ART FOOD MUSIC FIRE SCHEDULE
WELCOME TO THE ANNUAL SUMMER FIRING!
Today we celebrate the warmth and fire of creativity, good food, and good friends.
5AM -
10PM
// WOOD KILN FIRNG
We’ll start the fire the night before with a toast to the kiln and the kiln gods, and arrive at 5am on Saturday morning to start stoking the fire. We’ll slowly raise the temperature of the kiln all day until it reaches 2350 degrees Fahrenheit. Learn more about the kiln firing process on page 7.
3PM -
Finish
// ROCKET KILN FIRNG
We’ll start the fire in our new Rocket Kiln, built by artist Lisa Orr, just before you arrive. Then, YOU’RE firing the kiln this afternoon! Come on over, stoke the kiln, and learn about what makes this mini rocket so special.
5PM // WELCOME + ALUMNI
ROUNDTABLE
Join Craigardan’s executive director, along with the staff and board to kick off the next phase of our campus construction plans. We’ll have a conversation with past artists-inresidence to hear about their experience, their work, and what spending time in the Adirondacks in residence at Craigardan does for their creative practice.
4PM
+ 7PM
// GROUP TOURS OF THE MAINHOUSE
Meet at the front entrance of the new building (still under construction) for a personalized tour of the Mainhouse. Learn more about what’s to come, ask questions, and find out how the building benefits the community.
4PM - 8PM // SILENT AUCTION
Bid on incredible artwork, books, and experiences at a range of price points to help support Craigardan’s work in the year ahead. All funds raised will support artist fellowships and our next building, the Studio.
4PM - 8PM // MUSIC BY YOKO
Michael “Yoko” Amos (’23) will DJ throughout the afternoon.
4PM - 8PM // PIZZA + DRINKS
Food and drinks can be purchased individually, and they’re also included with an advance donation.
AT THE BAR
• Beer
• Wine
• Seltzer
• Soda
• Cookies
AT THE OVEN
• Cheese pizza
• Gluten-free pizza
• Local veggie pizza
• Salad greens
ABOUT CRAIGARDAN
Craigardan nurtures interdisciplinary creative practice through an international residency program, community education, and the farming and stewarding of 320 acres of fields and forests in the Adirondack Mountains of New York.
Craigardan provides CREATIVE RESIDENCIES to artists and scholars from around the region and around the world. We also offer PUBLIC PROGRAMS such as classes, workshops, and events throughout the season. And all of this is set within our working COMMUNITY FARM, with educational opportunities and food-access programs including our popular Farm Store.
TODAY’S EVENT
The annual Summer Firing helps Craigardan raise the funds necessary to provide more than $150,000 annually in scholarships, fellowships, and program support to artists and scholars from around the Adirondacks and around the world. All capital donations will go towards the construction of the Studio, our next year-round public building on campus.
COVER IMAGE
The print on the cover is by the late ceramic artist Akio Takamori, depicting a wood kiln firing. This image is used with permission by Vicky Takamori. Image restoration of the original poster is thanks to Ben Stechschulte.
SUPPORT
Public Programs are made possible by the generosity of participants and individual donors like you, with additional support from the Essex County Arts Council, and the vision of numerous foundations and grantors.
Craigardan’s Residency Program and our capital construction is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
CRAIGARDAN LEADEDRSHIP
All of this is possible at Craigardan because of our incredible community. A heartfelt thanks to these individuals:
STAFF
Michele Drozd
Jeremiah Reiner
Cassidy Mae Jackson
Meghan Minner
Leah Jaffe
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Muriel Mallien Luderowski
Allison Eddy, MD
Gayle Burnett
Erica Berry
Peter Beuf
Lu Chekowsky
Shawndel Fraser
Fran Hoepfner
Elise Jeanmaire
Loren Michael Mortimer, PhD
Michele Parker Randall
Lanse Stover
CAMPAIGN ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Susan Bacot-Davis
Elena Borstein
Diane Fish
Jim Herman
Dave Mason
Vinny McClelland
Scott McClelland
Lea Paine Highet
Stephanie Ratcliffe
Mark Shapiro
Pete Suttmeier
Sam Taylor
Aaron Woolf
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Nina Gershon
Dan Keegan
Catherine Ross Haskins
David Speert, MD
SPECIAL THANKS
This year we are celebrating the progress of our newest building, the Mainhouse — which has received generous support from our many community members and from FY2024 NYSCA Capital Projects funding.
MAINHOUSE DONORS
This building is made possible by many hands. A very special thanks to:
$637,000
The New York State Council on the Arts with support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature
$200,000+
Anonymous
Anonymous
$100,000+
Anonymous
Anonymous
$50,000+
The Charles R. Wood Foundation
Anonymous
MAKE A DONATION!
$10,000+
Anonymous
Allison Eddy and Patrick Gorry
Mary Barringer and J. Doster
Lise Strickler and Mark Gallogly
The Haskins Family
Meg and Tomas Bergstrand
Barbara Merle-Smith
George Davis and Susan Bacot-Davis
Lanse Stover
$5,000+
The J.M. McDonald Foundation
Kate Stover and Timothy Wood
Additional thanks goes to:
The regional Adirondack community and our international community of artists who’s many contributions helped make the Mainhouse possible.
North Woods Engineering
Nils and Muriel Luderowski
Bellwether Craftsmen LLC
Be a part of our new campus and our work to support interdisciplinary innovation in the Adirondacks and around the world. **All gifts of $10,000 or more will be matched 1:1 by a generous donor!
FIRING THE KILN
TEAMWORK, CHEMISTRY, AND MAGIC
Craigardan’s wood kiln was built in 2023 by Sam Taylor and Mark Shapiro. The design is based on a kiln at Dogbar Pottery, with a catenary arch-style single chamber kiln that fires quickly and evenly. The kiln is a focal point of the new campus, and serves as the hearth and heart of our new home. Just as people gather together around a campfire, a wood kiln draws together diverse styles of pottery and sculpture, and a range of artists and craftspeople who fire the kiln as a team.
The process begins at 9am on Friday morning when ceramic artists from across the region bring their work to the kiln. The pots are placed in the kiln according to height on wads of a clay-like mixture that prevents them from sticking to the shelves due to ash buildup. A pot will receive more or less wood ash and salt deposits depending on where it is placed in the kiln. Pots closest to the firebox will show the greatest effects from the fire, but also risk warping or glaze running. As we load the kiln, we include cone packs in various locations in the chamber which hold ceramic cones formulated to melt at very specific temperatures. These cones enable the firing team to read the temperature of the kiln in multiple locations throughout the process in order to gauge and correct the rate of temperature climb and how even the kiln is firing.
Loading the kiln lasts until about 2pm, at which time we brick up the door, leaving openings in a few locations to view the cone packs. At 5pm we place a gas burner in the center opening of the firebox. We circle up and take a moment to reflect on our hard
work and our intentions for the firing. We fill toasting cups with local whiskey and raise them up to the kiln, taking a sip and tossing the rest onto the kiln for the kiln gods. We light the burner and let its flame slowly warm the kiln overnight — drying out any remaining moisture in the pots and the wadding, and preheating the firebox and chimney.
Saturday morning our first crew arrives at 5am to start the campfire in the firebox with kindling, slowly building the fire and the coal bed. At this point we can remove the burner and continue the process with wood alone. The first shift is quiet and calm and the crew sets up an even and steady stoking pattern and prepares for the day. Each firing shift is three hours long and teams switch out throughout the day, overlapping to ensure continuity of stoking and to pass along vital information on rhythm, time and temperature. As the kiln builds heat it requires more precision, more frequent stoking, and skillful decision-making. The final shift of the day ends around 10 or 11pm, when the kiln reaches about 2340 degrees, or cone 10.
A wood-fired kiln is both incredibly primitive and scientifically complex. At its most basic, the kiln captures the heat from a campfire to harden clay and “bake” it into stone. However, throughout the process there are numerous chemical transformations taking place at each temperature stage. An experienced firing team understands the relationship of temperature rise to clay body, atmosphere, and glaze development; and adjusts the frequency and placement of stoking, size of wood, and even type of wood used to match desired results. The atmosphere of the kiln also plays a large role in the results of the pots — a kiln is constantly in a changing state of oxidation and reduction based on the proportion of fuel to oxygen. The atmosphere inside of the kiln is a volatile environment — with flames, air, and wood ash flowing from the firebox, directed by the arch and bag wall, through the pots, posts, and shelves; finding its way to the back wall of the kiln and up through the chimney. The combination of oxidation/reduction, fly ash, temperature, and any introduced salt or soda reacts with the raw materials in the clay body and glazes, creating a wide range of effects, colors, and textures on the pots.
We typically introduce salt into the firing between cone 6 and cone 8, or around 2230 degrees. Salt vaporizes at high temperatures and the sodium vapor combines with silica in the clay, forming a sodium-silicate glaze. This adds to the dynamic atmosphere of the kiln, creating rich surfaces on the pots with flashing, and enhancing the effects of the wood ash.
Once the kiln reaches our target temperature, and is sufficiently even top to bottom and front to back, we stop stoking and open up all of the air vents to oxidize the atmosphere for 10-15 minutes. The kiln is then completely closed and sealed tight to cool slowly for the next 2-3 days before unloading.
The unload and clean up is also a group effort, requiring a full day of unbricking, unstacking, looking at results, cleaning up, grinding, and preparing the kiln and shelves for the next firing. We often study the wares for hours, gleaning as much information about the glazes and the firing as the pots wish to share.
At Craigardan the 5-day firing is a community event, just as it has been for centuries in pottery regions around the world. We invite the public to attend all of our firings for the potluck kiln side dinners — keep an eye on our website for upcoming firings.
PIZZA!
THE OVEN AND THE DOUGH
The beautiful wood-fired oven was a gift to Craigardan from Cavan Drake — a fellow potter, incredible baker, and talented craftsman. We installed the oven in the new Kilnhouse to allow us to manage both fires simultaneously — our tradition is that when the kiln is firing, so is the oven!
Typically we start the fire in the oven at 5am, stoking it throughout the day to build the coal bed and the heat. By late afternoon we can push the coal bed to the back of the oven, clean off the bricks, and begin baking. We’re aiming for a temperature range of 700-900 degrees.
In the morning we make the dough: 12c flour, 6c water, 3T yeast, 3T salt. This is a nokneed dough, so once it’s mixed we let it sit and rise in a bowl covered with a towel in a cool location for 4+ hours before knocking it down, portioning and shaping, and giving the dough balls a second rise. This amount of dough will make approximately 12 pizzas, depending on size. For the sauce, we cook down some frozen tomatoes from last summer’s garden along with a few cans of tomato paste, fresh herbs, garlic, and salt. We stretch the dough on a wooden peel lightly dusted with cornmeal, and top with sauce, cheese and fresh veggies. Bake for 2 minutes or so, watching carefully. Once the pizzas are done and the oven cools, it’s a great time to bake a few loaves of bread, and then finish off with cookies.
BUILDING THE HEARTH
By Mary Barringer
When they left the old place – were driven from it, really – they left a farmhouse, a studio, a refurbished barn with a commercial kitchen and a beautiful common room, and a couple of living spaces. They took everything they could: office furniture and records; all the bricks and pottery equipment; the beds and dressers; the tractor and chest freezers. All of it went into storage all around the county, while they worked out their next move. And when they bought the land, they envisioned the buildings, the gardens, the pens for the animals and spaces for the artists and writers: the new homes for all that stuff that huddled in storage, waiting to be put to use again. Clearing the land and reclaiming it from the damage the loggers had done took longer than they had expected – two years of delays and setbacks and
regulations suddenly and arbitrarily invoked. But now, finally, they had a road curving up through the woods to the clearing. They had an open, level space, a septic field, conduits for the electricity to come up and the water to flow down. They had cabins, perched in their temporary places. And they had a view, across the narrow valley to the peaks, each one named, that rose in the distance. Humans crave a vista: it both enlarges and settles the mind, and the removal of that deep tangle of discarded trees - no longer landscape but defective as lumber – made the long wait and all the struggles seem worthwhile.
You might think that, when it was finally time to build into and up from this land, they would begin with shelter. But no: the very first structure would be a pavilion – a house for the kiln, followed in very short
order by the kiln itself. Before the offices and kitchens, the meeting rooms and work spaces and sleeping quarters, they would make a place for the fire. This would create the conditions for a certain kind of work and a certain kind of commingling. For whether or not they are potters, people will gather there to stack and stoke, talking softly or boisterously, facing each other across and around the kiln. In the heat of the fire and the hours and work of tending it, a community will be warmed and formed: will take shape.
Humans have been gathering around fires for millennia; both the Native people and the Europeans who settled on this land would have understood the centrality of fi re. And although the making of pots, like so many creative practices, is solitary and self-directed, the firing of them requires surrender to a process that can only be partially seen or directed, and in this sense the potter is always collaborating with the kiln. And firing a wood kiln involves many people, and an extra degree of openness to the demands of the kiln and the unpredictability of the results. The kiln is an agent of transformation: what is placed inside it will emerge different, in ways that cannot be predicted or entirely controlled.
What could be a better or more fitting way for Craigardan to begin to inhabit this place?
Craigardan’s kiln is made possible by the generosity of many people. Potters Sam Taylor and Mark Shapiro designed the original kiln in Massachusetts that Craigardan’s new kiln is based on, and they taught the kiln-building workshop and built the kiln in June 2023 on the new campus. Potter and Craigardan cofounder Lanse Stover spent countless
hours preparing for the new build — translating ideas into drawings, counting and ordering materials, organizing equipment, and designing and building the steel structure. Ron Anan, a potter in Massachusetts, donated thousands of dollars worth of bricks and materials to the kiln and the new studio. Robert Segall, a potter and teacher in Jay, NY bequeathed his studio and two kilns to Craigardan. Steve Amstutz, a timberframe master in Wilmington, NY donated his time and designs for the new kiln house. And the craftsman Michael Intrabartola brought the designs to reality — cutting and building the timber frame and much of the kiln. It is with heartfelt thanks to these individuals and to two anonymous donors that the new kiln is possible. Craigardan’s home is now taking shape around the hearth.
BUILDING THE CAMPUS
A CONSIDERED APPROACH TO FUNDRAISING AND BUILDING
We are building an Adirondack center for creative practice where artists, chefs, writers, farmers, and scholars receive the support, the time, and the space they need to explore and innovate, to grow, learn, and educate. Our new campus, with its interdisciplinary studio spaces and community farm, is a hub of individual and collaborative production bringing local community members together with regional, national, and international artists- and scholars-in-residence. It is a place of invention, of discourse and debate, of social engagement, community connection and collective change.
Your support will leave a legacy that brings opportunities for creative exchange to our communities. Together we are connecting the history and vibrancy of the Adirondacks with the diversity of the world’s brightest artists and thinkers.
The new campus will:
• Provide the setting for Craigardan’s classes, workshops, lectures and events that enrich the lives of the people living in our rural communities.
• Welcome artists and scholars of all ages, disciplines, skills, and cultures to further their work and expand their creative process while in residence at Craigardan.
• Allow creative professionals to access the tools, materials, time, and support they need to collaborate across disciplines in a setting that encourages them to engage with the world and their work with philosophical, ecological, and artistic perspective.
• Provide people living in the Adirondacks with a home for creative expression and learning with unprecedented opportunities to exchange skills and ideas with artists and thinkers of national and international renown.
• Include housing for up to 20 visiting residents and interns; studios for creative innovation in the arts; a community farm for year-round culinary research, food production, and education; a center for classrooms, events, and gallery exhibitions, and multi-use trails that allow for exploration and recreation.
• Follow universal design principals to make Craigardan accessible for everyone.
• Preserve and steward all 320 acres under the guidance of conservation professionals and best practices for careful and sensitive use of wild lands.
As an organization which is both generative and responsive, we designed the buildings and the campus to be constructed in phases — as time and funding allows, and as our programs grow. Each building is flexible in its design, able to serve an immediate need once built, with a long-term plan for how it fits into the finished campus.
The campus design is a collaborative effort between Nils Luderowski, North Woods Engineering, Bellwether Craftsmen, conservation professionals, and a working group of Craigardan’s staff and board. With 17 buildings of various sizes to build or renovate in total, 12 on the main campus and 5 on the farm, plus extensive excavation and infrastructure, the project is a multi-year effort. With incredible financial and in-kind support from the community and from the New York State Council on the Arts, we accomplished much of the work in 5 years and as of this summer, only the two, large, main campus buildings remain to be built: Studio and Home.
We are raising money for these buildings and we hope you’ll join us!
Nils designed three large, camp-like buildings — Home, Main, and Studio — which are being built on the plateau of the main campus (the artist cabins and bath house will eventually move). With the help of grants, foundations, and individual donations we are building one at a time, starting with the Mainhouse. Once all three are built, the cabins will move out into the property at pre-determined locations along the trails as destination studios.
The Mainhouse will allow our programs to run year-round once again. With the help of the FY24 NYSCA Capital Projects Grant and your support, we broke ground last fall. Main will include a commercial teaching kitchen, a studio kitchen for culinary artists-inresidence, two gallery wings, a gathering and event atrium, a community meeting room, offices, fully accessible bathrooms, and cold and ambient storage. With its culinary arts facilities, the public can expect new and exciting programming including cooking classes and events that showcase the region’s best products prepared by innovative chefs from around the world.
The Mainhouse will open to the public in Spring 2027 to coincide with our 10th Anniversary celebration. In the meantime, we are excited to announce that Craigardan has been awarded a $480,000 FY26 NYSCA Capital Projects Grant for our next building, the Studio, and we plan to begin construction in Fall 2027.
CRAIGARDAN (krā gärden) is an interdisciplinary RESIDENCY PROGRAM that supports artists and scholars from around the Adirondack region and from around the world. We bring people together for place-based and interdisciplinary learning; providing:
CREATIVE RESIDENCIES
PUBLIC COURSES
COMMUNITY FARM PROGRAMS that span diverse artistic and knowledge disciplines in order to foster:
CURIOSITY
INQUIRY
COLLABORATION which generates positive social change through collective creativity.
CONTACT
CRAIGARDAN
www.craigardan.org info@craigardan.org 518.242.6535 9216 NYS Route 9N Elizabethtown, NY 12932
