Posted Mar 9, 2018

Practicing Silence-Inspired Family Programming

Posted Mar 9, 2018

Think, play, and create with Grace Farms Foundation’s Arts Initiative team every Saturday, from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm.

Young artists, ages 3 to 10, and their adult caregivers, are invited to spend time together experimenting with new materials and techniques during this facilitated program series.

Join us in the Studio this March for a suite of Practicing Silence-inspired workshops and activities—including Whisper Stories, Head Spaces, Quiet Spots, and #ProjectPause—designed in collaboration with artist Laura Kaufman.

Please note that the materials fee is $5 per child, payable by credit card at the West Barn Welcome Center. Adult caregivers are required to stay with their children. For more information or to register visit the calendar on our website.

Practicing Silence-Inspired Programming for Creative Families

Pause by Laura Kaufman

#ProjectPause

Whisper Stories

Head Spaces

Quiet Spots

Practicing Silence Drawing Prompts

As part of a year-long exploration of silence, Grace Farms Foundation's Arts Initiative developed a series of programming to bring the same complex concepts considered by a creative team of theologians, poets, dancers, musicians, and mindfulness practitioners closer to more audiences, specifically families.

Photo Credit: © Lane Coder 2017

In collaboration with artist Laura Kaufman we produced a participatory sculpture and suite of hands-on workshops for families. Through language and geometric abstraction, Kaufman builds and undermines existing systems of shapes, words, and  numbers. She uses punctuation notations—commas, parentheses, and ellipses—in landscapes to explore the syntaxes of place. These wordless compositions are intended to be topographies of silences, misunderstandings, and potentials of communication.

Photo Credit: © Grace Farms 2018

Through #ProjectPause the Arts Initiative invites visitors to explore stillness and find quiet in their bodies by balancing on a sixteen-inch high comma-shaped sculpture made by Kaufman from poplar wood, glue, and screws. Tip for creative families: Share your photos @GraceFarmsCT on Instagram using the hashtag #ProjectPause.

Photo Credit: © Vanessa Van Ryzin 2018

Whisper Stories is a workshop where young artists write down a quiet time in their day, then use straws to blow corresponding watercolor paint around the page so that the pigment hugs the text. Tip for creative families: add your work to the River Quiet a collaborative community project on display in the Studio.

Photo Credit: © Vanessa Van Ryzin 2018

Head Spaces is a workshop where young artists build geometric sculptures, by combining various size paper straws and pipe cleaners, to balance on their bodies. Tip for creative families: experiment with different shapes and sizes to see which are wobbly and which are sturdy.

Photo Credit: © Vanessa Van Ryzin 2018

Quiet Spots is a workshop where young artists translate the colors of the season, using yarn and looms, into circular weaving projects that can be used to sit still on anywhere or anyplace. Tip for creative families: find artist Olafur Eliasson’s reflection mats for grown-ups in the Sanctuary at the tip top of the River building.

Photo Credit: © Vanessa Van Ryzin 2018

Drawing prompts inspired by a curated selection of Practicing Silence Library resources including The New York Times bestseller The Quiet Book by Deborah Underwood with illustrations by Renata Liwska are also available! Tip for creative families: look for a jar in the Studio filled with artmaking ideas.

Photo Credit: © Vanessa Van Ryzin 2018

Earth Day 2017

18 Slides

Kysa Johnson: Landscape Continuum

11 Slides

Earth Day 2016

27 Slides

Earth Day 2017

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Grace Farms Foundation celebrated Earth Day with an array of public programs focused on preserving open space, restoring wildlife, and exploring the natural world. The free, all-day program featured falconry demonstrations, discussions about wildlife conservation with renowned naturalist Jim Fowler, family activities, guided walks of the property’s 80 acres with Richard Wiese and Mark Fowler, and tours of the Community Garden and geothermal wells. © Vanessa Van Ryzin

Kysa Johnson: Landscape Continuum

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Contemporary artist Kysa Johnson’s immersive exhibition, Landscape Continuum, offers a loose evolutionary history of the local environment, which considers the past, present, and potential future of New Canaan—from 13,000 years in the past to 2,000 years in the future.