Wormfarm Institute Receives Ruth Arts 2025 Wisconsin Special Project Grant
The two-year, $200,000 grant will support the expansion of the Hay Rake Ballet which was piloted as an experimental Pasture Performance at the 2024 Farm/Art DTour.
Wormfarm is pleased to announce that our Hay Rake Ballet was one of ten projects selected by a national jury for a Ruth Arts 2025 Wisconsin Special Project Grant. As the only rural recipient, we are proud to represent this part of Wisconsin, and excited to welcome back artist and choreographer Sarah Butler, to further develop the Ballet in collaboration with Sauk County farmers. Framing everyday agricultural practices within a classical dance aesthetic, the Ballet–a dance performance of farm machinery in the working landscape–pays homage to farming’s inherent beauty, craft and value.
For thousands of years, art, music and dance have been interwoven through rituals of planting and the harvest in celebration of the land and those who care for it. Through a contemporary approach and within this timeless context, this project continues that tradition.
Based in Wisconsin and national in scope, the Ruth Foundation for the Arts (Ruth Arts) is dedicated to meeting the evolving needs and lived experiences of artists, communities, and arts organizations whose work is anchored in visual arts, performing arts and arts education.