In June 2024, I participated in agriCULTURE: Art Inspired by the Land, an innovative exhibition that paired 18 artists with Boulder County farmers to create new work inspired by farming and the natural world. My installation was sited in a historic barn at the Agricultural Heritage Center just outside of Longmont, Colorado.
The exhibition spanned five locations—Longmont Museum, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Ollin Farms, Milk and Honey Farm, and the Agricultural Heritage Center—inviting visitors to travel from site to site and experience how each artist responded to their specific environment. As Joan Harrold of the Longmont Museum noted, “There is so much about farming that is approached like an art form in order for it to be successful.”
For this project, I created new work based on Colorado plants, with particular focus on Blue Gramma grass—a native prairie species. During my time in Colorado, I visited the herbarium at the Denver Botanic Gardens to study preserved botanical specimens and source authentic reference images for my embroidered interpretations.
The installation included primarily native Colorado plants and grasses, but also incorporated crested wheatgrass—a non-native species historically planted for agriculture in the area. This combination acknowledged the complex agricultural history of the region and how human intervention has shaped the landscape.
The barn’s soaring vertical space and open structure became integral to the work. I created a field of floating, embroidered plants suspended from the ceiling, inverting traditional landscape perspective and rendering the grasses monumental. Long fabric panels emphasized the barn’s verticality and responded to air moving through the structure, twisting and turning like flowers swaying in a summer breeze.
Creating work for a barn rather than a gallery offered unique challenges and freedoms. The space demanded work that could hold its own against the architecture’s scale while responding to the realities of an agricultural building—changing light, temperature, and constant movement.
Working in Colorado, researching at the Denver Botanic Gardens herbarium, and installing in that beautiful old barn demonstrated how site-specific work can create meaningful connections between art, agriculture, and community—inviting visitors to see the land and its plants through fresh eyes.
agriCULTURE: Art Inspired by the Land
Agricultural Heritage Center, Longmont, Colorado
Opened June 10, 2024
