SPACE at Ryder Farm ceases operations

BREWSTER- Summer is a particularly busy time of year for SPACE on Ryder Farm, a nonprofit program that uniquely combines artist residencies and organic farming.

Ryder Farm is one of the oldest family-operated farms on the East Coast, founded in 1795 on the ancestral lands of the Wappinger people on the site of a 227-year-old family estate on the border of Putnam and Westchester counties. The company was also one of the first to embrace organic farming.

In 2011, eighth-generation Ryder founded SPACE to give artists time and space to work while preserving her family farm.

Since its inception, SPACE on Ryder Farm has had over 1,400 residents.

During their stay, residents can explore the many work spaces, fields and gardens on site. There is also a lake with canoes and paddleboards.

Each resident is asked to give something back to the farm during their stay. For many, this means spending time working in the garden. For others, it was as simple as a poem or a tarot reading.

But sadly, after 13 years, the artistic and agricultural haven announced that its current writers’ residence, the Working Farm, will be its last for the foreseeable future.

The organization’s farming operations will continue through the end of 2024, fulfilling a contract with Putnam County Cornell Cooperative Extension to donate 50,000 pounds of fresh produce to emergency food providers across New York in addition to local farm stand members. The organization will then cease operations but will not dissolve while the board considers options for SPACE’s future sustainability.

Janet Olshansky, co-chair of SPACE at Ryder Farm, was sad. “We have worked tirelessly to keep this extraordinary organization alive, but the challenges of the last four years, including the pandemic and the loss of key funding sources, have become insurmountable. We are incredibly proud of the work done and created here and eternally grateful to everyone who supported it. And while this chapter of SPACE is closed, we hope that over time SPACE will grow again,” she said.

The nonprofit’s co-chair Lee Seymour added, “Over the past few years, we have seen the closure and downsizing of hundreds of arts organizations, from residencies to major producing theaters. This is terrible, but SPACE is not alone, and we did not make this decision lightly or quickly. We spent months crunching numbers and considering all of our possible options, but the plain truth is that we are not immune to the same funding drought that is crippling the entire arts sector. And while the board and staff worked tirelessly to fill the gap, we simply could not raise enough funds to sustain operations through the summer. If anything, I hope SPACE can inspire others to rethink the way America supports its arts and culture institutions and make them more sustainable.”