KINDRED SPIRITS
Spring and Fall Breaks
We are deeply grateful to students from MSU, Oberlin College and Vanderbilt University, WWOOFers, social activists, artists and old friends who give their helpful hands and generous spirits to planting seedlings, gardens and orchards; repairing buildings, fences, and arbors; caring for critters; and helping with every aspect of Open Ground's work. They are responsible for much of our garden success, help us stay aware of changing thought and needs, and generally keep us straight. The best piece of the exchange is establishing lasting relationships - identifying with each other and working together in support of Earth's diverse communities. Open Ground's Board, Staff and Friends treasure the exchange, and remain indebted "for life". Thank you!

APPALACHIAN STUDIES CONFERENCE
March 19 – 21 at North Georgia College & State Univ., Dahlonega, Georgia
The theme for this year's annual conference is ENGAGING COMMUNITIES, and Open Ground is working with the Kentucky Native American Heritage Museum (KNAHM) to host a panel of elders from across the state, committed to Appalachians knowing our native roots. Our presentation will underscore the Museum's simple but formidable goal – to be an exemplary venue for learning, preserving, teaching, celebrating and promoting awareness of the history, culture, and affect of regional indigenous people on today's Appalachian culture. With effort and luck, we will renew a right relationship not only with ourselves and the wider culture, but with these mountains.
For more information on ASC, visit www.appalachianstudies.org.

EARTH DAY
April 22 (and today)
We have raised 1,000 organic heirloom seedlings to give to anyone wanting to grow their own great foods, herbs and flowers. We will be happy to share information on setting them out, needed care, and how to save seed and start your own in years to come.

PEACE AND GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP FAIR
May 15th, 12 to 5 PM. with an evening concert – An open-to-all, Lexington special event
This year’s Peace and Global Citizenship Fair again focuses on hands-on learning and teaching, the passing of awareness and skills through personal contact. Open Ground's part is to provide teachers for on-going workshops in pottery, song writing, storytelling, performing, poetry, bee keeping, proactive living, painting, knitting, and Native American and Iranian cultures. Come to further develop personal skills in community care, speaking clearly, and listening well.
This is Bluegrass Community and Technical College's 5th annual P & G C Fair, co-sponsored by several community organizations, and OG is proud to be one of them. It is free and open to the public at BCTC's Cooper Campus, 470 Cooper Drive, just behind UK's Coliseum. For more information visit www.peace2day.org, or contact the founding director, Rebecca Glasscock, 859-246-6319.

GIRLS GONE WILD
A 5-day, arts-and-food workshop for an unusually interesting group of friends who mostly met here, keep coming back, and now annually take over the place for a program of their own design. Unfortunately for the rest of us, it fills before they set the date... but we're keeping a list of people wanting the same opportunity. Dates for the latter won't be set till we tally preferences, so give us a call.

FAMILY ARTS
June 12th, noon to 4 PM, repeated June 13th
Day cost - $8/child, $10/adult; overnight, including meals and program - $40/child, $60/adult
An opportunity for you and yours to build individual and shared skills in a diversity of expressive mediums – pottery, painting, writing, song, dance, and play. Those will be a definite highlight, but there's another - a huge good time to be filled with mounding laughter. Come either or both days, spending the night if you want more time and enjoy a great campfire.

HAITIAN CHILDREN, ADOPTING FAMILIES
July 24 & 25
A Summer camp experience which neither child nor parent will soon forget, emphasizing identity, culture, expression, and recognition of common strengths. We will be given tools and opportunities for personal and interactive social and natural awareness, and share our enjoyment of cooperative games, Haitian and US folk dance, storytelling, music, pottery, mask making, and a grab-bag of other Haitian and Kentucky regional visual, performing, literary, and culinary arts.

OUR TOWN
Bruce Mundy and Kerby Neill
It's good to know how your home town relates to the world. Inner city youth may have apprehensions about visiting a farm for the first time, but something about gathering eggs, fishing, learning food and medicine sources, turning Kentucky clay into pottery, and playing in a beautiful river valley soon answers plenty of questions, increases appreciation and self-confidence, and has them asking when they might return. Soon, we hope - seeing the world through their eyes is good for all of us.

...AND ALL THE STAGE IS GROUND FOR PLAY
July / Early August
An especially playful program and cookout for our budding regional thespians, the Central Kentucky Youth Actors. More might be said and acted upon in Iambic pentameter, but we'd rather not give the storyline away quite yet... not yet... timing is everything!

CLASSROOM POTTERY - Albert Bauman
August 7 & 8 - $200
Designed for elementary teachers, this workshop enables you to teach, start to finish, 5 classroom pottery projects. It provides tips on finding and using existing space, multiple uses of 'found' tools, and more-than-meeting committed time constraints through creative educational venues. Ties made to World Civilizations and Cultures, US History, Native American art and artifact, Earth Science, 'Hard' Science, and the plethora of KERA goals. With more than 20 years of experience as a visiting artist and the delight of Kentucky State Parks festival season, it's safe to say that Bauman has done more to enhance Kentucky's love for pottery than even the abundance of clay beneath our top-soiled feet. The fee includes five hearty meals, snacks, instruction, materials, and a bed for the night. The workshop begins with breakfast on Saturday and ends with lunch show-and-tell and wrap-up on Sunday.

BUILDING ON WRITERS' BLOCKS
Simultaneous poetry and prose workshops, sharing key and common sessions, giving you what you might be missing and want to experience. This dual blessing is still being planned – even the name may change - so check back for dates and information on teachers and guest authors.

BUILDING A SALT-FIRE KILN
Marshall Thompson & Greg Seigle
August 21-22 and 28-29 - $350
We will build a modified Phoenix Fast-Fire kiln, with a cross-draft sprung-arch down-draft, the fire box under the floor of the ware chamber, and the chimney directly over the mouth of the fire box. The workshop takes place over two consecutive weekends, Friday afternoon through Sunday dinner, and the fee covers everything needed for an assured good time at both.

KENTUCKY NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MUSEUM'S BENEFIT POW WOW
Sept 3-5, Corbin, KY - $5 adult, $1 child, under 10 free.
No charge for any child on Kids' Day, Sept. 3, 9 to 5
Pow Wows are an entertaining and educational celebration of Native American heritage, arts, and culture, promoting understanding of the beliefs, tribal traditions, and current lifestyles of our nation's indigenous people. This one has the additional goal of benefiting Kentucky Appalachians by establishing an interactive learning center dedicated to Kentucky's own 'First Nations,' honoring and preserving their rich history for generations to come. It is said that more than 90% of Appalachians enjoy Native ancestry, and that history and heritage are pervasive in shaping today's self-reliant mountain character. The Kentucky Native American Heritage Museum offers cultural education opportunities to adults and children alike. This Labor Day weekend, Benefit Pow Wow is proudly co-sponsored by the Southeastern Kentucky Association of Native People and Open Ground. For more information contact Ken Phillips at sioux80@msn.com.

A CIRCLE OF NATIVE ELDERS
October 8-10
A gathering of indigenous leaders from throughout the region, with co-sponsorship and basic leadership provided by the Kentucky Commission for Native Americans.

GOLDEN MEAN NEW YEAR
December 31 through January 2 - $250
We turn the calendar with good companions and home-grown meals; with growing awareness and necessary appreciation; with sparkling conversation, easy laughter, your choice of creative arts, walking Winter's woods, fishing, studying the Winter night sky, and whatever else might nurture our times. Some do it outside, some in, and both are open to all, all ways. Bring your family and friends – it's always a great time, both healing and hopeful.

DESIGN YOUR OWN
For family, friends, clubs, communities, or personal edification interests. We will happily help you shape the event you want or need, whether a reunion of classmates or kin, staff development, or reacquainting yourself with yourself, simplicity, or the uncluttered great outdoors.

ON-GOING PROGRAMS

WORLD FOODS
First Tuesdays, 6 to 8 PM; Suggested donation, $10 to $20.
Prepare and enjoy healthy foods from a diversity of world cultures.

WRITERS' WORKSHOP
Second Tuesdays, 6:30 to 9 PM
Our monthly writers' group welcomes people working in any medium, maybe giving us reason to try others. Some have published books, some work only to please themselves. All share writings, struggles, critiques, and resources for publishing. Conversations sparkle with insight, inspiration, and a possible recipe or two –all of which feeds the mill. The group annually holds one or two special workshops featuring known authors, including Jane Gentry, Richard Taylor, and Dana Wildsmith; and it has a history of offering an open mic for consideration of social needs or peculiarities.

ARTIST RESIDENCIES
Various lengths, $35/day
For anyone wanting unfettered time to listen to internal voices and the world around, and to respond through mediums of choice. Open Ground is both a stimulating and restful environment, buildings are wheelchair accessible, and being here offers easy access to studios, meadows, wooded hillsides, river, and pantry. Residencies might last a weekend or a month; in this and all else, there is seldom anything typical about them.