Current Exhibits
With Every Fiber
West Barn
With Every Fiber: Pigment, Stone, Glass demonstrates innovative approaches to ethical sourcing and proves that fair labor practices in the construction industry are within our reach. This installation focuses on three at-risk materials: stone, pigment, and glass.
The stories of these materials are told through a number of newly commissioned artworks, on view in the exhibit: a portrait of Nasreen Sheikh, painted by artist Hannah Rose Thomas, PhD; a painting by artist and professor, John Sabraw, using pigments made in his studio from recycled mine drain off in the Ohio mountains; a new glass installation by Nina Cooke John, Principal of Studio Cooke John Architecture and Design and designer of With Every Fiber; and a sustainable prototype for stone truss work demonstrating engineering solutions, designed by Steve Webb, of Webb/Yates, and fabricated by the Stone Masonry Company.
The London Philharmonic Orchestra, which has a long partnership with Grace Farms, recorded Woven in Tears — a new composition by Evan Williams created for this exhibit and heard within the installation.
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Peace Forest
West Barn
Inspired by the unique character of Grace Farms’ River building, Barns and 80 acres of nature, Peace Forest invites visitors to interactively experience how the landscape, architecture, and people at Grace Farms are part of the Foundation’s mission.
The exhibit, curated by Grace Farms’ Founding Creative Director Chelsea Thatcher, and designed by Peter Miller (Palette Architecture) and Shohei Yoshida (shohei yoshida + associates / SYA), has been updated to commemorate Grace Farms’ 10-Year Anniversary.
A new timeline highlights key moments over the past decade, while three original watercolor artworks by artist Heather Jones depict the landscape and the River building. An updated video installation by filmmaker Ben Stamper further illustrates the diversity of programming over the last ten years.
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With Every Fiber (2024-2025)
With Every Fiber is a long-term exhibit aiming to inspire understanding and care about the materials that make up the built world around us. In 2020, Grace Farms launched Design for Freedom, a collaborative global movement to remove forced labor in the building materials supply chain, create true market transformation, and build a more equitable future. This exhibit is Grace Farms’ first major initiative to bring this movement to the public.
The first iteration of this immersive and interactive exhibit was curated by Grace Farms Creative Director Chelsea Thatcher and designed by Studio Cooke John Architecture + Design, with the graphics designed by Pentagram. It was the result of collaboration and contributions from 20 preeminent designers, material suppliers, cultural institutions, and construction industry leaders already committed to the Design for Freedom movement.
With Every Fiber featured a curated recording by a quartet of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, poetry by U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, text by artist Carrie Mae Weems, and photography by international humanitarian photographer Lisa Kristine. It also featured an immersive biomaterials installation by Yale Center for Ecosystems + Architecture (Yale CEA) emphasizing the relationship between culture and sustainability and bringing forth the concept of ethical decarbonization, a new term proposed by Grace Farms CEO and Founder Sharon Prince with Anna Dyson, founder of Yale CEA.
“With Every Fiber responds to Design for Freedom’s efforts to remove the veil covering the reality of unethical labor practices in the construction industry. The exhibit draws Grace Farms visitors – neighbors from across the street and design professionals from around the world – into the space and invites them to contemplate what goes into making our homes, places of work, cultural spaces, and sites for commemoration.”
– Studio Cooke John Architecture + Design Principal Nina Cooke John
“First the food industry was called to be accountable to fair labor and supply chain transparency, then fashion, and now shelter is being called to account.”
– Grace Farms CEO and Founder Sharon Prince
Common Good Through Crisis
Common Good Through Crisis, considered the relationships and connections that inspired Grace Farms Foundation’s efforts to provide 2 million critical PPE to frontline health care workers and hundreds of thousands of nutritious meals to our neighbors in need. Grace Farms Foundation’s work to close the PPE gap during the initial surge of the pandemic was furthered through collaboration with the State of Connecticut, the Town of New Canaan, and many other municipalities, hospitals, healthcare organizations, nonprofits, and individuals.
The “show spotlights people who have selflessly used their skills, and mobilized their networks, to serve others in big ways. The selection of stories, which mostly took place in the throes of the pandemic last year, demonstrate how one’s connections can be a powerful tool for fostering action and change.” – The Slowdown
The immersive installation, in which the public can participate in weaving, connected individual stories to a fabric of interconnectedness, and posed the question about an urgency and power in continuing to act for the common good, not just in times of crisis.
The exhibit, designed and curated with an ethical material lens by Chelsea Thatcher, Grace Farms Chief Strategy Officer and Founding Creative Director, and MASS Design, with graphics from Pentagram, inaugurated a new gallery space for the public in the East Barn.
