Connecting through art: Prescott Farm partners with New Orleans urban garden

When Larry Frates lights a campfire with a group of artists in an urban garden in Louisiana, in February, to make ink with the charcoal, it will ignite a spark in the Lakes Region, too.

A longtime and well-known creative in this area, Frates lives in Laconia, and has a second home in New Orleans. He recently launched a collaboration with Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center, where he leads a monthly workshop called Nature Inspires Art, and Galvez Garden, operated and maintained by the NOLA Artist Incubator down south.

As part of the initiative, participants in the classes here, and in New Orleans, will create works with, and inspired by, nature, and Frates will document the process on video. The films will be shared between the groups as well as on Frates’ “Art to You with Larry” program on Lakes Region Public Access.

Works created by participants will be shared in an online gallery, and the effort will culminate with exhibits in the fall at Prescott Farm’s Harvest Festival, and at a celebration in New Orleans.

“It’s an example of how you can be in different places, but the arts can bring you together for a common reason,” Frates said. “It will give both communities a different cultural experience.”

Sophie Acampora, communications and events director at Prescott Farm, said the shared program is exciting, because both organizations are dedicated to helping people find their place in the natural world, and the partnership expands Frates’ classroom at the farm to a larger audience.

“For our participants, it’s an opportunity to see how a similar mission is being carried out in a different landscape and environment,” Acampora said. “I hope it broadens their perspective on what ‘nature’ means. At the same time, this puts Prescott Farm on the radar of a whole new audience in New Orleans, creating a wonderful cross-pollination of ideas.”

Forming a creative collaboration

Frates and his wife, Joan, founded the Frates Creative Art Center in Laconia, in 1974, and Frates has been active in other capacities in the area since, forming partnerships with organizations like Prescott Farm, Belknap Mill and colleges, universities and museums across the region, and the world.

This year will be his second teaching at Prescott Farm, and the class focus on nature inspired him to search for art-related gardens, and nature and art collaborations near his New Orleans home. He found Galvez Garden, and reached out to Lissie Stewart, director of both the garden and the NOLA artist incubator that runs it.

The two met last summer, and talked about the potential to create art from natural objects, from dandelions to beets, and share classes and videos. They agreed to take a chance and see what happens.

Both Frates and Stewart said Prescott Farm and Galvez Garden are very different. The Laconia farm is sprawling, established and has infrastructure and programming, while Galvez Garden was developed to fight blight through gardening in an urban environment, and is newer and smaller.

Stewart founded the garden, and has worked on incorporating the arts with pillars of sustainability, food justice, culture, community and education.

“Taking what ‘works’ from established institutions and trying to apply proven principles on a small scale to benefit the environment is one of the biggest challenges we are tackling here in New Orleans,” she said. “Sharing videos and galleries of what artists create, inspired by these very different locations, will depict differing imagery, but will also give us ways to connect to each other.”

About the workshops

In February, the NOLA Artist Incubator will host Frates — representing Prescott Farm as creative arts consultant — as a visiting artist, and they will make ink with charcoal, then create drawings. Frates said they will light a campfire and grind the charcoal after it cools to make ink drawings. The first video will be created that day, and posted later to the virtual gallery.

At Prescott Farm on March 28, Frates will lead a workshop on embossing paper, and create a video to be shared with the New Orleans participants. Frates said participants will select natural objects such as flowers, twigs and feathers at the farm, place them on paper created previously, and run the paper and materials through a pasta press.

On April 4, also at Prescott Farm, Frates will show the video created in New Orleans in February, and the local group will make ink from charcoal, and brushes from pine needles and sticks, and create ink drawings.

“I hope this collaboration encourages more people to learn about everything we do here at Prescott Farm,” Acampora said.

Stewart from Galvez Garden is excited to see what the artists create.

“Ultimately, our shared goals are to support artists, and the creation of more art that encourages others to respect our natural world. The artwork that is produced as a result of this collaboration will serve as inspiration to artists and community members in both communities. We hope this collaboration encourages others to work together for shared goals of environmental stewardship while advocating for the value of the arts to create a broader network of makers for a more sustainable future.”

For more information, email Frates at lfrates@prescottfarm.org.