Join the AgArts Fun!
And Give a Gift to Further Our Work
In this giving season, consider AgArts, a non-profit that imagines and promotes healthy food systems through the arts. And how do we do that?
We put artists on farms to learn about our food system and reflect that knowledge in artwork. Farmers—small and large, regenerative and conventional— have hosted dancers from New York City, and visual artists from Austin, TX, and Deer Isle, ME. They’ve hosted traditional musicians from Ireland. They’ve hosted an LGBTQIA+ writer from Salt Lake City. They’ve hosted a French horn player from Michigan who composed River House on the Prairie at the Whiterock Conservancy (a 5600-acre nature preserve), and won the Judith Lang Zaimont prize through the International Alliance of Women in Music.
These artists have put on performances, given readings, published books, and created digital exhibits. They’ve given talks about their AgArts work to both artistic and agricultural groups. They’ve helped raise awareness about our American food system, how and why we’ve moved from a land of bountiful plenty, to a network of family farms, to an industrial agricultural landscape.
This year an audio-visual artist from North Carolina collaborated with two Iowa artists to document the Guatemalan immigrant community farm in the Driftless region near Dubuque. This farm helped address food insecurity, a need that became critical during the Covid pandemic.
AgArts has published writing by many of these artists through its online Blazing Star Journal. AgArts posts a monthly podcast, and has developed two Substack pages to address agricultural and other social justice issues—from soil health, to rural economic development, to the creation of bio-sanctuaries.
All funds from paid subscriptions to Mary Swander’s Substack pages go to AgArts. As do tuition from online classes and website donations.
So, please support AgArts and its important work. Make a tax-deductible donation through:
1. The website: https://www.agarts.org/donate/
2. The mail. Send a check to AgArts, P.O. Box 516, Kalona, IA 52247.
3. A paid subscription to Mary Swander’s Buggy Land.
4. A premium membership to Mary Swander’s podcast.
https://agarts.supercast.com
Listen to a sample podcast: Episode #51: I Do (Finding a Partner in Buggy Land.)
I am thrilled to be part of the Iowa Writers Collaborative. Keep in touch with us through the Sunday Round-Up and read the best op-eds and commentaries published today.
We, the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative members, are having a party on December 7 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. to thank our paid subscribers. At The Witmer House in Des Moines. Please come and meet the following:
Laura Belin, Doug Burns, Dave Busiek, Suzanna de Baca, Julie Gammack, Jody Gifford, Richard Gilbert, Beth Hoffman, Pat Kinney, Robert Leonard, Wini Moranville, Jeff Morrison, Kyle Munson, Jane Nguyen, John Naughton, Chuck Offenburger (the Richeburgers), Dave Price, Cheryl Tevis, Ed Tibbetts, and Kali White VanBaale.
You’ll be greeted by a glass of champagne or sparking cider, a smorgasbord of appetizers brought by our members, and the man who took over ownership and stewardship of the historic mansion, John Beard. One of our collaborative members will be stationed in each room to introduce themselves and welcome you.
It’s not too late to RSVP, but you do need to be a paid subscriber to at least one of our members: