Wormfarm Institute's Farm/Art DTour begins Saturday in rural Sauk County
Fifty miles of rural roadways in southern Sauk County will be decked out with artwork, vendors and other exhibits for 10 days starting Saturday.
Wormfarm Institute, a Reedsburg-based nonprofit that promotes local artists, chefs, writers, performers and their exhibits, and how they relate to area agriculture and sustainability, is bringing back its biennial Farm/Art DTour through Oct. 14.
The art festival, which is free to the public, will range from an area just west of Sauk City west to near Plain on county highways and other rural roads.
The Farm/Art DTour began as an annual event from 2011 to 2016, and changed to every other year starting in 2018. It covers 50 miles in the towns of Prairie du Sac, Troy, Franklin and Honey Creek, and includes the unincorporated communities of Witwen, Blackhawk, Leland and Denzer.
The route begins at the intersection of Highway PF and Old Bluff Trail in the town of Prairie du Sac. Drivers will be directed along Highways C, PF, E, O and B, along with various named roads.
This is the third Farm/Art DTour using this route, according to Philip Matthews, director of programs at Wormfarm Institute. Previous events were in other rural areas of Sauk County.
Matthews recommended people bicycle through the tour if they want a workout, especially on weekend days.
The "heart of the route," Matthews said, is at Witwen Park along Highway E, which cuts through the middle of the exhibit area, where the Witwen Park Food Chain features food vendors, numerous pieces of artwork and cultural exhibitions.
The 15 exhibits on the tour have short descriptions, and Matthews said the artwork is meant to "please as many as we perplex." One of the exhibits is a shack inspired by one that belonged to Wisconsin conservationist Aldo Leopold. Other exhibits include scrap metal sculptures, as well as one made from willow.
"Some of the artworks are sort of crowd-pleasers, and some of them, the idea is to make people pause and make people consider what they are looking at," Matthews said. "It's a real range — the kind of artworks that people experience. We like to say that there is something for everyone."
Wormfarm uses an open call for artists for the Farm/Art DTour — an invitation to artists from anywhere to offer to contribute, Matthews said. Eight projects were selected from 156 artists with worldwide backgrounds this year, with the other seven from area artists and landowners.
"Just the way in which artists from different parts of the country and different parts of the world are excited to respond to this working landscape in Sauk County, that's been, for me, one of the most exciting measures of growth," Matthews said.
Sauk County Land Resources and Environment officials have worked with Wormfarm to find landowners for the Farm/Art DTour, said department Conservation Manager Melissa Schlupp.
"It is so fun to see the installations," Schlupp said.
Along with the artwork, there will be "pasture performances" on weekend days. Two separate dance performances on Saturday and Oct. 13 will showcase different ballet routines and choreography, as well as teach the importance of wetland conservation through dance. A three-course Mexican meal tasting on Friday will highlight rural Mexican traditions through cuisine.
Other weekend acts will feature indie rock, progressive country and jazz music, along with a book reading and spiritual talk show.
More information on events throughout the Farm/Art DTour is available at wormfarminstitute.org .
Wormfarm alternates year to year between Farm/Art DTour and Fermentation Fest, a weekend fall festival at Witwen Park. The two events were together from 2011 to 2016, Matthews said, but were split apart because of their increasing popularity and number of exhibits and vendors.
"When the event started, we estimated that the attendance would be maybe 3,000," Matthews said. The Farm/Art DTour now attracts roughly 20,000 people over its 10-day period every two years. "We switched to biennial to manage the growth of the event."
