agriCultural: The Artist/Farmer Residency Project
agriCultural: The Artist/Farmer Residency Project teams up artists with farmers to help tell a more nuanced story of agriculture in our communities. For the inaugural project, we had two cohorts of artists and farmers working together. We had the artist Dena Haden working with the farm, Apapacho Bloom Farm inSeekonk, MA and the other artist, Anis Beigzedah is worked with Freedom Food Farm, located in Raynham, MA. With these collaborative partnerships in place, the artists created a body of work based on the land, farmer, practices or stories inspired by the farm. This combination looks to build a symbiotic relationship, where ideas flow both ways, and the farmer is informing the artist’s creative process as much as the artist is having a similar effect on the farmer.
The resulting exhibition of this residency will took place at the Longbarn Gallery, in Westport with an opening reception on June 4, 2026. The Longbarn Gallery is a new gallery space and studio located on a farm in Westport.
Click the image at right to see images of the exhibition and the opening reception!
Read the review of the exhibition at The New Bedford Light
Read the article about agriCultural at the American Craft Council
agriCultural: A Biennial Exhibition
The Southeastern Massachusetts Agricultural Partnership (SEMAP) in partnership with The New Bedford Art Museum presents agriCultural: A Biennial Exhibition, a juried exhibition of works investigating the complex and undertold stories of agriculture, farming and the contemporary stories held in the land. agriCultural looks for work from artists who are farmers, farmers who are artists, or artists that take deep and meaningful inspiration from the world of agriculture to create their work.
With over 20 works selected for this inaugural exhibition, the show features contemporary visual works that bridges the gaps, uncovers the stories and opens up the possibilities of the intersectionality of art, culture, and agriculture.
The opening reception of agriCultural: A Biennial Exhibition was held Thursday, September 10th from 6-8pm at the New Bedford Art Museum.
Click on the image at left to see images of the opening reception
agriCultural: An Evening of Storytelling with Eva
This fall, we hosted our first agriCultural: Storytelling event, featuring stories inspired by Eva Sommaripa. Eva’s Garden and its owner, farmer and namesake, Eva Sommaripa has had an immeasurable impact on the local community, agricultural landscape and lives of countless people that have worked at, with, or collaborated with Eva. If you say the name “Eva” in a 50 mile radius, most folks know exactly who you are talking about. In one’s travels around the farms of SE Massachusetts, many of the new generation of farmers got their starts or honed their chops working at Eva’s. Likewise, the chefs of some of the best restaurants in the region had their palettes and menus shaped by the greens and herbs grown and foraged by Eva.
In celebration of Eva turning 85 this past June, we hosted a storytelling evening featuring the farmers, chefs, authors and humans whom Eva has changed their lives. Featuring a myriad of storytellers, local food and drinks, this was an evening for old and new friends, telling Eva stories. We reveled in this person’s uniqueness, generosity of spirit and land, and acknowledge the effect she has had on so many lives, the farms we see and the food we eat.
agriCultural: An Evening of Storytelling with Eva was a sold out event, held at the Holy Ghost Grounds in Dartmouth on October 3rd with 200 people celebrating the intersection of art, culture and agriculture!
Click on the image at right to see images and hear and audio recording of the evening!
