Saturday, September 17
11:00am–4:00pm
101 Spring Street
New York, NY
Join Judd Foundation and Sky High Farm for Who is We? Where is There? What is It? a symposium on art, land, and community on Saturday, September 17 at 101 Spring Street in New York.
The day will consist of three distinct but interrelated moderated conversations that will center themes relevant to both the work of Sky High Farm and the speakers invited to participate, all of whom are part of a diverse and extended network of collaborators. The panels will focus individually on art, land, and community, intentionally broad but potent themes that are referenced often in today’s cultural and industrial discourses. This repetition can leave the words feeling void of meaning, and the day’s series of talks will ask what each of them really stands for, exploring the topics through a lens of both human and nature-centered care, uniquely approached by the diverse range of participants.
This symposium asks: What happens if an artwork, a museum, a region, or a group of people are all considered homes, as opposed to places for transaction or extraction? Where do the differences between nation, neighborhood, and homeland really reside? How do we remain hopeful in the pursuit of the answers to these questions?
The Art Panel
11:00am
The Art Panel will explore the multiplicity of artworlds and artist trajectories that exist and which ultimately push beyond traditional markets and studio practices. Deana Hagag, Program Officer, Arts and Culture at Mellon Foundation; Dan Colen, artist and Founder of Sky High Farm; Linda Goode Bryant, artist and Founder of Project EATS; and Diya Vij, Associate Curator at Creative Time – all members of organizations that stretch individualist ideas of art and authorship – will explore the roles of artist and audience, place and accessibility, legacy, capital influence, and individual vs. collective agency as they relate to artmaking today.
The Land Panel
1:00pmThe Land Panel will be moderated by Veronica Davidov, visual and environmental anthropologist, in dialogue with Karen Washington, activist and Co-founder of Black Urban Growers (BUGS) and Co-owner of Rise & Root Farm; Candice Hopkins, curator and Executive Director of Forge Project; and Haley Mellin, artist, conservationist and Founder of Art to Acres. The group will explore the tensions and overlaps between different efforts to define, use, and protect land: private and public conservation, Indigenous land stewardship and sovereignty efforts, and cooperative urban and rural agriculture, all with the understanding that the meaning of land – as something abstract, embodied, or owned – is dependent on context and personal history.
The Community Panel
3:00pmThe Community Panel, will build off of the previous threads and ask, ultimately: In an era of global interconnectedness, how is a community truly defined? What makes an institution or a neighborhood into a home or an audience into an alliance? Thelma Golden, Chief Curator and Director of the Studio Museum in Harlem; Tremaine Emory, Founder of Denim Tears and Creative Director of Supreme; Father Mike Lopez, Founder of The Hungry Monk Rescue Truck and Monkworx; and Anicka Yi, artist, will explore how the concept of community has shaped their work, and the power in seeing our homes, histories, and even our bodies as porous, interdependent, and alive.
Sky High Farm believes that everyone should have access to the resources they need to sustain themselves, including high-quality, culturally appropriate food. Since 2012, Sky High farm has committed to regenerative farming practices and an environmentally holistic, equity-focused approach to promoting food sovereignty. This includes support for burgeoning farmers through training and mentorship, grants to catalyze a more equitable and community-centered food system, and food access partnerships -100% of food produced on-site is donated to community partners in a collective effort to achieve long-term solutions to food insecurity.