Our Initial Summer Schedule!
We are busily putting the finishing touches on our calendar and reservation systems, and hope to have everything live in the next couple of days. But, in the meantime, here’s some of what’s in the works — much of it tentative for another week or so as we confirm with co-sponsors…
GRAND OPENING NIGHT
Friday, July 5: Fundraising Gala for the MARK Project (our amazing supporters and friends)
GRAND OPENING WEEKEND
Saturday, July 6: Great Gatsby Croquet Tourney with champagne and gin rickeys…
JULY 12-14 WEEKEND
Cow Appreciation Day
On Saturday the 13th (this is a national holiday!) Working with AgriForaging, Inc. and Lazy Crazy Acres, guiding us through a weekend about local food from farm to table.
JULY 15-19 FIVE DAY/ JULY 19-21 WEEKEND
Camp for Grownups
Come for five days, for the weekend, or for both for our first ever official ‘Camp for Grownups’ — all of the stuff you loved as a kid at camp, grown up style, plus really good food and drinks.
JULY 21-29 SEVEN DAY
Plein Air Painting Artist Week
Co-sponsored with Rosemary Farm Equine Sanctuary.
Painting, ponies, pastures, ponds…for beginning and pro artists, a week of painting and pointers in some of the spectacular bucolic spots in the Catskills.
AUGUST 2-4 WEEKEND
Prehistoric Myths and Contemporary Culture: Hunter/Gatherers and Farmers — An Imaginal Institute at Spillian
Led by scholar David Miller and with local grown and foraged food, we’ll explore how these very different ways of imagining how we interact with the landscape shape our lives. David is a brilliant thinker and teacher and highly sought after presenter. And Nicole Gray, our Culinary Curator, will be bringing food from farm and foraging to help us celebrate the metaphor.
AUGUST 5-9 FIVE DAY/AUGUST 9-11 WEEKEND
Camp for Grownups
Come for five days, for the weekend, or for both for our second ever official ‘Camp for Grownups’ — all of the stuff you loved as a kid at camp, grown up style, plus really good food and drinks.
AUGUST 12-16 FIVE DAY (Tentative)
Talk with the Animals, Walk with the Animals
In partnership with Rosemary Farm Equine Sanctuary plus other remarkable animal sanctuaries in the region, come and meet and volunteer and play with the animals and learn what you can do to change animals’ lives.
AUGUST 16-19
Leaping Over Tall Buildings
In partnership with NYC Parkour, a parkour weekend to explore who we move through the landscapes of our lives — literally and metaphorically learning to use what first looks like an obstacle as something to propel you forward.
AUGUST 19-23 TBD
Writing camp, tentative…check back for more info soon!
AUGUST 23
Birth of the Stumpf Fiddle
In partnership with The Orphic Gallery
Inspired by the work of Ed Potokar and his sonic totems, we’ll build wonderfully frivolous instruments called stumpf fiddles by day and by night be serenaded by Ed and some of NYC’s best avant garde musicians on his instruments. This event is a celebration of Ed’s show at the Orphic Gallery, with an opening reception July 5.
ONGOING
Celebrity Guest Chef Dinner Club evenings
Bacchus Club wine, ale, and spirits tasting evenings
More coming, but that’s a taste at least!
And, with all Spillian events, you will be given a permission slip that you can fill out for yourself if you decide you don’t actually want to participate but just want to sit and eat ice cream in bed or spend the day hanging out in a tree or whatever other non-participatory, giver yourself a real break event you’d like to do…
I would love to get some details about the August 2nd Weekend with David Miller – THANKS!
Wonderful, Naima! I’ll add you to our email list and will let you know as soon as we have the details ready for the website — should be in the next few days.
You are invited to spend the weekend delving into the relationship of ancient myth to modern psychology with David L. Miller, Ph.D., noted scholar, author, friend and colleague of Joseph Campbell, and member of JCF’s Board of Directors. We’ll explore how these very different ways of imagining and interacting with the landscape shape our lives. Spillian’s Culinary Curator, Nichole Gray, will provide meals from farm and forage to help us celebrate the metaphor.
Friday:
Goethe’s Faust utters agonizing words that speak for many men and women today: “Two souls, alas, reside within my breast!” C. G. Jung confirmed the psychological truth of this saying by noting that the nature of the psyche is that of a complexio oppositorum, a “complex of oppositions.” Dr. Miller will explore one of the many tensions felt deeply within the self by drawing on the differences between the mythologies of hunting and food-gathering societies and those of agricultural and herding societies. Ancient mythology tends to persist in the post-modern soul. We all have a primordial hunter and an archetypal farmer within the Self, and these two often don’t get along very well!
Saturday:
“The Return of Repressed Myths in the Modern Soul”
Utilizing stories, slides and discussion, this Saturday workshop will focus on allowing the experience of aspects of the hunter and farmer complexes within the self today. Special attention will be given to the following motifs: from agricultural mythologies—descent into the underworld, the relation of trees, women, and serpents, and the taboo against pigs and the feminine; from hunting mythologies––the importance of stealing fire, the task of slaying dragons, and the necessity of honoring animals, ghosts, and the ancestors.
Sunday:
We will spend the morning exploring the ideas that Dr. Miller has shared with us. For those interested, we can go literal —exploring the woods at Spillian for edible plants.
David Miller is a brilliant thinker and sought after presenter. To learn more about Dr. Miller, visit his website: http://dlmiller.mysite.syr.edu/
For more information about this event or to make a reservation, visit http://spillian.com/events/hunter-gatherers-and-farmers/
Fabulous Leigh! Your dream has become reality. Please keep me on your email list. Would love to make the trip to NY and experience an event at Spillian. Heartfelt congratulations!
Thank you, Carol! Hope to see you here!
All the best,
Leigh
My friend and fellow Pacifica graduate, Carolyn Millar, told me about this place because I am going to be working (conducting two writing retreats for middle school and high school girls) at Emma Willard School, which is about 2 hours away. The staff wants to be able to visit inspiring locations that about two hours away from the school and this sounds fabulous, but we would have to make it a day trip…would there be a possibility of us taking a group of about 12 girls to your place to have a writing seminar? What would you suggest? would there be a cost? Thank you.
ajb
Hi Allana! Nice to meet you, and we’d be delighted to talk about the possibility of hosting a seminar and what the costs would be. Please feel free to email us at play@spillian.com and we can talk further. Thanks for reaching out!
Best,
Leigh
Congrats, Leigh!! So happy for your new endeavor–and of course you kick it all off with our favorite guide, David Miller. Can’t wait to get up to NY and check out your new endeavor!
deb
Deb Talbot, how wonderful to hear from you! Thank you and we look forward to seeing you!
Congratulations and best wishes. I look forward to visiting. Please put me on your email list. I saw your information on my daughter Diane’s e-newsletter: http://www.catskillnativenursery.com
Joyce
Thanks so much, Joyce! We will add you to our mailing list with pleasure. (And your daughter Diane is wonderful, by the way!)
Thank you for the compliment about my daughter. I think she is wonderful, too, even though she is my most severe critic. I love her dearly. Best wishes for your success and happiness in living your dream.
Leigh and Mark – you simply amaze the hell out of me! I can’t wait to be a part of the Spilian expeience!!
Congratulations and continued amazement-
Joey
Thank you, wonderful Joey! Can’t wait to share it with you all done.
Dear Leigh,
Congratulations for getting the place started. We look forward to being involved. We DEFINITELY WANT
TO BE ON THE WEEKEND WITH DAVID MILLER. Please tell us the cost and how to sign up! What a great weekend that will be!
Thanks, Glen and Judith
What a great looking place and look forward to seeing future programs. The DAVID MILLER one looks VERY interesting!
Hats off and grand applause to Spillian’s grand opening!
No doubt all will be seduced and submerged in your creative brilliance Leigh and Mark.
Can’t wait to come out to experience your extraordinary place!
Gwendolyn