Taking their name from designated parts of a field where crops and agricultural techniques are trialed, Test Plots are nimble projects used as research for the biennial Farm/Art DTour. The two-year cycle (Test Plots to DTour) gives time for these experiments to lead to new discoveries, build community friendships, and spark conviviality & joy as we gather artists, farmers and community leaders from southern Wisconsin and further afield.

2021 growing season Test Plots included:

  • An exciting collaboration between artist Tory Tepp and a local farming family to plant & harvest Kernza, a new perennial grain, in a field anchored by evolving earthworks created with students from a local school
  • DISCover Art Golf: nine artists installed sculpture, wood carvings and weavings made with cleared buckthorn & other natural fibers in a disc golf course along the Baraboo River in downtown Reedsburg
  • Rural Urban FLOW seed exchanges, shared meals with farmers, artists & chefs, and a zine that invited regional poets to write odes that were composted and planted with vegetable seeds grown by CSA farmers
  • Fermentation Fest teamed up with Grassland 2.0 for a rural revival & grazing renaissance, welcoming 2,000 visitors to the historic Witwen Park for delicious food, music in the tabernacle, bubble dancers, cow callers, cattail weavers and fermented concoctions… with more to come.
  • Fundraising for Witwen Park and more behind-the-scenes efforts.