Art and Agriculture: Curating in the Hedgerows

In farming terms, field trials are an opportunity to determine effectiveness of experimental techniques. In the arts, experiments are usually only visible in the artist studio. For the past three years, Free Range Trials has functioned as a lab for artistic process and creative testing. Located in on an organic vegetable farm in Northern Minnesota, the exhibition series pairs contemporary visual artists with non-traditional exhibition spaces located on the farm. Past installations have included Argentinian artist and systems thinker Cecilia Ramon and her explorations into the thermohaline water currents and sundials as well as Jerome Fellow Kathy McTavish and her investigations into queer AI.

An apt metaphor for the space can be found in the agricultural features of hedgerows. These dense spaces form boarders on the farm that foster beneficial insects. They are a little more wild and diverse and they function as an overlapping ecosystem where the more highly controlled aspects of the farm intersect with the unmitigated aspects of the natural world. They can be planned and planted but they are designed to invite chance and wild growth. Free Range Trials are a literal as well as conceptual space on the margins of both art and farming where experimentation is allowed to foster beneficial diversity that can be brought back into both of those "fields" of study.

Anne Dugan, will share her experience in programming for this intersection of sustainable agriculture practices and visual arts.