The Farm/Art DTour returns October 2024

From October 1-10, 2022, thousands of rural residents & urban visitors came to their senses and came closer to the land we all depend on. They traveled the Farm/Art DTour: a self-guided excursion through 50 miles of scenic farmland in rural Sauk County, with trailheads in Plain and Sauk City, WI. Along the way, they saw artwork inspired by the land, heard songbirds and pasture performances, smelled fresh cut hay and campfires, discovered a country churchyard or roadside poetry around the next bend in the road, and enjoyed an abundance of local delicacies.

Browse images from former DTours

Large cut out artwork Get to the Pie by Brent Houzenga. Located in a farm field, with a farm in the background, This installation was part of the 2020 Farm Art DTour.
Artwork called Cloud by Charlie Brouwer installed on a hilltop is surrounded by cows. One-hundred ladders were used to create the work, installed on land owned by Nathan Brickl.
Festival goers around a campfire at Witwen Park during the 2020 Farm/Art DTour.
Sauk County ARK is an artwork by Tory Tepp installed in Sauk County, Wisconsin. Kernza, a perennial grain, radiates from an earthwork in the shape of a landlocked ship: a field station for scientific research, meditation & agricultural play.
Artist uses carnival messages to help explain modern-day politics.
“Monday is Wash Day” by Brenda Baker was part of the Farm/Art DTour in 2015. Multicolored clothing was hung on lines across a field that stretched as far as the eye can see. Photo by Eric Baillies.
Artists Sheila Novak, Crystal Nesseth & Emilie Bouvier Fluvial Wormfarm Institute Farm/Art DTour 2021
People socializing near the gazebo and campfire at the 2021 Fermentation Fest.
“Pasture Performance” by opera singer Diane Schoff, wearing a skirt made with con husks, accompanied by a pianist with a blue piano in a farm field during the Farm Art DTour.
Artist Peter Krsko created Epithilium in 2020 to reference the layers of cells found in plants and animals. Built on land owned by farmers Todd and Sue Statz for Wormfarm Institutes Farm/Art DTour.
Giant Work Boots by artist Christopher Lutter-Gardella 2011 Wormfarm Institute Farm/Art DTour Sauk County, WI. The sculpture is helping to forge connections between sustainable farming and the arts. An Amish family climbs a hill to view the sculpture.
A series of permeable structures of a full-scale farmhouse, barn, garage, and shed. The individual buildings overlapped and changed shape, depending on one's mode of travel; which included car, bike, walking, and horse and buggy.
Large sculptured pigs seem to jump over a fence at the Farm Art DTour in Wisconsin. People visiting look dwarfed in comparison.
Several dancers in a farm field with their arms raised toward the sky, a corn field is their backdrop. This was a "pasture performance" in the 2016 Farm/Art DTour.
2018 Farm/Art DTour sculpture created by Madeline Straka called Sentinels of the Hills. shown in a farm field towering over people who bicycled the 50-mile DTour route
Field Billiards by Tina and Larry Wilkenson, part of 2015 Fermentation Fest Farm Forms. Large billiard balls in a green field with children and adults climbing and playing on them. Contributed by Katrin Talbot.
John Himmelfarb’s sculpture called “Penelope Awaiting Her Chamberlain” is a 1946 Chevy truck with scrap from a local junkyard piled on its hood. Penelope is a nod to the late sculpture John Chamberlain.
A goat climbs on a jungle gym with cropland and tree-lined hills.

Read the 2022 DTour Guide

This 36-page literary zine of articles, artwork & poetry explored the themes of the 2022 Farm/Art DTour:

Meet the Artists

Twelve artists were commissioned to create new artworks for the 2022 DTour, working in a range of media. Austen Camille, Rosalynn Gingerich, Sarah Kavage, Bill Mitchell, Denise Rolland Troyer, Christopher Sweet and W. Scott Trimble were selected by a jury from more than 100 applicants following a widespread call for proposals. Additional invited artists Brenda Baker & Beth Persche, Christopher Lutter-Gardella, Hartmut Ringel, and Catherine Schwalbe also installed site-responsive artworks in farm fields along the 50-mile route.

Learn more

Re-live the 2022 experience

The Farm/Art DTour has gone from regional novelty to a model for the emerging world of curbside culture. It took the restrictions of a pandemic to show what DTour visitors have known for many years now: the form has wheels. Already there have been drive-by shows staged on the East and West coasts. Having participated in one in LA, I can say that the difference is that of layers, of depth. Viewing art works outdoors is one thing; a DTour through the land and season is an altogether more poignant experience.”

- Dan S. Wang, artist & curator

Feed the Starter Culture

Inviting thousands to witness what farmers do every day, and imagine what they might do tomorrow, the DTour supports our region’s heritage, using the arts to spark curiosity about, and investment in, the future of farming and land stewardship. Your generosity supports this work and helps us keep our agri/cultural programs free for all.

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