Season Opener | Teresita Fernández
Sunday, September 13, 2:00 pm - 3:15 pm
2026-2027 season opener
Internationally acclaimed artist Teresita Fernández joins us in the Sanctuary for a conversation with Grace Farms Founding Creative Director Chelsea Thatcher to discuss her studio practice, research, materials, and site-specific work, Double Glass River (2015), which has become an integral part of Grace Farms.
Created in relationship with the River building and nature in 2015 during the period of the building’s construction, Double Glass River, resembles an undulating galaxy of 10,000 mirrored glass cubes and expands horizontally across the curved wall at the end of the Commons. Depending on where the viewer stands, the shining reflection constantly alters, and engages the viewer in many places along the grounds. The work urges the audience to reflect upon themselves and their relationship to a changing landscape.
Fernández and Thatcher’s conversation will be preceded by a short solo viola recital by award-winning Jamaican-American violist Jordan Bak to open the season’s music program, with a focus on the contemplative and active dynamics of peace.
Throughout the day, children ages 4-11 are invited to attend Open Arts Studio to imagine, think, play, and create through an activity inspired by Fernández.
Registration is now open for Grace Farms Members
General Registration opens at 10 am on Monday, May 18, 2026
About Teresita Fernández
Brooklyn, NY – 10/09/2023: Artist Teresita Fernandez shot in her Boerum Hill studio for Lehmann Maupin
Visual artist Teresita Fernández expansively rethinks what constitutes landscape: from the subterranean to the cosmic, from national borders to the more elusive psychic landscapes we carry within. Her luminous, sculptural works expose the complex narratives that stem from distorted, colonial histories, elaborating on these themes in subtle ways that insist on intertwining beauty, the socio-political, the intimate, and the immense.
She is a 2005 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and the recipient of numerous awards, including a: Guggenheim Fellowship; American Academy of Rome Fellowship; Creative Capital Award; Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award; and a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artist’s Grant. Her works have been shown nationally and internationally at The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; The Smithsonian Museum of American Art; The Menil Collection; Philadelphia Museum of Art; and Castello di Rivoli, Italy, among others.
About Jordan Bak
Award-winning Jamaican-American violist Jordan Bak has achieved international acclaim as a trailblazing artist, praised for his radiant stage presence, dynamic interpretations, and fearless power. The recipient of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s ‘Alexandra Jupin’ Award and former Young Classical Artist Trust’s (YCAT) ‘Robey Artist,’ Bak’s enthusiastically-received sophomore album, Cantabile: Anthems for Viola (Delphian Records), has garnered widespread international acclaim. In the 2025–26 season, he toured North America with the Takács Quartet.
Passionate about education, Bak currently serves on the viola faculties of Manhattan School of Music and NYU Steinhardt. He is an Ambassador for UK Music Masters in London and teaches during the summer at Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival in Vermont. Only the third violist to earn the Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, Jordan Bak holds a Bachelor of Music degree from New England Conservatory and a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School where he was awarded the prestigious Kovner Fellowship.
2026/2027 season
The 2026/2027 season deepens our ongoing exploration of the programmatic theme, We all build, through a new slate of one-of-a-kind experiences rooted in our mission to foster more grace and peace locally and globally. Join us for unforgettable musical performances, stirring dialogue from today’s leading thinkers, and community moments — each held in an immersive setting where boundaries between people, architecture, and landscape dissolve. Visit us throughout the seasons to sit at this unique intersection and explore topics that aim to inspire both introspection and joy. From there, we hope you connect with our theme that encourages all to build a more graceful and peaceful world, every day.
