As autumn colors usher in the fall and winter months, Grace Farms’ slate of programs and events invites visitors to experience musical performances, hear leading architects discuss design, learn about sustainable supply chains through our programs on tea, gain hands-on experience in ethical and sustainable growing in our garden, explore family-friendly programing or simply discover the awe and wonder of nature in our nearly 80 acres of natural landscape during one of the most specular times of the year.
The award-winning River building is naturally embedded in 80 acres of biodiverse landscapes. Whether interested in award-winning architecture, awe-inspiring nature, or simply reflecting in our Pavilion over our ethically and sustainably-made tea, Grace Farms offers various ways for visitors to discover our humanitarian and cultural work.
We welcome people of all ages and backgrounds to Grace Farms. We are free and open to the public six days a week, Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm and 12 to 5 pm.
Here are some seasonal highlights.
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Featured Events
Voices of Culture | Bobby Sanabria’s Multiverse Big Band
Saturday, September 30 | 7:30 – 9 pm
Member Reception | 6 – 7:30 pm
Bobby Sanabria’s Multiverse Big Band takes the Sanctuary stage at the next Voices of Culture concert, an unforgettable series curated by our Music Director, Marcus G. Miller, exploring beauty in different musical traditions.
Eight-time Grammy nominee Bobby Sanabria is a noted drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, activist, a bandleader renowned throughout New York’s boroughs and beyond. As a drummer, he has recorded and performed with legends, including the “Godfather of Afro-Cuban Jazz,” Mario Bauzá.
Sanabria is the Co-Artistic Director of the Bronx Music Heritage Center and is part of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Academy as well as The Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall. He has conducted and performed as a soloist with orchestras including the WDR Big Band, The Airmen of Note, The U.S. Jazz Ambassadors, and many more.Sanabria hosts WBGO’s Latin Jazz Cruise program.
$40 | member: $32
Conversations in Architecture | House to Home
Saturday, November 11 | 3 – 4:30 pm
Grace Farms Architecture Advisor, Toshihiro Oki, hosts changemaking architects Toshiko Mori, founding principal of Toshiko Mori Architect PLLC, and the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design; Thomas Phifer, founder of Thomas Phifer and Partners, Fellow of the American Institute of Architects; and Frederick Noyes, Principal of Frederick Noyes Architects, in conversation about transforming a house into an inviting and nourishing family home.
Approved for AIA CES 1.5 LU
free
Let’s Share in Something Greater
grace farms foundation’s eight annual benefit
Saturday, October 21 | 5– 9 pm
Join us in celebrating eight momentous and meaningful years of new outcomes at Grace Farms Foundation’s annual benefit!
Under the crisp autumn skies of Grace Farms’ 80 acres, we invite you to share a meal while also sharing in something greater. This year’s theme is an echo of our underlying work to convene people across ages, backgrounds, and sectors, to address some of the most pressing humanitarian challenges of our time.
Joy Harjo, Photo Credit: Yale University Press
Featuring: Joy Harjo, 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate, flutist, saxophonist, and member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Marcus G. Miller, Grace Farms Music Director, saxophonist, composer, and mathematician, and DJ Clean, International DJ and music producer.
Films About Food | Food 2050
Friday, November 17 | 10:30 am – 12 pm
Food 2050 by the Rockefeller Foundation features innovative and optimistic visionaries across the globe working to repair our food system and heal the planet, as well as our bodies. This screening is followed by a Q&A with the Rockefeller Foundation’s Sara Farley, Vice President, Global Food Portfolio, and Roy Steiner, Senior Vice President, Food Initiative.
free
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Explore Nature & Sustainability
Living Classroom | Explore the Meadows
Grace Farms’ nearly 80 acres of biodiverse landscape allows visitors to discover the awe and wonder of nature.
Saturday, September 9 | 11 am – 12 pm
This session of Horticulture Advisor Kimberly Kelly’s nature education series explores how the meadows, a highly complex and interchanging ecosystem, sustains a variety of life and creates a four-season landscape.
$10 | member: $8 | children: $5
Seasonal Gardening | Apple Harvest
Within the Plaza of Grace Farms, we grow a variety of fruit. Each year, we harvest hundreds of pounds of fruit that is used in our meals and also donated to our not-for-profit partners as part of our food relief efforts.
Saturday, September 9 | 3:30 – 4:30 pm
Stroll the plaza with Master Gardener Lauren Elliott to learn how to pick apples and care for the trees. Pastry Chef Leah Jones will give a mini class on making apple butter.
$15 | member: $12 | children: $7
Films About Food | Gather
Friday, September 15 | 10:30 am – 12 pm
The screening celebrates Indigenous American movements that aim to rediscover identity and reclaim sovereignty through ancestral foods.
free
Gardener to Table Dinner | Fall Harvest
Grace Farms harvest hundreds of pounds of food from its Community Garden each year. A portion is donated to our not-for-profit partners.
Friday, September 22 | 6 – 7:30 pm
Experience a meal prepared by our culinary team highlighting hearty fall vegetables harvested from our garden by Master Gardener Lauren Elliott who will discuss our many sustainability initiatives.
$30 | member: $24
Bird & Butterfly Walks
Saturdays | 11 am – 12 pm
September 23, 30 and October 7
Embark on a guided walk with Master Birder Frank Mantlik during peak seasonal migration of songbirds, swallows, hawks, and water birds, as well as monarchs and other butterflies passing through Grace Farms.
$10 | member: free | children: $5
Navigating by Nature with Mystic Seaport’s Treworgy Planetarium
Thursday, October 5 | 6:30 – 8 pm
Learn how to parse clues from the natural world—the stars, sun, moon, wind, and trees—to navigate over land and sea. If weather permits, participants will look more closely into the night sky using a powerful tracking telescope. Recommended for ages 12 and up.
$15 | member: $12 | children: $7
Textile Workshop | Visible Mending
Saturday, October 7 | 1 – 4 pm
Practice sustainability and extend the life of your textiles with artist, teacher, and author of Mending Matters and Make Thrift Mend, Katrina Rodabaugh. Learn basic stitches and patching before repairing your own garments in a way that considers fabric, thread, utility, beauty, and design elements. Please bring homewares or garments made of denim, linen, or cotton in need of mending.
$50 | member: $40
Films About Food | Sustainable
Friday, October 13 | 10:30 am – 12 pm
The second screening in this series features a film about land, the people who work it, and what must be done to sustain it for future generations. Sustainable offers a hopeful and optimistic look at solutions to challenging agricultural issues faced by our food system.
Sustainable follows a seventh-generation farmer, Marty Travis, in central Illinois whose land and community buckled to the pressures of big agribusiness.
Sustainable is narrated by filmmakers Matt Wechsler and Annie Speicher of Hourglass Films. It has been screened at over 40 film festivals worldwide and won the 2016 Accolade Global Humanitarian Award for Outstanding Achievement.
This screening is part of our Films about Food series, inviting all into our food equity work through a series of screenings examining various aspects of the world’s food systems.
free
Living Classroom | Nature’s Palette
Thursday, October 26 | 11 am – 12 pm
When we look at the magnificent fall foliage, what are we really seeing? Walk our preserve with Horticultural Advisor Kimberly Kelly and learn why our majestic trees have such a diverse and eye-catching palette.
$10 | member: $8 | children: $5
Seasonal Gardening | Growing Garlic
Saturday, October 28 | 3 – 4:30 pm
Plant garlic in our Community Garden with Master Gardener Lauren Elliott and learn all about the growing process! Afterwards, sip refreshing tea and taste savory garlic treats made by our culinary team.
$15 | member: $12
Fall Foliage Walks
Saturdays | 11 am – 12 pm
October 28 and November 4
Stroll through the colorful, changing leaves during this guided walk and learn about the importance of forest restoration and how trees mitigate climate change through oxygen release and local biodiversity.
$10 | member: free | children: $5
Sharing Social Responsibility Grace Farms x B Local CT
Wednesday, November 1 |4 – 6 pm
Explore how local Certified B Corps are creating positive social and environmental change, with a keynote from Matthew McCarthy, former CEO of Ben & Jerry’s. Held in partnership with B Local CT, this program offers impact-driven business leaders the chance to learn about the B Corp movement.
$10 | member: free
Textile Workshop | The Science of Plant Fibers
Saturday, November 4 | 3 – 4:30 pm
Step into the Community Garden with Horticultural Advisor Kimberly Kelly to investigate which native plants can be transformed into a textile. Learn how traditional textile fibers have impacted our environment, and how supporting native species has the power to restore habitat sustainability.
$20 | member: $16
Living Classroom | Citizen Science Family Workshop & Scavenger Hunt
Grace Farms has restored the landscape into 10 biodiverse habitats not only for pollinators and wildlife but for visitors to explore the wonders of nature. In the background is the award-winning River building that was intentionally designed to blend into the landscape.
Saturday, November 11 | 11 am – 12 pm
Journey through the nature preserve with Horticulture Advisor Kimberly Kelly using the iNaturalist app to observe and record observations of the surrounding biodiversity for the global scientific community.
$10 | member: $8 | children: $5
Films About Food | Food 2050
Friday, November 17 | 10:30 am – 12 pm
Food 2050 by the Rockefeller Foundation features innovative and optimistic visionaries across the globe working to repair our food system and heal the planet, as well as our bodies. This screening is followed by a Q&A with the Rockefeller Foundation’s Sara Farley, Vice President, Global Food Portfolio, and Roy Steiner, Senior Vice President, Food Initiative.
free
Harvest Picnic
November 17 | 6 – 7:30 pm
Families are invited to gather for a nourishing dinner celebrating hearty and seasonal flavors, with plenty of fall-inspired activities
for children to enjoy!
$22 | member: $18 | children: $16
Family Space Night, with the Connecticut Science Center
Thursday, December 14 | 6 – 7:30 pm
Member Reception: 5 – 6 pm
Families with children ages 5-10 are invited to explore the wonders of outer space—nebulas, black holes, planets,and constellations—through engaging activity and craft stations facilitated by STEM educators from the Connecticut Science Center.
$15 | member: $12 | children: $7
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Discover our teas & coffee
Tea at Grace Farms offers a warm welcome to visitors and expresses our commitment to intentional choices in our work. Tea transcends cultures—it sits at the heart of sacred and mundane rituals across the world—but it’s also a global commodity at risk of being produced by people working in forced labor conditions, using unsustainable land practices, with an inequitable distribution of power.
Through immersive tea and coffee programs hosted in the glass-enclosed Pavilion, we seek to highlight and educate about these risks by offering sustainably and ethically produced tea and sharing it with our local and global community. These educational programs feature Grace Farms Foods, a Certified B Corp, which seeks to educate and demonstrate about the mission of Grace Farms Foundation, the Design for Freedom movement, and ethical and sustainable supply chains.
At Grace Farms, we serve tea in the reflective space of the Pavilion. Over a cup of tea, visitors can pause during their busy day and learn more about our teas and our work.
Tea Tasting
Thursdays | 1 – 2 pm
September 21, October 19, November 16
Sip a variety of teas and herbals while discovering the journey taken by ethically and sustainably-sourced tea. These interactive tastings are led by tea expert Frank Kwei and Grace Farms Foods Co-Founder Adam Thatcher.
$15 | member: $12
Coffee Tasting
Thursdays | 1 – 2 pm
September 8, October 13, November 10
Celebrate the impact of sustainably and ethically sourced coffee and taste a variety of Grace Farms Foods blendsprepared four ways in this interactive tasting led by tea expert Frank Kwei and Grace Farms Foods Co-Founder Adam Thatcher.
$15 | member: $12
Wellness & Tea with Pilin Anice
Saturdays | 10 – 11:30 am
September 23, October 28, November 18
Start your morning with a warming cup of tea followed by a movement class led by Pilin Anice, a renowned yoga,dance, and meditation instructor.
$20 | member: $16
Afternoon Tea
Wednesdays | 3 – 4:30 pm
September 27, October 25, November 29, December 13
Gather with friends in the glass-enclosed Pavilion for a social afternoon inspired by English tea service! Enjoy a warmpot of tea with tasty English and Japanese-inspired bites created by the Grace Farms Culinary Team.
$30 | member: $24
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Experience the Arts
Textile Workshop | Harvesting & Crafting with Goldenrod Dye
Programming around the landscape of Grace Farms offers visitors new and different ways to experience nature.
Saturday, September 16 | 10 am – 4 pm
Alongside New York-based artist, educator, and designer, Natalie Stopka, gather fresh goldenrod to color organiccotton. In this hands-on workshop, participants learn ethical harvesting guidelines, as well as the history and chemistry of local plant dyes. Includes lunch and a vial of handmade ink to take home.
$75 | member: $60
Textile Workshop | Visible Mending
Saturday, October 7 | 1 – 4 pm
Practice sustainability and extend the life of your textiles with artist, writer, and teacher, Katrina Rodabaugh! Learn basic stitches and patching before repairing your own garments in a way that considers fabric, thread, utility, beauty, and design elements. Please bring homewares or garments made of denim, linen, or cotton in need of mending.
$50 | member: $40 | student: $35
Textile Workshop | The Science of Plant Fibers
Saturday, November 4 | 3 – 4:30 pm
What makes a plant viable to transform into a textile? Explore Grace Farms with Horticulture Advisor Kimberly Kelly in search of native plants that can be used for fabric, and learn why the textile industry is returning to native fibers for mass production.
Our hands-on Textile Workshops highlight the essential role textiles play in everyday life — from our clothes to our home and building interiors — and aim to educate about and inspire sustainable textile choices that are healthier for the environment and the garment supply chain.
Beauty & Logic | Flow, Information & Quantum Physics
Saturday, November 4 | 7:30 – 9 pm
Saxophonist, mathematician, and Grace Farms Music Director Marcus G. Miller invites his band, IWM, as well as Theoretical Physicist and Professor of Physics at Brown University, Stephon Alexander, to the Sanctuary stage for another evening of music, math, and science! Recommended for ages 14 and up.
$20 | member: $16
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Tours & Architecture
Behind the Scenes Tour with Toshihiro Oki
Saturday, September 9 | 10:30 am – 12 pm
Take an in-depth look into the River building through the eyes of our Architecture Advisor, Toshihiro Oki, who worked with SANAA during the building’s design.
Approved for AIA CES 1.5 LU
$25 | member: $2
Behind the Scenes | River Building Interiors
Saturday, October 14 | 10:30 am – 12 pm
Step inside the glass-enclosed River building with our Architecture Advisor, Toshihiro Oki, who worked with SANAA during the building’s design, for an interiors-focused tour highlighting the thought behind seating design selections, sustainably-sourced surfaces, responsive plans, and more.
$25 | member: $20
Lighting Design Evening Tour with Buro Happold
At night, the lighting design throughout Grace Farms illuminates the River building in such a way that it naturally blends with the landscape and the night sky.
Thursday, October 26 | 5:30 – 7 pm
Even at night, connectivity between the River building and the surrounding preserve is ever-present. On this tour coinciding with New Canaan’s October4Design celebration, discover the lighting techniques that achieve thesensation of a building without barriers, inside and out, from Gabe Guilliams of Buro Happold, the firm behind the River building’s harmonious and energy-efficient scheme.
$25 | member: $20
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Grace Farms Tours
Thursdays and Saturdays | 10:30 am – 12 pm
This guided tour explores the intentional architecture of the LEED-certified River building as well as four site-specific installations by artists Thomas Demand, Olafur Eliasson, Teresita Fernández, and Beatriz Milhazes.
Approved for AIA CES 1.5 LU
$25 | member: free
Private tours are available for parties of 8 or more by request. To request a private tour, please visit gracefarms.org/visit.
River Retreat
daily | self-guided
This self-directed exploration of the river building can inspire insights about priorities, relationships, and visions of a life worthy of our shared humanity. Using a River Retreat booklet developed by our Faith Initiative, move through the river building at your own pace to quietly consider questions of a life worth living.
$5 | member: free
School Visits
Developed by the education team, these innovative programs engage K-12 students with the River building and nature preserve, inviting them to re-imagine the built environment and collaborate on new outcomes for a more ethical and sustainable world.
Learn more and apply at gracefarms.org/school-programs
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Engage in Seasonal Programming
Season of Light
Friday, November 24 – Sunday, December 31
Visit us for our annual programming offering moments of cheer, generosity, and peaceful respite for visitors of all ages.
The Season of Light invites everyone to make the most out of the holiday season, whether that means joyfully gathering with friends or family for a giving opportunity or enjoying a tranquil candlelit movement class.
Giving Tree
From November to early December, stop by select volumes of the River building to pick an ornamental card from the Grace Farms Giving Tree. Each card corresponds to a gift in service of our local community partner, Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants.
Candlelight Wellness and Tea with Pilin Anice
Wednesday, December 6 | 3:30 – 5 pm
Restore and set intentions for the new year during a tranquil, candlelit movement class guided by renowned yogainstructor, Pilin Anice.
This practice is interwoven with prompts on flourishing life from the best-selling Life Worth Living book authored by our Faith Initiative Director, Matthew Croasmun, supporting a fresh consideration of how to embrace a life worthy of our shared humanity.
$20 | member: $16
Gifting for Good
Each season, hundreds of people from the community participate in our signature Gifting for Good event. A highlight of the season, it brings together family and friends to help others.
Friday, December 8 | 3:30 – 5 and 6 – 7:30 pm
With music, tea, and engaging crafts that embody the joyful spirit of the season, assemble care packages, and write cards in support of our local community partners! Proceeds from your ticket go directly towards care packages and packing supplies.
free
Songs of the Season
November 24 & 25 – December 26 – 30 | 3 – 4 pm
Our yearly music series returns to the Sanctuary! Experience moments of peace and tranquility through seasonal selections performed by various artists, hosted in conversation with and curated by our Music Director, Marcus G. Miller.
free
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Enjoy Children and Family Programs
Bunny Book Group
We offer and currant a selection of books in our Library, from children’s book to books related to our work.
Tuesdays | 3 – 3:30 pm and Fridays | 11 – 11:30 am
Listen to stories from our curated collection of books and take part in an arts and crafts activity. For ages 1-5 with adult caregivers.
free
Open Arts Studio
Thursdays | 1 – 5 pm and Saturdays | 10 am – 2 pm
Drop in for a facilitated series designed by artists, curators, and educators that invites families to think, play, create, and experiment with sensory-rich materials and different modes of artmaking.
For ages 4-11 with adult caregivers.
$5 | member: free
Grace Farms Family Guide
daily | self-guided
Discover the River building with a sensory wheel highlighting the relationships between line, shape, color,texture, sound, space, light, movement, and rhythm. For ages 5-11 with adult caregivers.
$5 | member: free
Imagination Playground
daily
Build skills, solve problems, and make friends using an innovative system of large-scale, lightweight blocks. For ages 1-8 with adult caregivers.
free
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Support our Shared Meals
We have provided over 300,000 lbs. of food to our food equity partners, including the Domestic Violence Crisis Center and Open Door Shelter.
On Tuesdays, visitors have the option of purchasing the same fresh meal provided to these partners for lunch in the Commons.
Membership
Grace Farms members can visit without advance registration and enjoy 20% off our thought-provoking programs, complimentary and early access to select programs, invitations to members-only events and receptions, and a gift bundle from Certified B Corp, Grace Farms Foods.
September is Member Month
Enjoy 10% off new memberships and renewals, and 25% off onsite retail including Grace Farms Foods Coffee & Tea.
Member Events
Saturday, September 23 | 9 am – 5 pm
Saturday, September 16 | 10:30 – 11:30 am
Voice of Culture with Bobby Sanabria
Saturday, September 30
Member Reception | 6 – 7:30 pm
Family Space Night with the Connecticut Science Center
Thursday, December 14
Member Reception | 5 – 6 pm
exhibits on view
Peace Forest, West Barn
What is Grace Farms and how does Grace Farms Foundation advance good in the world? Explore Peace Forest, an immersive installation inspired by nature, offering visitors an interactive experience highlighting how the landscape, architecture, and people at Grace Farms are part of the Foundation’s mission.
The exhibit is curated by Grace Farms Foundation Creative Director, Chelsea Thatcher, and designed by Peter Miller (Palette Architecture) and Shohei Yoshida (shohei yoshida + associates / SYA), members of the architectural team of the award-winning SANAA-designed River building at Grace Farms, with the graphics designed by Pentagram.
Common Good Through Crisis, East Barn
Common Good Through Crisis considers the relationships and connections that inspired Grace Farms Foundation’s efforts to provide 2 million critical PPE to frontline healthcare workers and thousands of nutritious meals to our neighbors. The Foundation’s work to close the PPE gap was furthered by collaboration with the State of Connecticut, the Town of New Canaan, and other municipalities, hospitals, healthcare organizations, not-for-profits, and individuals.
Common Good Through Crisis is designed by MASS Design Group with Eddie Opara and his team at Pentagram.
Looking forward to 2024
Design for Freedom Exhibit, opening first quarter 2024
2024 Design for Freedom Summit, Tuesday, March 26, 2024
Grace Farms CEO & Founder Sharon Prince welcomes hundreds of global designers and architects from leading firms to the 2023 Design for Freedom Summit. Photo Credit: Jacek Dolata
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About Grace Farms
We bring together people across sectors to explore nature, arts, justice, community, and faith at the SANAA-designed River building on 80 acres of publicly accessible, preserved natural landscape. Grace Farms, with its open architecture, breaks down barriers between people and sectors and invites conversation, curiosity, and proximities. This collaborative approach to comprehensively address humanitarian issues and generate new outcomes is reflected across all of our initiatives and the place of Grace Farms.
The SANAA-designed River building is embedded in 80 acres of natural landscape. Grace Farms is free and open to the public six days a week, other than Monday. Photo by Kyle Norton
Become a member
Grace Farms members enjoy special access to member-only events, experiential activities, and thought-provoking programs — and the opportunity to be a part of our mission to pursue a more peaceful world.
Learn more at gracefarms.org/membership
Visit our calendar of events to learn more about upcoming programs.
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