$55 All materials included
9AM-5PM
Come learn the art of basketry with Dona Nazarenko of Country Spirit Baskets. The Traditional Bread and Biscuit Basket has many uses for storage and organizing or can be a valuable catch-all for every table. Option of adding colors if you would like.
To register, contact director@morrillhomestead.org
$45, all materials included
9AM-12PM
Come make block prints inspired by the gardens and architecture of the Morrill Homestead. We’ll start off with a brief tour of the grounds, and then we’ll meet in the education center to work on making art from what we discover. In this class you will learn basic design, carving, and printing techniques in a relaxed, supportive, and playful atmosphere. You will come away with a completed print, suitable for framing, embellishing and/or mailing as a card.
To register, contact director@morrillhomestead.org
$45, For Adults and Teens
12PM-4PM
In the workshop, “Making Morrill’s Pink” we will take inspiration from the iconic pink shades of the Morrill Homestead, using natural dyes and watercolor paints. With natural materials like madder, loquat leaves, amaranth, cutch, and sumac, we will dye fabrics various shades of pink together. While the dye baths do their magic, we will turn to our water color paper and continue to study the color pink as well as its complement and analogous colors.
Pre-mordanted cotton bandanas will be provided for the dye portion of the class, but students are welcome to bring small natural fiber items or a skein of undyed yarn to experiment with. A materials list will be provided for the watercolor portion.
Katie is a natural dyer who works with plants foraged from the hills of Northern California and around the Upper Valley, where she grew up. She is passionate about using natural dyes to extend the life of clothes & fabrics that might otherwise be retired or thrown away. Jennifer teaches painting with watercolors at the Morrill Homestead and AVA gallery.
To register, contact director@morrillhomestead.org
Ages 8-14
Mon-Fri, August 5-9, 9AM-12PM
$150 per child (financial assistance available)
Learning photography is a great way for young people to explore outdoors and appreciate nature. World Story Exchange teacher Scott McClure Miller has taught photography to children in 11 countries for the past decade. Join Scott this summer on the lovely grounds of the Morrill Homestead. Each day will be a fun mixture of practicing photography skills and learning to apply artistic principals through the camera, all while exploring the Homestead and the Strafford village. The week will culminate with a photo exhibit of campers’ work in the Strafford Post Office. Cameras kits are provided.
To register, contact director@morrillhomestead.org
Free Event, 4PM
Vermont’s remarkable Civil War battlefield record is well documented, but little is known of how Vermont women sustained the home front. With nearly 35,000 of the state’s able-bodied men at war, the monumental tasks of keeping more than 30,000 farms in operation became very much a female enterprise. And women took the place of men in factories and worked after hours making items needed by the soldiers. A Vermont woman edited anti-slavery newspapers, and others spoke against slavery. Also, Vermont women served as nurses in the state’s military hospitals and in the war zone, and taught newly-freed slaves in the South. And at least one Vermont woman appears to have secretly enlisted and fought in a Vermont regiment.
This story is told in their words, from letters and diaries that describe life during the Civil War in the Green Mountain State. A seventh-generation Vermonter, Howard Coffin is the author of four books on the Civil War.
For more information, contact director@morrillhomestead.org
$5, 10AM-12PM
Please join David Paganelli, Orange County Forester, for an informal tree walk around the grounds of the Homestead. We will walk the grounds and discuss original plantings that remain and changes that have taken place since Justin Morrill’s time, both intentional and unplanned. All are welcome.
For more information, contact director@morrillhomestead.org
Bidding opens 7PM July 5 to 7PM July 12
-Link for 2024 Auction coming in June (please contact director@morrillhomestead.org)
See the paintings in person at the Gallery in the Garden event!
The 2024 mini auction includes works by these artists, and many more: Henry, Isaacs, Gerry Bergstein, Gail Boyajian, Jennifer Brown, Matt Brown, Dierdre Dennis, Jean Gerber, Tanya Libby, Jo Levasseur, Jeanne McMahan, Michael Moore, Andy Newman, Mary Louise Pierson, Celia Riesman, and Sherry SaintGermaine.
Free Event
5-7PM
The Morrill Homestead’s annual Gallery in the Garden art show and online auction is a highlight of the Upper Valley art season. The 2024 edition features works created in an array of styles by fine artists from the Strafford community, the Upper Valley, and beyond. Fourteen artists present their unique perspectives on the theme “After the Flood” in ways that are moving, playful, profound, and inspiring.
5 p.m. – Reception for the art show opening in the Carriage Barn. Jennifer Brown and Celia Riesman are the featured artists and inspiration for “After the Flood.”
“Minis for Morrill” paintings on view in the Education Center —magnificent 4″x4″ mini paintings by artists of regional and national reputation to be auctioned online.
“After the Flood” also includes works by Gerry Bergstein, Gail Boyajian, Matt Brown, Dierdre Dennis, Jean Gerber, Tanya Libby, Jo Levasseur, Jeanne McMahan, Michael Moore, Andy Newman, Mary Louise Pierson, and Sherry SaintGermaine.
$10 per person
1-3PM
Join us to understand carbon sequestration, learn how to improve soil health, and increase habitat for biodiversity and a more livable future. Karen Ganey is a permaculture designer and educator who founded Permaculture Solutions, an ecological landscape design company, where she designs gardens and programs for schools, hospitals and municipalities. She also works with the Regeneration Corps where she manages native tree nurseries for agroforestry and land justice projects and teaches climate solutions, anti-racism, regenerative agriculture through the lens of a Just Transition.
To preregister please contact: director@morrillhomestead.org
Free event
For ages 1-6 and their families and friends
10:30AM-12PM
Hooray for summer outdoor play! Four Winds Nature Institute will bring seasonally-appropriate loose parts, science tools, a mud kitchen, and more to help nurture a sense of wonder, place, and well-being.
Bring a lunch and stay after to enjoy a picnic in the gardens!
For questions, please email: director@morrillhomestead.org
