Mildred’s Lane 2024: YEAR of the CROW
Our 2024 summer program is rooted in 25 years of experimental pedagogies, emphasizing collaborative learning, interdisciplinary exchange, and sustainable living practices.
The 2024 sessions create space for exploring new modes of teaching / learning / researching / making / being together. We hope you will join us this year!
Learn More about the 2024 Sessions and How to Apply
Please contact us by email to reserve your spot in the sessions. Online enrollment options will be available starting May 1st.
SUMMER SESSIONS - Archive
Mildred's Lane 2023:
The YEAR of TURNS
Click image to download zine
Summers at Mildred’s Lane have been slow since the plague. Opportunities for gathering fallowed everywhere over the last few years. Now, we are turning our hearts and minds to the future as we resume a modest summer program, while continuing to work on site repairs and upgrades required to fully re-open. 2023 is a year of turns.
turn | tərn | verb and noun / – go on to consider something next: we can now turn to another aspect (other aspects) of the problem.Sustainability is an urgent ideal. We are orienting ourselves around this notion completely, seeking a sustainable future in more than one sense. Summer Swarmings 2023 focus on ecology and the land—as we look ahead, we find ourselves turning to our roots, not least the ground beneath our feet.
If you have the means, please consider sponsoring a fellow or swarming.All donations are tax-deductible via our fiscal sponsor, Creative Visions, with details below. For all reservations, inquiries, and proposals, contact us at workstyles@mildredslane.com. We look forward to connecting with you.
—J. Morgan Puett, Alex A. Jones, Nick Bennett
On view through MAY 15
EXHIBITION / VIROSA PRESENTS: DEGENERATE CINEMA
The Mildred Complex(ity) Project Space
VIROSA Presents: Degenerate Cinema is an exhibition of experimental film, prints, and sculpture by VIROSA. Two recent narrative short films will be on view, both with deep ties to Mildred’s Lane. In addition to the films, VIROSA will exhibit objects in materials including glass, paper, clay, and 3D-printed plastic which have emerged from their filmmaking practice. Read more here.
MAY 1 through JUNE 15
SWARMING / WORKSTYLES
With J. Morgan Puett / Shelley Spector / Samiha Tasnim / Mia Eccleston / Alex A. Jones / Nick Bennett / others to be announced
A small group of Mildred Fellows / resident-artists-in-complex(ity) will collaborate on Mildred’s Lane repairs and maintenance. Each year we work for six weeks or more workstyling intensely—cleaning up the landscape and garden, repairing outbuildings and artist projects, and re-configuring domestic systems. We will dig deep into the framework of WORKSTYLES (noun and verb), our site-specific system of labor focused on environmentally-sound living, social relations, and aesthetics. Workstyles embodies our rigorous conceptual engagement with the maintenance of this land-based and dwelling-based project. It is our version of the Gesamtkunstwerk, or the total work of art. Read more here.
JUNE 16 through 19
EVENT / DEEP WATER LITERARY FESTIVAL
EXHIBITION / Alastair Gordon
One Grand Books and The Delaware Valley Arts Alliance present the Deep Water Literary Festival, a magical four-day weekend in Narrowsburg, NY for people who love books and the writers that inspire them, with a series of readings and performances throughout Narrowsburg. The festival has been called “an epic literary event” by the New York Times. Read more here.
The Mildred Complex(ity) dovetails with the festival featuring the artwork, books, and writings of Alastair Gordon, author of Spaced Outand Weekend Utopia amongst others. More information on our collaboration with the festival and Gordon’s upcoming exhibition will be announced soon.
JUNE 30 through JULY 2
SWARMING / CORVUS SUMMIT 2023
This important swarming will host our plenipotentiaries to collectively re-assemble the terms of operation for the future of our organization. Strategies for leadership, fundraising, programming, and collective ethos will be deliberated lovingly by this gathering of crows! If you feel strongly about preserving a future for Mildred’s Lane and have resources to contribute (time, skills, connections, funding) please contact us at workstyles@mildredslane.com to join.
JULY 1
EVENT / SOCIAL SATURDAY: THE RETURN
For all who have been missing Social Saturdays at Mildred’s Lane—and for those who have yet to experience the food, bonfires, and social connections—the return of Social Saturday will accompany our CORVUS SUMMIT 2023and will be invitation-only. Guest speaker, poets, digestion choreographer, performers, and disco details will be shared with confirmed guests.
JULY 6 through 12
SWARMING / QUEER ECOLOGIES I: LAND/BODY/EROS
With Alex A. Jones / Nick Bennett
For the inaugural session on art and ecology, LAND/BODY/EROS will investigate the body as a central ecological concept, re-framing “nature” as the original trans body. This session will explore transformative and de-colonial dimensions of land and body through collective and independent reading, discussion, and creation. Forming an artistic research collective, participants in the session will seek creative strategies for mutual survival, re-forming relations with the nonhuman world rooted in embodiment, plurality, metamorphosis, kinship, and play. This swarming will include a Social Saturday on July 8. Stay tuned for more details.
JULY 16 through 30
SWARMING / ARBOREAL(ITY) II
With J. Morgan Puett / Trevor Tochydlowski
This study into the possibilities of collaborating with the forest navigates numerous challenges to sustainability, not least of which is the threat facing our forest landscape as the Ash and Hemlock trees—two of the land’s principal tree populations—quickly succumb to pestilent insect species. This July and August, we will bring together foresters, conservationists, and artists to envision and reconsider the meanings of a landscape’s lifespan and legacy. Trevor Tochydlowski of the Wayne County Conservation District, PA, will join us, among others. This swarming will conclude in a Social Saturday. Stay tuned for more details.
AUGUST 7 through 13
SWARMING / MATRIARCHAL STUDIES HIVE
With Jill Goldman / Mia Pokriefka / Joanna Ebenstein
AUGUST through SEPTEMBER
SWARMING / BIBLIOPHANTICS III
Several colleagues are steadily working on the upcoming book WORKSTYLES of Mildred’s Lane. This 20+ year compendium features dozens of projects and voices. This year, the fan-favorite session BIBLIOPHANTICS will include a preview and workshop of the book’s content, with readings by contributing authors and expeditions into the archives of Mildred’s Lane. As always, however, the session will be first and foremost an intensive Reading Retreat. Silent periods of reading grow into evening socials, library games, and authors’ performances. Read more on past BIBLIOPHANTICS here.
Mildred's Lane / YEAR of SILVER 2022
JILL GOLDMAN
DISENTANGLEMENT/RE-EMBODIMENT
2022 is Mildred's Lane's 25th anniversary! We pause Summer Sessions in compliance with our local government enforcing new ordinances in Damascus Township, PA. Currently, we are not allowed to host short-term stays. Still, we are working out these complex conditional use variances to a proper and sound outcome by focusing on the site's repairs and upgrades. Hence, it is time to center attention on building an endowment for the future.
What to do About Mildred's Lane?
A group of Plenipotentiaries is forming to collectively reassemble how we operate forward using this good tool called Mildred's Lane. Thank you, 2022 Plenipotentiaries of Mildred's Lane /
Alyson Baker, Paul Bartow, Barbara Bourland, David Brooks, Phong Bui, Nina Burleigh, Emily Bunker, D. Graham Burnett, Liz Collins, Barbara DeVries, Mark Dion, Jeff Dolven, Carla Duarte, Erik Freeland, Coco Fusco, Hope Ginsburg, Jill Goldman, Asti Hustvedt, Adriene Jenik, Jeffrey Jenkins, Alex A. Jones, Jon Kessler, Cameron Klavsen, Athena Kokoronis, Leigh Claire La Berge, Joe Lerro/Rachael Schmocker, Abby Lutz, Denise Markonish, Leonard Nalencz, Nils Norman, Claire Pentecost, Liza Phillips, Barry Puett, Grey Rabbit Puett, J. Morgan Puett, Sal Randolph, Gina Siepel, Samiha Tasnim, Mark Thomann, Nato Thompson, Daniel Tucker, Rebecca Uchill, James Voorhies, Robert Williams, Caroline Woolard, Amy Yoes.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
MILDRED'S LANE AND THE MILDRED COMPLEX(ITY)
We present a series of exhibitions to celebrate our YEAR OF SILVER, including seasonal events, Town Fridays, Social Saturdays, and Projects in and around our local hamlet, Narrowsburg, NY. Please join us!
February / March
TO MILDRED'S LANE WITH LOVE
An exhibition from the archives and collection by some of the Allstars of Mildred's Lane.
April /May
SCHEMATICS / 1997 – 2022
An installation of rarely seen drawings, diagrams, maps, and plans by J. Morgan Puett, Mark Dion, and others.
May / June
ON THE MAP
An exhibition featuring Susanna Crum and Rodolfo Salgado Jr. documenting historical post office sites – tintype photography.
June / July / September
MILDRED / LILLIE ARCHAEOLOGY/ At Mildred's Lane, we continue to research and preserve the farm site of existing eighteenth / nineteenth-century outbuildings and *repairing projects and vernacular architecture by artists in collaboration with the landscape over two-and-a-half decades – IN CELEBRATION OF THE YEAR OF SILVER!
July /August
FLEA MARKET
A project with Mark Dion, Amy Yoes, and The School of the Art Institute (SAIC). Stay tuned for information about lectures, events, performances, and more at The MildredComplex(ity) and The 108 on Main Street, Narrowsburg, NY.
Mildred's Lane 2021: YEAR OF LANDSCAPE/ DEMOCRACY/ WELLNESS
Cultural producers are contributing over the years by lecturing, performing, fire making, creating events --daily life at Mildred’s Lane. These creative practitioners are in support of curriculums for new and emergent practices for the 21st-century. Artist-residencies-in-complexity at Mildred’s Lane include:
Alyson Baker / David Brooks / Nina Burleigh / D. Graham Burnett / Donna Cleary / Liz Collins / Jorge Colombo / Susanna Crum / Deborah Davidovits / Mark Dion / Sarah Doherty / Jeff Dolven / Juliet Dunn / Justin Ginsberg / Hope Ginsburg / Pablo Helguera / Aaron Hicklin / Jeffrey Jenkins / Alex A. Jones / Cameron Klavsen / Leigh Claire La Berge / Joe Lerro / Candice Madey / Kristyna Milde / Marek Milde / Leonard Nalencz / Sean Owen / Claire Pentecost / Rebecca Purcell / Barry Puett / J. Morgan Puett / Joshua Quarles / Anna Riley / Rodolfo Salgado / Rachael Schmoker / Gina Siepel / Laura Silverman / Sara Smith / Dannielle Tegeder / Mark Thomann / James Voorhies / Robert Williams / David Wood / Caroline Woolard / Amy Yoes / and so many others to be announced.
MAY/JUNE
May 17- ongoing
WORKSTYLING the WILD
Deborah Davidovitz, Donna Cleary, Sarah Doherty, Juliet Dunn, Jeffrey Jenkins, Joe Lerro, Barry Puett, Rachael Schmoker, Laura Silverman
There is a sleeping, shady garden at Mildred's Lane. We let it go after several years of competing with varmints destroying our work is heartbreaking. Reclaiming it has taken several years, we are nearly there. Previous Wilding fellows rehabilitated the soil, priming the garden for a new beginning. Others ripped out the invasive species and leveled the site. We are rethinking how to coexist, allowing for a vibrant community of flora, fauna, and creatures sharing and turning toward a wellness program.
We are working in tandem with the Outside Institute, foraging the deep forest. Listen to wisdom from the non-humans, master gardeners, botanists, beekeepers, landscapers, and herbalists. Let's get down and dirty with daily events as we rebuild a garden of medicinal rhizomes, roots, flowers, and herbs; foraging-digging-rearranging-building-planting-swimming -- come workstyle the wild with us.
JUNE
June 7 through 27
SILVER – IRON – LIGHT
Noah Doely and others to be announced
Set in the landscape with an extravaganza of 19th and 20th-century equipment, we will facilitate a series of Plein-air tintype, cyanotype, and anthotype processes using various materials hand-coated plates, paper, fabric, and plant-based pigments. You may bring your own equipment or learn to use ours. These alchemical processes combine science and wonder; collaboration and experimentation will be part of events and activities throughout the session. Participants will set up a photography studio in the field for processing and development. The work will culminate in an exhibition at The Mildred Complex(ity) Project Space in nearby Narrowsburg, NY.
JULY
July 5 through 25
FOREST – BODY – CHAIR
Gina Siepel, Sara Smith, and Kate Wellspring.
A tree becomes a chair and enters our lives as an intimate partner. The relational dynamics between the forest, the human body, and the wooden chair provide an entry point for exploring nature and culture's mutuality. In the domestic environment, chairs are utilitarian objects for resting the body and are social facilitators. As we know them, Chairs can also be poorly designed for the human body, causing various physical problems. Explore Mildred's Lane's forests with a field naturalist with somatic and ergonomic movement facilitators. Working with wood directly on-site for greenwood chair construction with a woodworker. Multi-modal investigations of vernacular American furniture design will form the basis for experimentation through the sustainability of forest, body, and domestic spheres. No previous experience with movement or woodworking is required. We will end the session with an exhibition/installation/event open to the public.
AUGUST
August 2 through 9
ORDER OF THE THIRD BIRD: ATTENTION LAB
Anna Riley and Justin Ginsberg + Distinguished Associates, D. Graham Burnett, Leonard Nalencz, and Sal Randolph.
Indiscreet friends of the Third Bird Order continue their investigations into experimental protocols of Practical Aesthesis and various tactics for Sustained Attention. The Attention Lab is part guerrilla seminar and part meditative/ kinetic practicum. A discipline of the senses is pursued; the conditions of attention are investigated. Beginning with available traditions and protocols of the so-called "Birds," our aim will be to develop and test new durational practices of attention.
SEPTEMBER
7 through 27
BIBLIOPHANTICS
Featuring special author appearances to be announced.
An intensive Reading Retreat. Enchanting stays in the Mildred's Lane Library, with volumes to consume, quietly -- aloud -– socially– privately. There are Plein-air installations situated in the forest, designed for creative repose and relaxation, awakening all senses for complete comprehension – reading and thinking amongst the trees. We will take field trips to local bookstores, collecting volumes for the Library. Periods of reading grow into Plein-air evening socials, parlor games, and authors' performances in the height of the arousing autumn of Mildred's Lane.
OCTOBER
An excellent time for Class programming, retreats, Group visits; contact us to organize your program and experience. The Mildred's Lane Commons offers essential tools for the future. Mildred's Lane is an experiment in alternative pedagogies – for over two decades, institutions need more safe space. Consider the strategic possibilities for challenging creative minds–students, faculty, and colleagues– during the COVID-19 pandemic months and years ahead.
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ONGOING
Joe Lerro is a Resident-Artist-in-Complex(ity) and LAND Steward at Mildred's Lane. Joe will be leading several workshops throughout the spring and summer including soil preparation, composting, planting, and other fine arts of gardening.
Rachael Schmoker is a Resident-Artist-in-Complex(ity) and Wellness Steward at Mildred's Lane. She is the founder of the practice, Bed-ga (yoga motion suitable for the bedroom.) Schmoker defines this as 'slow flow movement, deepening understanding of our bodies by listening to alignment.' Gently moving into restorative postures using pillows and bolsters, flowing softly from mat to bed with soothing ease. Relax in the comfort of your home or from landscape bed installations. Join in this innovative movement practice focused entirely on the tender relationship with your body.
Independent Applications Welcome.
Lists of visiting and contributing artists grow throughout the year, so check the website for updates this spring.
IMPORTANT NOTICE/ VACCINES or NEGATIVE COVID TEST REQUIRED TO ATTEND.
All schedules subject to minute-by-minute pandemic guidelines. If by chance, a session cancels due to these dangers, we will reschedule your residency accordingly.
Click the image to download the 2021 zine
Summer 2020 - REARRANGING ARBOREALITY AT MILDRED’S LANE IN 2020,YEAR OF THE CORONAVIRUS
ar·bo·re·al | ärˈbôrēəl | adjective (chiefly of animals) living in trees: arboreal rodents. • relating to
AUGUST 14-15th 2020
THE POLITICS OF ATTENTION II:Self and Other in the Shared World
Building on the work of “The Politics of Attention: Art, Time, Technology, Action,” held in August of 2019 at Mildred’s Lane (itself a follow-up to the “Practices of Attention Symposium” at the 2018 São Paulo Biennial), a small group of invited participants will Zoom-convene on August 14th and 15th of 2020 for a set of discussions on the history, ethics, and techo-politics of our current attentional regime.
For more information, click through to the program website.
MARX FOR CATS APPLIED
Caroline Woolard / Leigh Claire La Berge / and invited
speakers. In this session, we will swim, dine, and deliberate about keywords in capitalism, animal studies, and contemporary art. Critical theorist La Berge will lead the reading discussions. Artists Wang, Williamson, and Woolard will run seminars and workshops on site-specific projects, performance, irony, and topics that emerge from a collective interest in real-time. Marxists are cat theorists. Marx himself hailed from a land of cats, and his family lineage bears the feline mark.
ONGOING AUGUST 10 THROUGH OCTOBER
PHILOBIBLISTS / BIBLIOPHANTICS
An intensive Reading Residency. An enchanting residency with the Mildred’s Lane Library, with volumes to consume, quietly --aloud -– socially -- privately. The library is diverse in non-fiction; participate in broadening the contents with field trips to local second-hand bookstores collecting. Silent periods of reading grow into evening socials, library games, and authors’ performances. Special guest author appearances TBA.
ONGOING SINCE 2006
MILDRED ARCHAEOLOGY
A Mildred’s Lane project. We continue to study the site of The Mildred’s Lane Transhistorical Society and Museum, an ongoing project at the heart of the greater Mildred’s Lane project. An archaeological investigation of embedded histories focusing on the 1830’s farmhouse and surrounds. Historians, archivists, conservators, preservationists, and artists are in collaboration beyond and into the future culminating in a large-scale, site-sensitive installation – The Mildred House.
ONGOING SINCE 1997
WORKSTYLING WILDING
A Mildred’s Lane project. Wildcrafting is a term that conscientiously defines food as naturally medicinal, always with concerns for a sustainable future. Fellows will be engaged in a detailed study of the landscape at Mildred’s Lane while practicing forage routines with a focus on stylistically transforming new gardening systems. The Mildred’s Lane Library holds a large body of field guides for plant, moss, mushroom, tree identification, and will aid foraging explorations with local naturalists in these weeds and woods.
Click the image to download the 2020 zine
Summer 2019 - Year of Rearranging!
Summer 2018 - Year of Tin and China
2018 is a notable year for us. We are celebrating the tenth season of sessions and the twentieth anniversary of the project site we call Mildred's Lane. We invite you to share experience and knowledge during the Summer Sessions 2018!
Click image to download 2018 Zine
Summer 2017 - Year of the Trans-Historical
The Year of the TransHistorical is an exploration in revealing the site we call Mildred’s Lane. There are an astonishing number of narratives and mysteries still to be discovered in this designed and rich environment.
Click image to download 2017 Zine
The Alchemist’s Shack is a large-scale site work, part of the OM: Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum project, ongoing at Mildred’s Lane since 1998. The project grows with every iteration, grafting new Fellows in collaboration with Robert Williams (UK) in the exploration of the many tropes and emergent themes arising from Alchemy I-III. We will continue towards the final interior installation of this wonder-room in its liminal setting.