The studio is committed to using our artistic platform as an expression of reverence for this earth through engagement in community, collaborations, and mentoring creative environmental leaders. We have an open studio inviting artisans, poets, environmentalists, builders, students and farmers, to work together in response to the landscape, people and animals surrounding us. The studio strives to use sustainable and re-claimed materials, often re-using cast off materials from cultural usage or past installations.

When choosing materials for sculptures, there are a few sustainability questions I like to ask.

What is it made of

How is it made

Where is made/from

How will it be installed

Who will be exposed

What will happen to it at the end of its useful life

Simplification of pallet of materials

Design for mechanical fasteners for assembly and disassembly

Design out what you don’t want in it

What is the cultural history of the material

How old is it

Has it been used

Is it re-claimed, recycled or new

Did you have a hand in the collection of it

What color is it

What sound does it make

What movement does it have

How much does it weigh

Is it transparent

What region of the world (culturally and ecosystem) has a relationship with it

What is my own relationship with it

Wherever the studio works, we honor with gratitude the land itself and all the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations and into the future.

Main tenets of the studio practice

….seek aesthetic language of the complexities of the human/nature relationship

….honor a learning, exploring, question based practice

….explore a physical and cultural understanding of material of the commons

….evoke an expression of reverence

….witness site-specific, cultural, geological, historical considerations

….embrace the not-knowing, the process, the social outcomes

….establish a community driven, mentor establishing, collaborative practice

….strive for a healed unity of art, language and non-language

….be a regenerative culture; constantly learning, transforming and adapting in anticipation of change

Notice of non-discrimination: The studio opens its doors virtually and physically to all beings and embraces all identities of gender, sexual orientation, race, place of birth, religion, age, or disabilities and will not tolerate within the community we develop, discrimination or harassment by other participants. Our goal, to the best of our ability, is to provide a safe and inclusive environment for all within the studio and beyond into our communities.

Community Outreach

We believe the studio extends beyond the barn walls. Our goal is to give back to the community at every opportunity, including where projects are taking place. Most projects collaborate with other artisans, schools, crafts people and poets, as well as local barn builders, family run sawmills and farmers. Below is an example of some of the community work Nancy and the studio has done in the past few years.

Since 2016 Nancy has been on the Board of Directors for the Shelburne Craft School, as Secretary and now as President. Since 1945, Shelburne Craft School has been offering hands-on education in artisanal crafts—helping individuals experience the joys of making, while cultivating confidence, character, and community.

In 2017 she was selected as a Humanities Community Scholar for Economics for the Anthropocene: Climate Justice Cohort. This program provided international graduate research and training for McGill, York and Vermont University students by connecting ecological and economic realities to the challenges of the Anthropocene.

in 2018 Nancy co-lead the development and execution of the Feverish World Symposium. This 3+day symposium and art event explored questions of bridging the silos of art and sciences through panels and roundtables, talks and presentations by invited speakers, art and performances by local and invited artists, and open forums including a "Tent City Commons" at the University of Vermont campus and at other area locations. View the film HERE.

In 2019 she was selected as a community partner in the creative arts for the New Perennials project in Middlebury College’s Environmental Studies program. This project builds on the work of the Land Institute and Ecosphere Studies which provide experiential learning with community partners, offering new perspectives on expansion of ideas of what is possible.  

Self Designed Residencies

For the past ten years The Studio has created residencies on farms in New Zealand and New England to work in collaboration with the farmers, animals and landscape. The studio celebrates the unique and important role a regenerative farm plays within its community. We honor the covenant between humans, the land, and animals that happens on small regenerative farms working to rebuild our relationship to the earth.

Here are some of the farms the studio has worked with in the past.

Bread and Butter Farm, Shelburne, Vermont

Clemmons Family Farm, Charlotte, Vermont

Shelburne Farms, Shelburne, Vermont

Double Edge Theatre, Ashfield, Massachusetts

Truebridge Farm, Turangi, New Zealand

BlueStar Equiculture, Palmer, Massachusetts

Hartsbrook School Farm, Hadley, Massachusetts

Videos of Process