed ArtFarm. For the first time WSW fibers and prepared pulp products
would be grown, harvested and processed all on site. ArtFarm was created to
serve as a basis of scientific, environmental, and artistic activities for
artists in residencies, and for WSW’s Art-in-Education program, enlarging young
people’s understanding of the natural world and how we derive our art
materials.
When the property WSW was farming
changed hands in 2008, ArtFarm went into a period of dormancy. A loss of
AmeriCorps funding in the Hudson Valley three years prior had also left WSW
without someone to work the land.
Luckily, back in 2000, WSW had
purchased a large amount of wooded land with access to a water source. In 2009,
they began clearing the land, which was historically used by the Rosendale
Cement Company for mining. In repurposing the industrial site, WSW hoped to
start a new era of ArtFarm. For the first time in ArtFarm’s history, it could
finally take root in WSW-owned soil.
In 2010,
AmeriCorps, in partnership with the Student Conservation Association (SCA), was
able to provide WSW with funding to hire an intern as the new ArtFarm
Coordinator and Educator. This position oversees the development of the new
8,500 square-foot field site. Recently, over 30 SCA and AmeriCorps volunteers
worked in unison to build a fence for the new farm site. Over the course of
three days, the crew erected a 450-foot enclosure, which now provides crops
with increased protection against critters and blocks a steep drop off on the
east end of the farm. Staff, students, and visitors now have the opportunity to
safely explore and learn at the new site.
ArtFarm continues
to grow traditional and experimental plant fiber, increasing the awareness of
utilizing renewable plants in hand papermaking. Next time you’re in the
Rosendale area, be sure to stop by and visit the Women’s Studio Workshop
papermaking studio, and visit the ArtFarm next spring.
—wsworkshop.org
Posted by Chris Hewitt
on 2:06 PM.
Filed under
Arts & Music,
Farming,
Feature,
Nature Conservancy
.
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