Reflections on histories of farming & creative practice in the Great Plains

Описание: Reflections on histories of farming & creative practice in the Great Plains. With: The New Farmers Project (Tim Hossler & Paul Stock), Matthew Regier, and Diana Werts. Moderated by Laura Augusta.

Matthew Regier is an artist and printmaker who grew up on a corn farm in South Central Nebraska. He is a self-taught artist whose formal study is in philosophy and theology.

Diana Werts traces her relationship with the land and agriculture to her grandparents, who had a truck farm at the edge of her hometown of Wichita, Kansas. She became immersed in the back-to-the-land movement during her studies in the ‘70s and ‘80s at Emporia State University, where she completed an MA in painting.

New Farmers Project is an interdisciplinary collaborative art/research project that brings together a visual artist, rural sociologist, graphic designer, and a host of independent farmers to tell the story of a new breed of contemporary farmer — the first-generation, small-scale, sustainable farmer. Much like their subjects, the project’s fieldwork methodology is based in open process of collaborative naiveté — essentially working alongside one another, simultaneously influencing and learning from the other. In actively maintaining an open and supportive process, the photographs, interviewing strategies, theoretically informed questions, and pattern making combine with design and conversation to make sense of the hopes and hurdles of new farmers. The collaborative includes Bryan Darby, Tim Hossler, and Paul Stock.