The 2023 Corvus Report
Discover more from Mildred's Lane
The 2023 Corvus Report
Summit Report & Ongoing Programming
What’s Next for Mildred’s Lane
At the beginning of this month we hosted our first Corvus Summit, to collectively re-assemble the terms of operation for the future of our organization as we prepare to become an official 501(c)3 non-profit. Strategies for leadership, fundraising, programming, and collective were lovingly deliberated by a gathering of “crows” (some of our closest colleagues and creative allies who have been close at hand in our strategic planning over the past several years).
Mission Statement
A vital part of this process is putting our values and vision into words. This is our current mission statement in progress:
The Mildred Complex(ity) is an art and ecology non-profit organization advancing new methods for social, cultural, and educational entanglement. Our program nurtures interdisciplinary collaboration, ecological relations, and creative domesticity, co-evolving experimental ways of researching, knowing, and being.
Committees in Formation
The Corvus Summit has generated a number of committees (including: Mission & Programming, Legal & Accounting, Fundraising, Grant Research & Writing, Department of Interstitchiaries) which will continue the strategic planning into the fall and beyond.
Transformation is happening—emergence is in process.
What We’re Asking From You
Are there people or resources that are important for us to connect with? Are you able to help us connect with them?
If so, email us at workstyles@mildredslane.com and mildredslane@gmail.com.
We’d like to thank Narrowsburg Proper, The Heron, The Blue Fox Motel, Niral & Elizabeth of the Ridge Haven Airbnb, and The Tyler Hill House for helping us to make this a special occasion for all involved. Please consider dining and lodging with them in your next trip to the Narrowsburg area!
Ongoing Programs
ARBOREAL(ITY)
JULY 16 through 30
With J. Morgan Puett / Trevor Tochydlowski / Julian Maza / Ian Zipfel / Gabriel Schaub / and others
This study into the possibilities of collaborating with the forest navigates numerous challenges to sustainability, not least of which is the threat facing our forest landscape as the Ash and Hemlock trees—two of the land’s principal tree populations—quickly succumb to pestilent insect species. This summer and fall, we will bring together foresters, conservationists, and artists to envision and reconsider the meanings of a landscape’s lifespan and legacy.
MATRIARCHAL STUDIES HIVE
August 7 through 13
With Jill Goldman / Mia Pokriefka / Sarah Wallace / Letecia Layson / Rebecca Darling / Ame Simon / Tanja Thorjussen / and others
Artists, writers, and activists will be swarming at Mildred’s Lane to re-image an egalitarian, non-hierarchical society based on shared values of respect, community, connectedness, compassion, and reciprocity. Inspired by over three years of study of the work of Heide Göttner-Abendroth (Matriarchal Studies: Studies on Indigenous Cultures Across the Globe) with Joanna Ebenstein and Morbid Anatomy, we will continue our ongoing exploration of matriarchal organizational structures.
The Mildred Complex(ity)
Final week of Alastair Gordon: Pattern Recognition #2
Closing June 30
Shelley Spector: before the hill
Opening Reception on Saturday, August 12, 2-5pm
before the hill is a gathering of works by Shelley Spector, a multidisciplinary artist based in Philadelphia and Dingmans Ferry, PA. In this show, her first in six years, she presents a selection of sculptures and installations made between 2007 and 2016 exploring themes common in her work that include time, systems of measurement, the environment, and human connection. In the years since she made these works, Spector has been deeply engaged in the deconstruction and reconstruction of a cabin property in the Pennsylvania mountains, working it into a sculpture, a future studio, and a site for interdisciplinary, creative and environment-focused practice. The cabin, it’s outbuildings (a shed and outhouse) and surrounding property are The Nowadays—a developing sculptural ecosystem made from underutilized and discarded resources. The project is inspired by excess, need, and the effects of human impact on our natural world.
Included in before the hill are works made with fabric and wood acquired through the deconstruction of clothing, furniture, and other discarded and collected objects that employ sewing, woodwork, and home-making techniques. In varied forms such as wallpaper, embroideries, and a motorized sculpture, this presentation of work is a reflective launch point for new work to be made in the soon-to-be-completed cabin studio.
Spector’s work is part of many public and private collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which presented her solo exhibition Keep The Home Fires Burning, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and Human Rights Campaign in Washington, D.C. Spector has received grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Independence Foundation Fellowship in the Arts, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Leeway Foundation. Spector joined Mildred’s Lane as a fellow in 2017 and has since remained involved, currently committed to the restoration, renewal, and repair of the property.
THE MILDRED COMPLEX(ITY) • 37B MAIN STREET, NARROWSBURG, NY 12764
SUMMER HOURS • SATURDAYS 11–5 • SUNDAYS 11–3 • OR BY APPOINTMENT
Our full programming for 2023 can be accessed below.
Recent Press
Meet Your Maker: J. Morgan Puett of Mildred’s Lane
A conversation with J. Morgan Puett in the Spring 2023 issue of DVEight magazine. Issues are available through DVEight’s website.
Hovey Brock writes on Envisioning Adaptation, a recent symposium on art and adaptation to the climate crisis at Catskill Art Space. Participants included David Brooks, Simone Couto, Alex Hammond, Brian Kelley, and J. Morgan Puett.
Support Art & Ecology by Donating to Mildred’s Lane & The Mildred Complex(ity)
The costs are never-for-profit. Mildred’s Lane functions as a generosity project working towards a conservation land trust and site for collective art-making. All proceeds support the projects, maintenance, and repairs needed to become an official 501(c)3 organization that will allow Mildred’s Lane to thrive for generations to come.