About the Garden.
Founded in 2020, Jacob’s Garden is a working farm, living archive, and participatory piece of choreography set on the campus of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. When Ted Shawn purchased the Jacob's Pillow Farm in 1931 and founded the dance festival, agriculture held center stage. He wanted his dancers and students in training to be outdoors, live away from the city, and eat a carefully considered, simple, and nutritious diet. It's no coincidence that this seed-to-stage approach laid the foundation for what would become the most enduring dance festival this country has ever seen. Jacob's Garden carries this legacy forward by raising bees and growing fruits, vegetables, and herbs in partnership with the communities around us.
About the Gardener.
Adam Weinert is a choreographer, researcher and gardener based in Hudson NY. He produced and choreographed two award-winning dance films screened nationally and abroad, and his performance works have toured to four continents including a number of non-traditional dance venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, The Tate Britain Museum, and The Tate Modern Museum. In 2020 he was named a Bessie Honoree for his work reconstructing and interrogating the choreographic legacy of Modern Dance pioneer Ted Shawn. His ongoing research includes teasing out the sensual connectivity between performance, agriculture, nourishment and community.
About the Land.
It is with gratitude and humility that we acknowledge that we are learning, speaking, growing and gathering on the sacred homelands of the Agawam, the Nipmuc, the Pocumtuc and the Mohican people, who are the original stewards of this land. Today, due to forced removal, many of these communities reside elsewhere such as at the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in Northeast Wisconsin. We honor and pay respect to their ancestors past and present, as well as to Future generations by recognizing their continuing presence in their homelands and by striving to be responsible stewards of the land. We commit to real engagement with the Agawam, the Nipmuc, the Pocumtuc and the Mohican communities to build an inclusive and equitable space for all.
Photos by Christopher Duggan; courtesy of Jacob’s Pillow