Creative Spirits: An Evening with 2025 Catalyst Artist Sam Van Aken

Creative Spirits: An Evening with 2025 Catalyst Artist Sam Van Aken
Friday, September 19
6 – 8pm
$35 per person, includes one complimentary cocktail.
Space is limited, registration is required.

Join us for an unforgettable evening with contemporary artist Sam Van Aken, Planting Fields Foundation’s 2025 Catalyst artist. Van Aken’s innovative work bridges art, agriculture, and environmental research. Van Aken will discuss The Planting Fields Stand, his site-specific project that brings history to life through a unique grouping of four multi-grafted trees. This living artwork traces the fruit-growing history of Planting Fields, from its origins as a Matinecock agricultural landscape to its time as the Coe family estate and up to the present day.

Blending art, horticulture, and history, the installation serves as a living archive, preserving centuries-old fruit varieties and engaging the community in a conversation about cultural heritage, sustainability, and the evolving relationship between people and the land. We invite you to join us and enjoy a complimentary cocktail or mocktails, explore the Main House, and learn more about the artistic vision, historical research, and collaborative efforts that shaped this meaningful project.

Event Schedule
6 – 6:30pm: Self-guided exploration of the Main House and cocktails
6:30 – 7:30pm: Lecture by Sam Van Aken
7:30 – 8pm: Q & A

Learn more about Catalyst 2025: The Planting Fields Stand here. 

For questions, please contact Kayla Cheshire, Communications and Marketing Manager, at kcheshire@plantingfields.org 

By registering for this event, you consent to Planting Fields Foundation photographing and filming during the event. These images may be used for promotional purposes, including social media, on our website, newsletters, grant requests, reports. As it may not be feasible to identify individuals who may wish to opt out, your registration implies your consent to be photographed. If you have any concerns, please contact us at kcheshire@plantingfields.org 

About Sam Van Aken
Sam Van Aken is a contemporary artist who works beyond traditional modes of art making, crossing artistic genres and disciplines to develop new perspectives on such themes as communication, botany, agriculture, climatology, and the ever-increasing impact of technology. Van Aken’s interventions in the natural and public realm are seen as metaphors that serve as the basis of narrative, sites of place making, and in some cases even become the basis of scientific research.
 

More about Creative Spirits: A Lecture & Libations Series
This presentation-based series invites you to mingle with experts in the industries of art, design and architecture in the great spaces of Planting Fields! As knowledge is shared on these topics, conversation will commence between guests while they sip on signature cocktails.

Thank you to our in-kind sponsors:  

To learn more how you sponsor this event and the Creative Spirits series, please contact Kayla Cheshire, Communications and Marketing Manager, at kcheshire@plantingfields.org