The Art & Ag Project cultivates a dialogue between artists, farmers, and the community to raise awareness about the importance of preserving farmlands and the visual arts in Yolo County. A nationally recognized creative place making project, Art & Ag has invited farmers to open their land to local artists, providing unique opportunities to capture private landscapes that would otherwise remain inaccessible and unseen.
Each month, artists visit a different farm where they can meet the farm owners, paint en plein air, or take photographs. Each Fall, artists are invited to exhibit their agriculturally–inspired artwork at YoloArts' annual Art Farm Gala.
2021 Calendar Coming SOON!
YoloArts’ Art & Ag Project, in partnership with The Yolo Land Trust and Yolo Farm to Fork, is pleased to offer $200 grants to elementary school teachers in the Yolo County school system.
In its fourth year, we are proud to offer this grant to honor the memory and continue the legacy of our friend and Art & Ag Project partner, Dorothy Peterson. Dorothy was a beloved educator, community leader, and arts advocate who touched many lives with her indomitable spirit and leadership in school gardening and district wide recycling programs.
Award Selection Criteria
Grants will be awarded in late January 2021 and must be used for project during February-June 2021.
Application deadline: January 8, 2021
**All previous recipients of the Dorothy Peterson Arts Grant are eligible again after one year or a complete funding cycle has passed.**
Dingle Elementary School
"We want the students to appreciate the agriculture that surrounds them and show them ways they can be creative and artistic with it!" - Allison Bright Rose
Part of the Art & Ag project, Artful Plate creates an opportunity to enhance the full farm to plate experience by commissioning original works of art by local artists to be printed onto dinner plates. Dinner plates are then featured and sold at restaurants or non-profit and community events serving locally sourced meals. The project is supported by YoloArts’ collaborative partner the County of Yolo.
The Art & Ag project has resumed monthly farm visits! YoloArts is grateful to our farming partners for opening up their land where artists can learn, explore, and find inspiration. Special thanks to our June Art & Ag hosts, Karen and Mark Harrison owners of Harrison Farms in Woodland. Here are some highlights from our … Continued
Have you ever wondered what crops are growing as you drive along the freeway in Yolo? Art & Ag Project partner, Anna Fricke, does too. Thus began Art & Ag’s latest project, Yolo County Crop Signs. For the last several months, Anna has worked with the Art & Ag committee to conceptualize, plan and begin … Continued
Each year YoloArts’ Art & Ag Project awards two Yolo County elementary school teachers a Dorothy Peterson Arts Grant to fund an agriculturally-inspired art lesson in their classroom. Janice Purnell, YoloArts’ Creative Director, checked in with one of this year’s recipients Karyn Schnaible, 4th/5th grade at Dingle Elementary in Woodland, and Art and Ag Project … Continued
In 2017 the Elkhorn Ranch, which is located along the Sacramento River and Yolo Bypass, was hit hard by floodwaters from the Oroville Dam spillover. The Art & Ag Project had the privilege of visiting this walnut orchard in May 2018 when the last remnants of the upturned walnut trees still dotted the landscape. Elkhorn … Continued
A Dingle Elementary School teacher and classroom was the winner of a $200 Dorothy Peterson Arts Grant. Karyn Schnaible, 4th/5th grade teacher, submitted her “Handmade Paper” art lesson which engages students in the harvest of cotton and flowers from the school’s garden. “We hope this project will inspire the students to investigate their environment, learn … Continued
In its 12th year, YoloArts’ Art & Ag Project continues to celebrate farms as art, and art created on farms. The Art Farm Exhibition, the annual culmination of a season of artist to farm visits, features work cultivated on local farms and inspired by the open spaces, agriculture and bounty of Yolo County. This year’s … Continued
In its 11th year, YoloArts’ Art and Agriculture Project continues to celebrate farms as art, and art created on farms. The Art Farm Exhibition features work cultivated on Yolo County farms during the February – October season of artist visits. This year’s exhibition opens on October 5 at Gallery 625 in Woodland and showcases 121 … Continued
Yolo County’s artists and farmlands will be front and center in the Yolo County booth at the State Fair. The booth’s theme is inspired from YoloArts Art & Ag project, an artist to farm visit program in its 11th year. Paintings and 3D artworks will be on display in the Yolo County booth in the … Continued
YoloArts will be celebrating 10 years of farm visits Friday November 3 from 6-9 p.m. at Hotel Woodland, 436 Main Street in downtown Woodland during the 10th Annual Art Farm Gala, a fundraiser for the arts and land preservation. Cultivating Creativity: 10 Years of Art & Ag will be for sale at the Art Farm … Continued
For ten years, YoloArts’ Art and Agriculture Project has inspired a community celebrating farms as art, and art created on farms. During this time, art has been cultivated on ninety Yolo County farms during the February – October annual season of artist visits. Each season of art culminates in the annual art show known as … Continued
Sacramento Valley, Contributed by Steve Colusa and Yolo County Farmer Blair Voelz recently hosted participants in Yolo Arts “Art & Ag Project” at SB Voelz Farms located on the Colusa County side of County Line Road in Dunnigan. Artists had the opportunity to visit the diversified operation on two different days. The purpose of this … Continued
Danielle Whitmore, YoloArts’ executive director, tells a story about a student named Diana. When Diana — a pseudonym — was a student in a local continuation school, she wouldn’t even get out of bed to attend classes. It wasn’t that she was lazy. She was uncomfortable in school and had low self-confidence. It was only when she started … Continued
Frank Muller has agriculture in his blood. He was raised on a farm, and now runs Muller Ranch in Yolo County, California, northwest of Sacramento, with his two brothers, son, and nephew. The ranch boasts several thousand acres of walnut groves, sunflowers, vineyards, tomato fields, almond trees, and pepper plants. But despite his close ties with the landscape and all it produces, … Continued
From the wheat fields of South Dakota to the ranch lands of Colorado, artists have provided iconic images of America’s rural landscape. Today, one rural community in northern California is providing a unique opportunity for artists to come out to the farm. Yolo County’s “Arts & Ag” program invites artists and photographers to farms and … Continued
