Grafters X Change is a bioregional eco-art event where fruit tree enthusiasts throughout Central New York converge to share scionwood and seeds, skills, fruit foods, and art projects in a collaborative and interdisciplinary setting. We are committed to ecological justice and honor ancestral legacies of multispecies collaboration and care.
Grafters X Change emerges out of, and exists in solidarity with, the Guerrilla Grafters, a self-selected international workforce that graft fruit bearing branches onto non-fruit bearing, ornamental fruit trees in urban and post-industrial landscapes.
Grafters X Change considers distributed and decentralized network models as vital components of resiliency and uses grafting as a metaphor for these digital and protocological connections. Mesh networks, peer-to-peer communications, and other ways of embedding information locally are welcome topics in future years.
Sovereign Territory:
Grafters X Change and the Food Forest Studio reside on traditional Oneida territory, part of the the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Oneida territory has never been ceded. May this land acknowledgement help enable real and meaningful reparations.
We do our work in the Susquehannah River watershed, which drains into the Chesapeake Bay. The Oneida Lake watershed (within the larger Oswego River/ Finger Lake watershed, which drains into lake Ontario), as well as the Mohawk River watershed (that drains into the Hudson) are very close.
– Artists & Organizers: Margaretha Haughwout, with many thanks to ongoing GXC insights and collaborations with Oliver Kellhammer, Greg Owens, and Marisa Prefer. See full list of participating artists from previous years here: http://www.graftersxchange.org/artist-bios/
– This project was greatly aided by the dedication of Colgate staff members Lesley Chapman, Kevin Donlin, Julie Dudrick, Angela Kowalski, Lois Wilcox, and Mark Williams.
– Online video and audio content for GXC generated with assistance from Colgate students Cassi Bielmeier, Emma Kaminski, Leila Ribeiro, Jen Trujillo, and Michael Watson. Leila Ribeiro is the 2021-2022 Eco-Art Assistant and Designer, and focused on information design for in-person elements of the event.
– Grafters X Change is generously supported by the Colgate Arts Council and the Upstate Institute, as well as by the as well as by the Sylvia Ellins Fund for the Teaching and Learning of Diversity; the Departments of Art & Art History, Geography, and Sociology and Anthropology; the Native American Studies, Environmental Studies, Educational Studies Programs; Core Challenges of Modernity; and the Divisions of Arts and Humanities, University Studies, and Natural Sciences and Mathematics at Colgate.
– GXC partners include the Southern Madison Heritage Trust and the Village of Hamilton Tree Commission.
– Image Credits: R.C. Steadman, 1924, Brambles. D.G. Passmore, 1908, Mulberry, Travis. R.C. Steadman, 1910, Apple, Decarie. Artist unknown, n.d., Plum, Illinois Ironclad. M.D. Arnold, 1913, Chestnut. J.M. Shull, 1910, Peach, Early Rivers. J.M. Shull, 1924, Hazelnut. (2021) An Illustrated Catalog of American Fruits & Nuts: The U.S. Department of Agriculture Pomological Watercolor Collection. Atelier Editions.