Events & Programs
July – September 2024
July 28
Reading the Driftless: Animal Tracking with William Robichaud – Riverview Terrace Field School
Frank Lloyd Wright roamed these Driftless hills as a child, and this experience was essential to the architect he became. On this tour we will ‘read’ the Driftless landscape, and explore Wright’s connection with Nature, by exploring and reading the tracks left by wildlife living on the Taliesin property.
William Robichaud, as Frank Lloyd Wright did, calls the Driftless Area home. He is an award-winning wildlife conservation biologist and holds a Level 2 Certification in reading animal tracks and sign from CyberTracker North America.
Please note: this tour requires walking on uneven ground and gravel walkways.
Please check in at the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center by 9:45 a.m. The tour will begin promptly at 10:00 a.m. and will return to the Visitor Center at 11:00 a.m.
Those who sign up for this event will receive early access to book the 12:00 p.m. In-Depth House Tour, which will be guided by William.
August 2-4, 2024
Beginning Photography Workshop
New to photography? Stuck in “Auto” mode? Maybe you just can’t seem to get your pictures to look right? Come join professional photographer Andrew Pielage for his Introduction to Photography Workshop. Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece Taliesin and the surrounding estate will be the backdrop for the weekend photographic journey. During the session, you will learn the tools you need to take control of your camera, including aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Learning the rules of composition and consideration of light and shadow will help participants continue to grow in their creativity and skill at photography.
Join photographer Andrew Pielage, who has spent over 13 years documenting Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural legacy for a captivating visual presentation. Pielage will share insights into his inspiring project, aimed at photographing every surviving Wright design. Discover his motivations for undertaking this ambitious endeavor, his approach to capturing each new design, and the stories behind some of his favorite images. Don’t miss this behind-the-scenes look into Pielage’s journey and the enduring influence of Frank Lloyd Wright’s work.
Andrew Pielage is an internationally published architecture and travel photographer based in Phoenix, Arizona. Born to an adventurous mother and a geologist father, his childhood was spent exploring the dusty backroads of the American Southwest. This constant desert travel rooted his artistic soul in landscape photography. In his hometown, Pielage discovered the beautiful relationship of landscape and design in the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright. Wright inspired his passion for this relationship and his mission to photograph all of Wright’s remaining designs. With over 20 years of experience, including international ad campaigns and publications, television features, exhibitions and workshops, Pielage continues to do what he loves: capture the soul of his subjects and inspire imagination through photography and education.
Japanese gardens and their architecture are the product of a fundamental connection with nature. Explore how they function, on a human scale, as pieces of a single living environment.
Tim Gruner, Anderson Japanese Garden Curator.
Driven by a lifelong love of nature to a career in horticulture, Tim graduated from the Kishwaukee College Horticulture Program 1987, followed by a one-year horticulture internship at Chicago Botanic Garden. Since 1989, Tim has worked and studied at Anderson Japanese Gardens under the direction of Mr. Hoichi Kurisu, f Kurisu International, where he is currently Garden Curator. Tim is a frequent contributor to Sukiya Living Magazine and has presented at national and regional conferences for the North American Japanese Garden Association, of which he is a member of the board of directors. In 2001 Tim completed the Kyoto University of Art and Design two-week intensive garden symposium in Kyoto, Japan. In 2016 he completed an intensive tea garden rock setting workshop at the International Japanese Garden Training Center at the Portland Japanese Garden. Tim studies Chanoyu, Japanese Tea Ceremony, to further understand aesthetics, Japanese gardens, the best of human relationships, and nature.
August 15-18, 2024
Kokoro Workshop: Health for Spirit, Body, Community
KOKORO is a Japanese word encompassing multiple meanings including “mind,” “heart,” and “spirit.”
Join Prof Kimiko Gunji and Tim Gruner for an introduction to the Japanese concept of Kokoro and spiritual enrichment illustrated by the Japanese Tea Ceremony. Prof Kimiko Gunji, professor emeritus of Japanese arts and culture, and former director of the Japan House at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, will demonstrate the importance of working towards a healthy kokoro and body. Tim Gruner, Curator of the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, IL will explore the impact that nature, gardens, and architecture can have on our well-being.
August 24
Summer Foraging with Abbie Lehman – Riverview Terrace Field School
Join us and Field School Kitchen Gardener, Abbie Lehman, as we explore the abundant bounty of the Driftless, learning to identify wild edibles on Phoebe Point trail.
This event is open to all skill and knowledge levels!
Located on the Taliesin property, Phoebe Point Trail is a moderate, 1.1 mile “lollipop loop” trail, with views of the Wisconsin River.
Please arrive at the Frank Lloyd Wright Visitor Center by 9:30 a.m. The shuttle bus will depart from the Visitor Center at 9:45 a.m. We will talk, hike, and forage until 11:45 a.m.
Please note: Foraging on Phoebe Point trail, without express permission from the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, is prohibited. We ask that participants follow our guides’ instructions to ensure minimal impact on the environment.
September 5
Organic Architecture in Storytelling. Geoff Herbach – Author
Geoff will discuss Frank Lloyd Wright’s notion of organic architecture and apply the ideas to the construction of stories. The key is, perhaps, to know ourselves well as artists, know the genre expectations our readers bring with them, and to be intentional about the kinds of structures we build our stories around. We, too, can use structure to surprise, comfort, discomfort, and release our readers so that our stories have maximal impact.
Geoff Herbach is the author of eight YA novels, a picture book, and a literary novel. He’s received the Cybils Award for best YA Fiction, the Minnesota Book Award, and the Burr/Worzalla Award for Outstanding Artistic Achievement from the Wisconsin Library Association. His books have been selected by the Junior Library Guild, and listed among the year’s best by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association, the International Literacy Association, Bank Street, and by many state library associations. They’ve also been selected as state-wide one-reads, as top audiobooks, and as a Global Read Aloud choice. In the past, he produced radio comedy shows and toured rock clubs telling weird stories. Presently, Geoff co-directs the Creative Writing Programs at Minnesota State University, Mankato and teaches in the low-residency Master of Fine Arts program at Converse University in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Geoff grew up in Platteville and often sets stories in Southwestern Wisconsin.
September 5-8
Creative Writing Workshop – Planning Your Novel or Memoir
Planning Your Novel or Memoir, will focus on developing “island” scenes, those most important to one’s project – those that create a spine for the larger work. We will also look at different forms of novels and memoirs to see if any type fits best, speaks hard to the writer. Participants can just be starting something or have draft work on a project already complete for this class. This immersive workshop allows time to discover the Taliesin estate, utilizing its rich environment as backdrop for your inspiration, and expand your skills. On your first afternoon you will tour the buildings, followed by a welcome reception in the main residence with the workshop community. Thursday afternoon arrival time will allow workshop participants ample free time to explore the local community, natural attractions of the Driftless region and the Taliesin Estate and will include an evening lecture in the Taliesin Hillside Theater with the instructor (included in workshop fee). Participants are asked to bring a laptop or their preferred writing tools for the creative writing process.
September 19
A Journey, Not a Destination; the importance of painting from life. Jan Norsetter Plein Air Painter
Unlike painting from photographs the amount of information available when painting from life is nearly unlimited. Being present at the scene, influenced by weather, sounds, and changing light allows the artist the freedom to interpret all that information as an impression of that specific moment in time. Do you want to show your viewer the importance of what you see and feel or do you want to recreate a photograph?
Artist Jan Norsetter is an award-winning oil painter known for vibrant landscape paintings en plein air and evocatively detailed studies in still life. Norsetter also practices the decorative art of rosemaling, using skill and an artist’s sensibility to embellish items traditional and modern in an age-old form. Norsetter sets up her easel in the open air, working outdoors surrounded by a world that imbues her paintings with a sense of place. Her landscapes capture exact but imaginative views of countryside in every season—close to home in Wisconsin and the US, France, Italy, Ireland, Scotland and Norway. She often uses blog posts to record progress on a series of paintings and impressions of a particular location. Norsetter holds advanced degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in fine arts and art education. In addition to her work as an artist, she teaches landscape painting and rosemaling. Four Wisconsin-based galleries represent Norsetter’s work: Pink Llama Gallery in Cedarburg, River Arts Gallery in Prairie du Sac, Paoli Road Mercantile, Paoli, and Woodland Studios in Stoughton.
