FREE | Every Friday: May 9 - September 19 | 5 PM - 6 PM
Join us throughout the residency season for our free public series of short and informal artist talks, readings, and presentations. We’ll learn about works-in-progress from our artists and scholars-in-residence with informative and inspiring presentations in all disciplines. This is a wonderful way to kick off your weekend! Bring a friend, all are welcome.
Location: Main Campus. Look for Craigardan Event sign at the end of Main Campus driveway (two “doors” west of the farm store, towards Keene). Google Maps Link
Holly Hanessian
Holly Hanessian is Craigardan’s 2025 Master Artist. She uses her internal compass for making art that is tied to connecting people together and community building. Past projects ranged from hurricane mitigation, designing sustainable water systems, to investigating agricultural justice issues. These artworks addressed historical and structural problems that require us to change the ways we think about water scarcity in the environment or who grows our food.
I am now redirecting my gaze to making art that holds locally grown food and is placed in handmade vessels to celebrate the collaborative power of food and community. My background in education, leadership, mutual aid, and ceramics will support communities, gather neighbors, and celebrate each other. My past achievements include Professor of Art at Florida State University, Past President, and Fellow of the Council for the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. I am an active member of the International Academy of Ceramics, Artaxis.org., Access.Ceramics.org, and was part of the Socially Engaged Craft Collective.
Rachel Berggren
Rachel Berggren is a spiritual journeyer, community builder and systems thinker who cares deeply about re-connecting people to the possibility and impact of being in relationship with ourselves, each other, the earth and the creative spirit that flows through all of life. She is deeply passionate about facilitating collective processes to co-create communities and ways of being that are resilient, equitable and rooted in the needs of the whole from the earth to the people.
With a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and a Master’s in Sustainable Food Systems, her career has taken place at the intersection of community capacity building and the food system. Some examples include serving as the Executive Director of Franklin County Community Meals Program, a non-profit regional food security organization, co-facilitating the research and development of Whole Harvest, an innovative pilot project focused on increasing food access, supporting farm viability and addressing food waste in the Pioneer Valley of MA, being Editor in Chief of Paperbark, an interdisciplinary journal focused on the intersection of climate justice and the arts, and more. As a consultant, she currently oversees fund development for Shalom Mountain Retreat Center, develops relationships and opportunities for Argyle Cheese Farmer, a multi-generational dairy farm in upstate NY, and collaborates with the Adirondack Food Systems Network and other community partners to develop and strengthen relationships and strategy for collective organizing.
Rachel also created AnthroPerspectives, a blog for engaging people in conversations about what it means to be human. She is currently developing the AnthroPerspective Podcast to further celebrate and explore human stories and experiences.
She is currently in training to be a somatic practitioner, retreat process leader and social therapist, all modalities focused on deepening relationships with self, other, and community while cultivating more aliveness, healing and connection. As part of this, she has begun facilitating community and therapeutic workshops focused on connection, expression, and intimacy building. Her vision is to bring all of these threads together to create communities and spaces that support us all to thrive.