A new collaboration in the Taconic hills, celebrates Native and Indigenous communities across the Americas and builds relationships between between people and the land, through conversations, art and performance, teaching and learning, local food, activism and more. They are creating this place in the unceded ancestral homelands of the Mohican Nation, who live now in Wisconsin, with their help and connection.
They are a gathering place for makers, healers, thinkers, people who play music and tell stories and share them in words or weaving, color or paint … people who cultivate knowledge of the land, save seeds, restore food systems and environments … people who strengthen their home communities.
As they describe themselves,’the Forge Project is a Native-led initiative centered on decolonial education, Indigenous art, and supporting leaders in culture, food security, and land justice. Located on the unceded homelands of the Muh-he-con-ne-ok in Upstate New York, Forge Project works to upend political and social systems formed through generations of settler colonialism.’
They have their home on a high meadow looking over two mountain ranges, in two buildings designed by the internationally known Chinese architect Ai Weiwei — he has envisioned the Tsai home and a place for artists in residence in long, low buildings of wood and iron, open spaces with long, high windows open to the light.
Staff work from a laptop in the kitchen with a sweeping view at the Forge Project.
Internationally acclaimed architect Ai WeiWei designed the artist studio space at the Forge Project.
Internationally acclaimed architect Ai WeiWei designed the artist studio space at the Forge Project.
From the hilltop, the view stretches out broadly to the mountains on the horizon at the Forge Project.
Shrubs turn orange and gold in the fall at the Forge Project.
Rosemary still shows freen in the garden bed and shrubs turn orange and gold in the fall at the Forge Project.
Pussy willow shows soft buds in the cold at the Forge Project.
The Forge Project welcomes visitors with berries and muffins at a table beside a painting by the nationally acclaimed artist Edgar Heap of Birds.
Internationally acclaimed architect Ai WeiWei designed the artist studio space at the Forge Project.