January 22nd (Not Jan 1st) – Amanda Heidel will be presenting  a community mushroom farm she is developing in New Paltz

Mushroom Farm, is a collaborative community-based public art project in cooperation with The Reformed Church, Family of New Paltz, Village Grind Cafe, Bacchus Brewery, Mid Hudson Mycological Association and others. Mushroom Farm is a 10 year durational experiment that will be built adjacent to the free community garden on Huguenot Street in Spring 2019. The farm’s structure will take inspiration from a community smokehouse currently situated on Huguenot Street built in the 1800’s that was once a shared space for community to smoke their meats. Mushroom Farm is a collaborative space for education, research, community events, and a recycling system to produce food for the community.

We will be discussing ways that people can get involved with the project as part of the presentation!

Amanda Heidel is an artist currently pursuing her MFA in Sculpture at The State University of New York at New Paltz. Her educational and professional background includes communications, advertising, public relations, hospitality, and culinary arts. Her graduate thesis work, Mushroom Farm, is an interdisciplinary research project that studies biological materials, recycling processes, life cycles, and collaborative structures in an effort to prepare for a future of uncertainty. Her fungal entangled preparations are to enable forms of cooperation with the mushroom to guide us in living this paradigm shift while attempting to find footing in the present.