This week on Serenbe Stories, Monica and Steve catch up with longtime Serenbe resident and Chair of the Art Farm Board, Janice Barton. Janice’s Serenbe story begins in the early days of Serenbe and in her time here, she has played a central role in bringing the arts to Serenbe’s residents and visitors. In this episode, we chat all about Janice’s own artistic expression (she is a highly talented quilter), the creativity she finds while walking the woods, and all of the exciting programming that the Art Farm has in store.
Show Notes
This week on Serenbe Stories, Monica and Steve catch up with longtime Serenbe resident and Chair of the Art Farm Board, Janice Barton. Janice’s Serenbe story begins in the early days of Serenbe and in her time here, she has played a central role in bringing the arts to Serenbe’s residents and visitors. In this episode, we chat all about Janice’s own artistic expression (she is a highly talented quilter), the creativity she finds while walking the woods, and all of the exciting programming that the Art Farm has in store.
Show Notes
(13s):
It just felt right. And all the things I heard felt, right. I never heard subdivision. I never heard golf and tennis. I heard art, I heard 70% green space. I just heard a language that really appealed to me. And to be honest, I had no idea if that time, how much I would fall in love with just the creative energy in the community.
2 (42s):
Welcome back to therapy stories. We're very excited to have Janice Barton with us today. Hey Janice, how are you?
1 (50s):
Great Monica. And I'm excited to be here too. Thank you.
2 (56s):
And Steve is always is with us. So GNS, you are a long-time resident, an avid quilter, which is a fun thing that I want to talk about. And you are the board chair for the art farm at Sarah B, which is our nonprofit that supports arts and sort of environmentally cultural programming, all sorts of fun stuff. We're going to talk about with a mission to touch the deepest Wells of the human spirit through art and nature. We're catching up with Janice. What brought her here and how the environment of ceremony shapes her creativity and what exciting things we have in store for the art farm. So the first question we always ask everybody, Janice is what is your ceremony story?
2 (1m 37s):
How did you discover Seren B and how did you choose to move here?
1 (1m 42s):
Thank you. So I was living in Roswell, Georgia in 2005 and was looking for a place to take my grandchildren on a weekend where we could be out in nature. And one of my coworkers happened to mention this place south of the airport. And there was no place south of the airport that you, at that time we'd be interested in, or that you knew about. And she said, it's this great bed and breakfast, you know, you can do a hay ride. They have a bonfire, the kids would love it. I brought them, we came down, we stayed in one of the little cottages. And at that time it wasn't the end. It was actually a bed and breakfast and Marie cooked breakfast and Steve served breakfast.
1 (2m 28s):
That's very good. And that first weekend, I wasn't even aware that there was a community being developed. I think it might've been the second or third time I came down and I think they had then maybe converted that what's the registration barn today was more of a real estate office at that time. And I'd been looking and contemplating where I might want to retire. I was born in Florida. So I had this thought that I would retire and go back to Florida. And I had bought back in maybe 2000, a condo, just north of Naples, but very quickly I determined that was not where I wanted to be.
1 (3m 12s):
And I don't know what it was. I just didn't feel like I found my people and that I would want to spend my retirement years in Florida. I hadn't sold it, but I was thinking, you know, I'm not sure that's gonna work out. So when I came the second or third time and saw the real estate office, I ended up buying my lot that day. I tend to be sometimes a little impulsive, but it just felt right. And all the things I heard felt, right. I never heard subdivision. I never heard golf and tennis. I heard art, I heard 70% green space. I just heard a language that really appealed to me.
1 (3m 52s):
And to be honest, I had no idea at that time, how much I would fall in love with just the creative energy in the community. Steve's I think greatest accomplishment is the people that he's attracted to this community because you can have a concept and a vision of what you want to build. But when you start talking community, the community creates the community. You can't do that on your own. You've got to have people that share your passion for what you're trying to build. So yeah, I bought the lot in 2005 and in 2008 became a resident
3 (4m 33s):
Janice. And I think you're a perfect example of when people respond to art, it touches their soul in a way that we have forgotten and coming from Midtown, Atlanta arts with always an important thing. And as we've traveled, we found that there was always someone who support her, whether it was the government, the church, or someone art that really made a difference in a place. And that's why art was important from the day one when you're a perfect example, that just by putting the art foundation in, it attracts that creative class and it makes for a very different community.
1 (5m 9s):
I agree. Totally.
2 (5m 11s):
Yeah. And like what you're saying that you never heard subdivision or golf and tennis, and obviously as we market it, we never really used those words, but I like that that struck you and it is the art. That's also Steve, how you just said that we forget, and I think schools don't put the money into the arts. They, don't sort of maybe a little bit more with steam these days, but it is something that is so different and unique to have a community take dollars to support the arts. And so that really the art farm, which is the nonprofit here is really the foundational spirit of a lot of the programming that we do.
2 (5m 51s):
But before we get into that, you've always been creative yourself. You had a marketing agency. And so I think you, then, I don't know if you sold it or what you did in this timeframe between 2008 and now, but I know that you have been traveling and you travel a lot for the arts. So tell me a little bit about where your passion for the arts came from and where you've been and what you'd like to see here, because I know we've talked about how can we sort of incubate some of those same types of workshops that you're traveling for. So give us the whole story.
1 (6m 25s):
I certainly love to travel because I think that's such a wonderful way to learn more about the world and the people in it. To be honest, I never had a lot of time to explore my own artistic practice when I was working and being a mom. And you just are just worn in enough hours in the day to find very much time to pursue those efforts. But when I retired, I was never worried about what I was going to do when I retired. That was not anything that concerned me. So when I retired, then I really had time to pursue what I want to do with my time. And I'd never really drawn or painted or even quilted.
1 (7m 9s):
But once I was set free, I hit the workshop road and I did everything. I would go explore painting and drawing and quilt making and pottery. It just everything because using your hands to make something is so therapeutic. I think for everybody in the word, artists can be so intimidating to some people, but it's really, and sometimes I even have difficulty calling myself an artist. I think of myself more as a maker. I just like to make things sit down and create something. It doesn't matter what it is. It's the creative process. It's that energy that you put into trying to create something and to be candid.
1 (7m 53s):
That's the part I've most enjoyed about the connection here to visiting artists has been trying to help other people understand how important our investment in the creative process is as opposed to what the product is. I mean, we all collect that is so subjective. Everybody you ask has a different viewpoint on what they like and why they like it. And that's all wonderful. But honoring the process of creating is to me what the real core of art making it's, what is your practice and how do you go about that and pursue it
2 (8m 30s):
Well, and you created a whole room dedicated to your quilting. So this, I mean, I totally understand maker feels more comfortable, but the work that you do is artistry is beautiful. So you went from trying all these different things, but how did you hone in on quilting? And then where are you in that process today of, is it a daily practice or something that you quilt?
1 (8m 56s):
Well, I mean, I've always had a passion for, I'm a tactile person, so fabrics and anything I'm touching and feeling that way is very appealing to me and the colors. And I think of it as a paint box, you can just do anything with fabric and I began playing around with it. And the way I started was fairly structured, not there a million quilt patterns, and I was doing somewhat traditional quilting just to learn the techniques when I started, but now I really enjoy exploring more artistic quilts. And this is such an inspirational place for that. I mean, you can take one walk in the woods and come back with 10 different ideas to explore.
1 (9m 40s):
And, you know, you just start drawing them out and trying to imagine how to convert your idea into a quilt product to some product. So for example, I've been studying and looking at the map, the bird's eye view of Sarah and B, and it's so interesting because it's not gridded. There's nothing gritted here. It's not geometry. Well, it is, it's sacred geometry, but it's not linear. So I've been playing around about how to interpret that and to have Cedar Creek and all the omegas and the shapes that are here. So, yeah, there's just tons of ideas that you get walk around in the woods here.
2 (10m 23s):
Yeah, no, I think that the woods are inspirational and I think that if it, nothing, anybody can take anything away from Sandy stories. I think it's that everybody honors the trails and just loves getting out. And just, even if you're just walking from one side of Selborne to the other, that five minutes will give you just sort of, I mean, no pun intended, or I guess maybe incentive breath of fresh air to rethink anything, even between meetings, it sort of recharges you. Do you have any quilts that are your favorites that you've done
1 (10m 53s):
Right now? I guess the one that gets the most attention is a quilt. I started, I took a class, I think, out on the west coast for wool applicate. So it's a little different process than traditional quilting. And I started my project and it was so labor intensive. I've probably got 800 hours in this quilt now that it's finished, but I, you know, I put it up. I thought I'm getting so tired of working on this. So when COVID came to visit, not me personally, but when we all struggling with what are we going to do, locked up in our homes. I pulled that project back out and I really became intentional about finishing it.
1 (11m 34s):
And it is for me, what I call my Sarah and B story quilt. It's comprised of 38 by eight squares. And each eight by eight square tells a story. It might be the Fox. I saw one morning in the backyard. It might be huckleberry my little dog next door. It's the story of the ducks at the pond down toward the end, you know how there was only one duck. And now we have a family of pecking ducks. It's a visual map of kind of my experiences over the last 10 years or so. I don't know what will happen to it.
1 (12m 14s):
I mean, my family loves it, but for now it's just a piece of art on the wall and something that reminds me of lots of happy memories.
2 (12m 23s):
No, I think we need to the minimum, get it photographed professionally, if you haven't for the archives, if you will, the future museum, right. Steve, the history museum, if the chat Hills
1 (12m 35s):
Actually, I love that idea and we have so many good photographers here. A friend of mine has photographed it. And then a lot of friends have encouraged me to write the little story that goes along with it. What is that all about? So we'll say there may be a little book that talks about,
2 (12m 52s):
I could see a book, definitely. Maybe the art farm and ceremony we'll come together with Janice and help you make that a reality.
1 (13m 0s):
Well, I don't know. That seems like a lot of self promotion, but it's a sweet project and we'll see what happens.
3 (13m 8s):
Absolutely. I think that quilt where the photographed, or at some point a narrow distance future will be part of the ceremony archives. And maybe even you can see him one day thinking of in a very sweet and artistic and talented way. It tells the ceremony story, the whole idea of the foundation of arts, but really underlying that is nature. That's what drew us. And I think a lot of other people, and that is the true art of palette is you just go out into nature and you can't help, but open your experience. And I think the quilt and your life here has certainly demonstrated that.
1 (13m 47s):
Thank you. I appreciate that.
2 (13m 49s):
I think we are so lucky to have you, that you did choose Sarah and B instead of the condo in Naples, because think of the work that you've done. Right. And so now switching gears into the art farm, you're the chair of that group. Tell me a little bit about the mission and what kinds of programming like you're sort of working on right now. I know over the years it will morph and change, but today, what do you see? What are the goals for the next couple of years?
1 (14m 20s):
I certainly think bringing art back to ceremony after two years of COVID when we were all locked up. So our mission this year has been less just start making things happen again, give people an opportunity to experience something in the woods performance in the woods, poetry reading in the woods, violin concerto in the woods. That's kind of been where we are ridesharing. We've done some really interesting things. This Broadway in the woods series was well received. We had people come in from 11 different states to see Jeremy Jordan who was the first performer in that series. And we're bringing Megan Hilty next month as our second in that series.
1 (15m 6s):
And the formation of the board was I think, somewhat unique in looking at having councils, you know, a theater council, a music council, film council, dance council, having specific chains who focus on programming in a specific genre, what do we want to do in theater? What do we want to do in dance? And then they're generating the ideas and those councils are made up of residents and non-residents. So there may be someone, for example, from Atlanta, who's involved in theater that wants to help us think about theater. And we're very open to that. And it's helpful to have that various levels of expertise in a certain field.
1 (15m 48s):
So our programming intent is to always be very diverse, to be diverse and content, to be diverse in price points. We're not programming just for Sarah and B. If you live here, it's a wonderful benefit, but we're programming for the public and trying to be cognizant of being inclusive for the surrounding area in terms of where we're pricing and what we're producing.
2 (16m 14s):
You mentioned theater, music, dance, film. I think there's a public art scrape and oh, and there's an environmental group too, right?
1 (16m 25s):
Those four councils are primarily what I call the performance councils. And then there are three other councils in environment. And I'll talk about that in a minute because there's a lot of wonderful stuff happening there, community engagement, which is how we're connecting both inside Sarah and B. And then just as importantly, is how are we connecting outside ceremony? What are we doing to expose the community at large, to what we're producing and then public art and special projects. So there's a place for things that maybe don't fit anywhere else and our public art. I can't tell you what they are, but there are a couple of projects that we're in the process of finalizing that are going to be absolutely groundbreaking next year.
1 (17m 14s):
I mean, to have an artist of the caliber of certainly one of the global environmental artists come here to work on a specific project is really exciting.
2 (17m 25s):
Well, and there's a couple artists that I think you can speak of that we'll be installing some sculptures this fall. Isn't that correct?
1 (17m 34s):
Yes. Curtis Patterson has been working on a sculpture for probably about eight months that will be installed in September serenity for Shango. And we're really excited about that piece of work. And Christina May, whose work was at the Atlanta botanical garden several months ago. Her work is coming in October and Christina's from San Francisco and just a delight. She's one of those people when I was talking about how wonderful it is when you get to know the artist and talk to the artists and hear about their process. Once you meet Christina, you're just over the top in terms of really respecting how hard she works to bring her product to the public.
1 (18m 22s):
So her work is sculptural and made from wire. She does all this intricate intimate work with our hands. It's a brutal way to create, but just wonderful to look at. So we're really excited to have both of those pieces, which Christina's work is just here for a showing. It will be here temporarily, although it will be available to the public to buy. So we're certainly hoping that we'll see some of that work in the community after Christina leaves, but Curtis's work is here permanently art farm is being gifted that sculpture and will have it and maintain it for the future.
1 (19m 3s):
And it will be part of our public art tour when we're ready to get that scheduled and make it available for the public to see.
2 (19m 11s):
Yeah. And all of that will be coming. We'll put all in the show notes, how to sign up for the art farms newsletter, but that's a great way to stay on top of things and hear what's coming beyond the sculptures to make sure when the next Broadway in the woods comes out, you guys also did a fun evening at Halsa, which was movies that matter, right. Can you say a little bit about that
1 (19m 34s):
Movies that made me, so we're lucky here to have a lot of film industry people who live here, come through here and now with so much film happening in Georgia, we have access to a lot of those professionals, be it stuntmen, actors, writers, filmmakers. So we used to do something similar. We'd just all get together and watch a movie, you know, have filmed night, but it seemed an interesting twist to engage professional people in terms of what influenced them, what movie influenced their career path or their career choices, or what's their favorite movie.
1 (20m 18s):
So we're kind of presenting it at it's a little bit lecture, as well as viewing the movie. The first one was with west Chatham writers of the lost Ark. And it was really west knew so much about that movie that the rest of us didn't even know. I mean, it's like you get all the film notes that you just want to wear up. And of course now it's how old is that? 40 years old. 30 years old.
2 (20m 40s):
God. Yeah, definitely.
1 (20m 43s):
I mean, you could tell that when you watched it, cause it's not all the CGI you have today, but just hearing him talk about the movie was I thought very interesting and inspiring. So we're excited about that series.
2 (20m 57s):
I think you were out of town, Janice, but I know Steve was at the last music event, which one of the big thing or series I should say that has happened from a wonderful neighbor, faith Scriven really kind of runs or leads that committee is something called Tulia. So Steve, I dunno if you want to jump in and like tell us about that experience.
3 (21m 20s):
I think it's wonderful and it wasn't my first time, but I sat next to someone who was there for the first time. And as the evening started, she said, well, what makes this so special? Why are you excited? What is it? And I said, well, I try and explain to her. And I said, well, wait until you see how they eat bean unfold. And so the first series of numbers, the first course was served. And during that first course, I turned to her and I said, well, what do you think now? And she said, oh my God, it's like having movie stars in your living room. And that was exactly it there. You had these world-class musicians in front of you while you were having dinner.
3 (22m 4s):
And of course there is a great thing that they say, Hey, they're bringing back this incredible music to the period that it was written. And it wasn't for a bunch of people sitting in stiff clones in a row it's to be in pubs and restaurants. And it brought that whole feel back. And I thought she really captured the essence of it. And she's one of the most incredible things. And you look at their webpage and they are now in New York, San Francisco and Sarah, and be on their surface. How incredible is that,
2 (22m 32s):
Which is stuff. And I know there's going to be a couple more this year, but in, we're going to interview faith and James who I think runs through Tilia. So that'll be in this season, which is exciting. Another thing that I'm really excited about. And although I think it's targeted maybe to more families and kids is Terminus, modern ballet, and the Alliance theater have teamed up. Can you talk about that partnership and how that came to be?
1 (22m 57s):
Yeah, they've partnered for a Peter and the Wolf and those performances are in September. And what makes things so magical is the fact that we're not a black box theater, those Mo that touch the deepest. Well, I mean, a lot of times touching the deepest Wells happens in nature. So when you're combining art in a natural setting, I think it ramps up the magic factor, certainly for me. And also because they're intimate performances, you're not sitting with 700 other people experiencing something you're sitting with. I don't know. I like it for Tulia. It's maybe a hundred people at Jeremy Jordan.
1 (23m 39s):
It was 150 people, you know, where can you go to see that quality, that level of performance and feel like it's being performed just for you. So Peter and the Wolf you're sitting right there, you're right in front of the stage, you feel like you're part of what's happening. So that'll be a wonderful performance, I think for both kids and adults and it's over two weekends. So there's four opportunities to experience Peter and the Wolf.
2 (24m 6s):
And then another fun one, which I think just cropped up on the calendar, which I'm not sure if it's just an August, is dad's garage just taking it on a whole nother level for fear that anybody would think that it's all chamber music and theater, like this is a really fun thing as well. So did that come out of the theater group?
1 (24m 25s):
Yes. So that, and we're exploring ideas with a lot of different producing partners. So we're more of a presenting organization. We have access to lots of different programming, theater music. It's just, how big is our list and who do we want to call? And people fall in love with Sarah and B when they come here. So even if you've never done an outdoor performance, when you come to this environment and I think start with, we give you the tour, we call it drinking the Kool-Aid, but that happens. I mean, people start to imagine their productions in a whole different way. So dad's garage, we're looking at doing an affiliation so we can hear the frogs and the crickets, but we're undercover.
1 (25m 12s):
And also we want to explore this. This is kind of a test run to see how does it work? That happens. I think with a lot of the groups we're bringing down first, they've got to believe that we'll provide the production support they need. And then they got to believe that they can pull an audience here. They all want to perform here. It's just, can we make it work, given what we do? And I think there's some other ideas we're exploring with dad's garage for a longer, perhaps more of like a little mini series. There's lots we can do with different performing groups, but we're really excited about the diversity of programming that something like improv brings to Sarah and B.
2 (25m 54s):
Yeah. And that'll be a lot of fun. And we're also dipping our toes in the water, right. Art from is in, I think it's early December with like a small comedy night, a little bit different than improv. My comedy friends are very clear that improv is different from comedy, you know, stand up. So I wanted to make that point. That'll be another event at Halsa just a fun evening. And again, I think it's such a great opportunity that the art farm is willing to sort of just try things out. Like let's throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks, what brings people in and what people want more of
1 (26m 26s):
Absolutely somewhat experimental at this point. But last year we did a night. We called it voice variety show and it was kinda like everybody's way too young, but there used to be something called ed Sullivan variety show. And that was a big thing back in the sixties and fifties and sixties. So it was kind of modeled after that. Let's just get together and let's listen to a comedian, listen to a vocalist, listen to a spoken word artist. So it was a variety, you know, it was only an hour, 15, 20 minutes each performer. And we had so much fun that night and we were in the Oak room. So there was only maybe 120 of us in there, but it felt intimate.
1 (27m 10s):
And you had great performance. I mean, a comedian was, I love the we're really looking forward to the comedy night where we're just focused on making people laugh. But that's the great thing about an organization built on our model. We don't have a production company where we have to do these things. We have a budget and now what are we going to bring for that budget? And fortunately we live where the community is investing in the art form programming. So the transfer fees that we receive from each real estate transaction or our primary source of funding. So that's such a wonderful thing to have done when you're talking the vision of that in terms of building a community and having arts in the community.
1 (27m 57s):
Yeah. That's a novel and wonderful idea.
2 (28m 1s):
Yeah. And I, I always wonder, and maybe Steve can answer this. Have you found Steve or Janice in your travels? Are there more communities doing that? I know seaside down on 30 a and Florida had that sort of a model, which I think is phenomenal, but God, what if more developers and communities utilize that content to have an ongoing funding mechanism for the arts, for example, do you do you know,
3 (28m 28s):
So the listeners understand what this does last year, the transfer fee contribute a million dollars to the arts. So this really gives the foundation for programming within the community, but is for the greater community of Metro Atlanta or anyone that comes in. I am not aware of other communities that do this through a property transfer fee and many people that visit. I think it's a great idea, but this is something you have to include in your CCRS from the time the first lot is so, and something that would be very difficult to add once a community has already started.
1 (29m 9s):
Yeah. I'm not aware of any other than seaside. I mean, you do find communities that will have perhaps an artist's cottage. They'll have a residency cottage. I've seen that in a few locations, but not a robust budget for arts programming and environmental programming. I mean, our in environment council has done such a phenomenal job at advancing like the helping work with the city, for the B city designation. There is a wonderful opportunity federal grant program. And I think it's fish and wildlife America, the beautiful they've allocated $60 million in supportive environmental projects across the country.
1 (29m 53s):
And the environment council is working with Southeastern grasslands and several other organizations and the city they've written the grant proposal for us to get funding for the wildflower meadow and Sarah and B the motto wetlands and the four parks in the city to do improvements there. And the compost station. I mean, that's going to be an impactful idea, both for Sarah and B residents and non-residents, it will be open. We're working on the construction of the compost station now and hoping to launch for the public next year. We'll kind of run some trials to just see how mainly how we can effectively communicate how to compost and get people signed up to compost.
1 (30m 40s):
So I think these very specific environment programs are going to be an important part of what we're bringing to this area as we move forward.
2 (30m 52s):
I think all of that super exciting and the compost that you're mentioning is something that the ceremony farms, our farm has been composting for ages and the community as a whole has been composting, but as we've grown, so has the amount of compost or waste if you will. And so it's really taking it to the next level to really create what I think what we're calling sort of station number one for the city, that would be a drop-off point at the farm. So that's going to be really exciting. And I know we're working with Rodale who is located up the street on manyfold farm Rodale Institute to help us with the metrics and track it and make sure that we're doing it on a professional level.
1 (31m 33s):
There's so much science to composting. I've been learning myself recently what all of that means and how to really be intentional about it. So the educational component is certainly what the art farm will own. How do we engage people and help them understand what they need to do? So, yeah, we're very excited about that.
2 (31m 55s):
And you mentioned cottages as we're wrapping up here, but I do want to ask about facilities. There are two cottages that were partnered with rural studio that are in place that artists come and stay at not a formal residency program at this point. But if you will, every artist who comes is in a sense in residency. And I know Sarah and be with the show house, we're working with you guys with a decorative arts fellowship and having artists coming to the cottages, I'm assuming or guessing that Christina May is perhaps staying in them. I think our comedians will get to use them in December. I don't know if that your Tulia it's pretty cool who comes through there, but tell us a little bit about the initial vision or where you guys are, or your head is what's the two to five-year plan for the art farm, the place, the land that is the Jason to therapy.
1 (32m 50s):
Yeah. Good question. So right now it's pretty much like you've indicated we got the two cottages and the way we're using them now, as we're partnering with production companies and producers of content, we're using them so that those people can come and perhaps work on whatever the production is or stay here while they envision and imagine the place and what they're going to do here, using it for someone like Christina. So artists are in and out of there currently, but it's somewhat informally, but as we're working on this strategic plan, one of the pillars we're really researching and thinking about is this ongoing workshop model, where we have a maker space that we can use as a teaching space or as a studio space for a visiting artists.
1 (33m 41s):
How do we begin to combine the teaching aspect and the workshop aspect, along with the other uses of those cottages. And currently we don't have a maker space, but that is one of the things we're exploring in that strategic plan is what specifically do we want our facilities roadmap to look like? We currently have containers and some decking space. So in the immediate future, we want to build a performance area at the art farm itself so that there is some space over there where we could do a perf. I mean, we could probably see 125 in that area and we'd have some tiered seating.
1 (34m 25s):
So there's grass seating, there's close to the stage seating. It it's applicable to accomplishing several different things in the seating venues. So getting that space ready for performances, and then thinking about the Makerspace and the workshop opportunities are probably going to be the next direction of those strategic planning visioning.
2 (34m 48s):
And do you guys envision building more cottages as well?
1 (34m 52s):
Absolutely. Because I think when, and if we're building a maker space, we would probably build more cottages with that first little. So that might be project. One is a maker space and three or four more cottages. And we see how that works and what that model really turns out, how do we make it successful and how do we need to tweak it? And then project two, there is room on some property in that area for an outdoor amphitheater. Do we want to actually build a larger performance venue out in the woods? I don't know if you've ever seen or been to the, I think it's the <inaudible> and the Topanga canyon right outside of LA.
1 (35m 39s):
That's kind of a visual inspiration, I think for some of what we could envision back there. So there's a lot of opportunity in terms of what we want to do. And to be honest, you know, that Matt's not drawn yet. We get to draw it ourselves. So that's exciting.
2 (35m 57s):
That's amazing. And if people want to get involved, are there volunteer opportunities? Are you taking more people on the committees and advisory, if they want to give money, if they want to build a cottage, should they reach out to you or are there all sorts of opportunities for them?
1 (36m 16s):
There are a lot of opportunities for all of those things. So I think the primary source of information and the avenue to reach the art farm and me or anyone else is to go to the website, which is art farm@ceremony.org and sign up for the newsletter. And if you have specific interest and maybe you're a dancer or a musician, and you're interested in learning how to participate and how you can be involved, then contact us through the website. We get that actually quite a lot. And that's how we built our advisory councils was through people that were interested.
1 (36m 57s):
People. We knew people that knew us and that's important because those councils is that's what's driving, who comes here to perform
2 (37m 7s):
Fantastic,
1 (37m 9s):
But we also need people to park cars, check people in to an advance. So the folks who live in this area have been very supportive. I mean, they'll come do whatever you ask of them, but having a regular cadre of volunteers is really important for an arts organization.
2 (37m 28s):
That's great. That's really great. And so our final question that we always ask, if you've got a new person coming to ceremony, what should visitors do that sort of different that they may not gather from the typical ways that they might hear ceremony? Do you have a favorite thing that you recommend to visitors that they do while they're here?
1 (37m 49s):
Well, it's hard to narrow that down to just one thing, but for me, when people come to visit, I love to take them to the waterfall or walk along Cedar Creek. That is such a special experience. We have the grandmother tree at the waterfall and we have the grandfather tree out behind the art farm, just having those experiences in nature. I love the labyrinth. So taking someone for a quiet walk and the labyrinth is really special. The tree house, which is right across the street from me in the woods. So I would say a woods experience, but you can't have a bad one.
1 (38m 31s):
There are just so many good ones.
2 (38m 33s):
And especially coming to see the article in the woods.
1 (38m 37s):
Well, needless to say, if you're here, hopefully you've looked at the website and there's something you're going to do in the woods at night, you're going to watch a ballet performance under the stars. And then that's another thing, you know, we have a wonderful star canopy here at night to just go walk over by Grange lake on the dam and sit and look up and look at the stars. I mean, yeah, you don't have to go far to have a special moment, watch a ballet and look up at the stars. There's lots of opportunities to have a special moment that touches you at Sarah and me.
2 (39m 12s):
I love it,
3 (39m 14s):
Janice. I so appreciate your talent, your dedication. And I remember in those first years, one of the first things, when Thomas wants to and said, we need an artist in residence program, you stepped up, you contributed money, you contributed your energy and you contributed your guestroom to make that happen. So you have been a foundation of the entire arts moving at beach from the very beginning. And since they're a thank you for that.
1 (39m 45s):
Thank you. I appreciate that. It is funny when you think about what's been built here, what we've built here because we built it theater. When we had no theater, we built an, a residency program. When we had no residents, there wasn't a physical place. It was just your neighbors and the people who lived here who made it all happen. So yeah, that was your vision, Steve. So thank you for that
3 (40m 10s):
All together. We make things happen.
2 (40m 12s):
Well, thank you both for being with us today. We'll see on the trails
1 (40m 16s):
Because sounds good. Artist performance.