The Sketchbook Project encourages you to dedicate time each day to build a library of inspiration. It serves as a platform to process life, document your surroundings, and engage in play and experimentation.

Join us in the studio to create a vibrant homage to your favorite tree and all its life-giving qualities. Each student will be asked to bring a series of photographs of their favorite tree and its location. Be prepared to share memories or stories associated with the tree as a group and through your work. Together, we will learn who and what depends on that tree and its role in the ecosystem.

From there, students will work alongside artist Carrie Katzenmeyer to sketch and plan their paintings. Then, they will work through the steps to complete and share the final piece.

Join us for a five-day puppet-making intensive led by Sandy Spieler, the Founder of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre (HOBT)—a Minneapolis-Saint Paul area arts nonprofit. Participants will work alongside Sandy and learn a traditional building method using cornstarch, papier mache, and clay for a more detailed, fluid face or creature. Each participant will select a being from either forest, prairie, pond, river, or sky and work together to create a unified performance that celebrates the living beings at The Acreage. You will be invited to perform as a group during the annual fall celebration.

In this hand-building ceramic workshop, we’ll use slabs and coils to create curiosity shelves, which provide a beautiful display for small, treasured nature collectibles.