We received thirty applications from artists from Marion & Morrow County, in genres spanning 2-D arts (watercolors, painting), photography, film/video, ceramics & sculpture, musical arts, herbalism, folklife & traditional arts (including traditional outdoor arts, like bow-making & fly-tying!), arts of adornment, textile & fiber arts, foodways, creative writing, multidisciplinary work, & so, so much more! We were absolutely blown away by the creativity, vision, skill, & talent our community artists brought to the table; & it was more than a little heartbreaking to only be able to extend a formal artist-in-residency position to twelve community artists.

Spring 2022 Terradise Environmental Arts Residency Artists-in-Residence:

FEBRUARY:

• Josh Groves (Morrow County) – Ceramics & Sculpture
• Michelle Montague (Morrow County) – 2-D: Pencil/Pen Drawing

MARCH:

• Chelsea Dipman (Columbus/Marion County) – Multi-Disciplinary
• Jonathan Campbell (Morrow County) – Traditional Outdoor Arts

APRIL:

• Deborah Jessie (Marion County) – Creative Writing & Memoir
• Chris Gherman (Delaware/Marion County) – Music & Multi-Disciplinary

MAY:

• Araby Sexton (Marion County) – Herbalism // Traditional Plant Medicine
• LaCosta Mayes (Marion County) – Musical Arts (Gospel, R&B, & more!)

MAY 15 to JUNE 15:

• Tim Gorenflo (Marion County) – Pastels & Painting; Folk Art
• Ms. Alberta Cress (Marion County) – Quilting/Sewing/Textile Arts

JUNE:

• Steve Moore (Marion County) – Musical Arts (Singer-Songwriter)
• Mashayla Berry (Marion County) – 2-D, Photo, & Multidisciplinary

Please join us in congratulating this dynamic slate of community artists, & welcoming them to the inagural Terradise Environmental Arts Residency!

Next Steps & Thank You!

As a part of our work with the residency this spring, you’ll get a chance to know each artist a little better. We’ll be running features on each month’s artists during their month — with photos of their work, & a short interview; & make sure to look out for each months culminating community arts program — a double-feature, two-hour program that may feature workshops, demonstrations, artists’ talks, art walks, or other ways to engage with our artists-in-residence for a given month! We’ll be publishing the full Terradise Environmental Arts Residency Spring 2022 Calendar later this month, so stay tuned!

We also want to thank each & every Marion & Morrow County community artist, musician, & writer who took the time to apply to our residency. We very much wish we would have had the funds to award all of you residencies — & your interest in this opportunity has certainly inspired us to grow Please know that, if we weren’t able to select you, we so appreciate the opportunity to get to know your work, & for your interest in Terradise — & we very much want to encourage you to come out & see us, & get involved! You’ll be the first to hear about new opportunities for arts & culture funding; & we very much hope to see you at our artist-led talks, walks, workshops  events this spring!

Finally, the Terradise Nature Center Board of Directors wishes to thank the intrepid Terradise Environmental Arts Residency Community Selection Committee — comprised of community members living in, working in, or from Marion & Morrow Counties, with dedicated interests in arts, culture, heritage, conservation, or their intersection in our region, & joined by two of our board members — who spent countless hours carefully reading & scoring applications, & participating in a three-hour final decision-making conference. Decisions were tough, but our panelists did the very best they could to provide our Marion & Morrow County community with the opportunity to learn from & engage a broad range of local artists. Selection committee members included:

• April Morrison — Mayor, Village of Caledonia
• Primrose Igonor — DEI Leadership, Marion Technical College (Marion)
• Pastor Jackie Peterson — Pastor, Logos Christian Ministries (Marion)
• Evelyn Lisiecki — Latinx Outreach, St. Mary’s Church (Marion)
• Lindsey Mathews — Columbus City Schools & Cardington (Morrow)
• Jess Lamar Reece Holler — Terradise Nature Center Board
• Jed Haldeman — Terradise Nature Center Board

We also are grateful to everyone who helped spread the word about our residency to friends, neighbors, & artists in your circle — we are truly heartened to see what a robust community of creative & cultural practitioners there is in the bi-county region, & can’t wait to grow more arts & culture programming here at Terradise to help better serve & amplify our local artists.

Terradise Environmental Arts Residency artists-in-residents will each visit Terradise 3x or more during their residency month, as their health & mobility allows; but will otherwise have the freedom to work on their own arts practice, on- or off-site, as they see fit. We ask only that each artist commit to producing a body of work using, inspired by, or in dialogue with Terradise’s property, history, mission, legacy, or our unique & ecologically-signficant stretch of the Olentangy (Whetstone) River. At the close of each month, each artist will coordinate to produce a one-hour public program, artists’ talk, workshop, or event (paired together, for a two-hour public event) showcasing some element of the work they produced in residence, a reflection on their experience at Terradise, a workshop in their arts practice, or a guided hike or other experience rooted in their practice.

If you’re out on the trails, you just might encounter our artists-in-residence, exploring, dreaming, & working — so please give them a warm welcome, & save the date for our February Terradise Environmental Arts Residency Program featuring Michelle Montague & Josh Groves: scheduled for Sunday, February 27th! We hope to see you there!

About Terradise Nature Center

Terradise Nature Center — located on the historic homestead of pioneering Marion County 20th-century naturalists, poets, & local historians Trella & Ray Romine along the Whetstone (Olentangy) River just outside of Caledonia, Ohio — is one of Marion County’s fastest-growing cultural heritage tourism & outdoor destinations. Envisioned as a way to open Trella & Ray’s enchanting home “on a hill, in a woods, by a river” to all of Marion & Morrow County, & to share the Romines’ tireless conservation, arts, & local history/heritage preservation work with the community, Terradise operates as a 501(c)(3) organization, & features rentals of the historic Romine Homestead (featuring the Romines’ photography collection & naturalist library), open hikes & visits along Terradise’s beautiful five acres directly along a historic fishing bend in the Olentangy River (locally known as the “Whetstone,”), & a suite of award-winning environmental education, community conservation, & outdoor environmental sensing experiences. We serve the bi-county area of North-Central Ohio: Marion & Morrow Counties, along the Olentangy River’s flow.

Terradise Nature Center’s mission is “to inform and engage our communities in their history, heritage and resources.” We operate exclusively for educational & recreational purposes: to educate Marion & Morrow Counties (& surrounding communities) about both natural & cultural heritage and resources — including the primary resource of our five beautiful acres of nature preserve — and, in service to that purpose, to study, conserve (including through native plant propagation), & build programming to activate the natural surroundings of the Terradise Nature Preserve, the Olentangy River, and associated wetlands and forest, for the bi-county community.

Although Terradise Nature Center is a nature center, our mission mandates us to work towards the preservation of Marion County’s natural and cultural heritage. This vision grows out of the work of Terradise’s founders — Marion County poet and conservationist Ray Romine, and Marion County photographer, filmmaker, local historian, conservationist, and florist Trella Romine, who together built what became the Romine Residence on our bend in the Whetstone (Olentangy) River in 1953. They named this piece of ground “Terradise”: meaning “heaven on earth.” From the 1950s through the early 2010’s, Terradise became an important site for the rise of both the local history movement in Marion County, and the nascent prairie conservation and native plant restoration movement in North-Central Ohio. Despite these busy organizing lives, the Romines were also artists; and their commitment to the importance of the arts and environments is reflected in Terradise’s dual mission.

About this Residency

Terradise Nature Center is excited to expand our arts programming in the next five years by mobilizing our beautiful six-acre nature preserve as location and muse for local art-making. We have already begun to launch arts programming under our Cultural Heritage Programming suite, which includes Terradise’s efforts to preserve and present the photography, filmmaking, and poetry of Terradise founders Trella & Ray Romine, alongside OAC ArtSTART-funded Terradise Ambient: Environmental Soundscapes Along the Olentangy soundscape project, and an annual nature photography contest leading to an annual Terradise calendar.

Our new 2022 Terradise Environmental Arts Residency has been made possible through the once-in-a-lifetime support of a Community Projects Grant from the Ohio Arts Council’s Arts Resiliency Initiative: designed to kickstart COVID-19 recovery in Ohio communities through direct funds to artists. Thanks to OAC’s support, we will be able to provide month-long grants to at least ten artists from Marion & Morrow County.

Two artists will be “artists-in-residence” each month – one artist from Marion County and one from Morrow County. We interpret “from” loosely – to mean anyone living in, working in, or ancestrally from either county. (See our application for more details.)

We’re seeking artists in all genres — from photography to painting to theatre to music to folk/traditional arts to poetry to foodways to woodcarving to dance to film/video/media arts! Artists from historically-marginalized communities are especially encouraged to apply. Our residencies are “non-residential” (i.e., no housing will be provided); but you will be expected to visit Terradise Nature Center and/or Terradise Nature Preserve (across the river, managed by Marion County Parks District) at least three times during your residency. You will not be expected to collaborate or meet up with the other artist; although you’re welcome to if you’d like.

Your tasks will be to:

• Visit Terradise, & explore & enjoy our property, & this important stretch of the Olentangy
• Explore Terradise’s history, mission, & landscape – including the history & legacies of founders Trella & Ray Romine, and/or their poetry, photography, & writings
• Produce original artwork in any genre inspired by the Terradise Nature Center or Terradise Nature Preserve properties, our mission, our history, Trella & Ray Romine’s artwork, lives, or archives, or our stretch of the Olentangy!
• Your work can make direct use of Terradise (photography, incorporating materials, sound/film recording, performance/installation), or can be inspired by this land & our mission!

All resident artists will be asked to conduct a one-hour public program, workshop, or artists’ talk, outdoors at Terradise or remotely on Zoom, at the conclusion of their residency. We anticipate being able to offer stipends of up to $1,000 to support one-month residencies, with the potential for small materials stipends to also be available to cover some supplies! We reserve the right to adjust stipend amounts & number of artists based on number of applicants.