Tallgrass Artist Residency

What a wonderful weekend it was as all the participants and their families gathered to celebrate another year of inspiration.  We gathered at the School for Rural Culture and Creativity.  As always there was a wonderful locally grown and prepared meal.  Also great music on the lawn and the children enjoying the playground.  Applications are due this week!

​I enjoyed Kelly's comments so much and asked permission to share these.  ​"this event comes around every year, it creates so many good excuses to pause and
reflect on the state of things. We’re in the middle-end of fall harvest season and reaping the
fruits of labor from the year; we’re usually on the cusp of a transition to crisp and chilly
weather; Friends an d neighbors have shown up in a big way to make the events of this day
happen. There’s a lot to celebrate today and it feels big. But, in many ways, Matfield Green
is also characterized by its smallness. 49 residents, last I heard. Here we are, people
gathered in one school gymnasium in rural Kansas in a county that doesn’t have a grocery
store. What’s the significance of what we’re doing here today?
According to the Geneva Academy’s website, they are currently monitoring at least 110
armed conflicts, worldwide. Many of these we don’t see in the news, but what we do see is
devastating. More than any other time in history, we can witness the pain of people on the
other side of the globe, directly from the palm of our hands. We can see in real time
someone’s livelihood being consumed by flood waters. Regardless of how the talking heads
choose to analyze and spin narratives around these events, what remains powerful, I think,
is the direct connection to those individual stories of real people. I also think it’s hard to be a
mindful human in the world today, with overwhelming access to so many stories when so
many of them involve real loss and heartache. I do also want to acknowledge that we’re
gathered today on the ancestral lands of the Osage, Sioux and Kickapoo peoples and the
stories of this place that we’re adding to today in many ways start with the dispossession of
land. But, I guess I’m saying all this because these stories don’t flow one way. We receive
news and stories, but we also create them. If we have the ability to learn about someone’s
community on the other side of the world, then chances are they have the ability to learn
about ours. I believe that small movements can lead to big changes, and small communities
can model more sustainable ways of living.

Whether we’re revisiting history or family legacies in light of our own experiences like Averi
Israel , Canese Jarboe and Colleen Thurston; delving into the relationships between self and
place like David Wayne Reed, Poppy DeltaDawn, Kayla Romberger and Madeline Cass; or
creatively casting vision for new futures like Christopher Williams and Veronica Anne Salinas
– I believe this is important work and what we’re doing here today matters quite a lot."