After working for more than thirty years as a performer, recording artist and producer throughout the Midwest, Kelly Werts has retired to the town of Matfield Green. He loves playing traditional acoustic music with friends and neighbors, making occasional appearances around the area, and doing recording projects at his home studio.
This year’s third annual birthday jam will feature Kelly at the keyboard with special musical guests Diana Werts (accordion), Katherine Hamm (violin), and Carole Brown (bass). Kelly welcomes volunteers from the audience to jam on well-known old time tunes, and for those who don’t play an instrument, there will be singing as well, with song lyrics provided!
To be an artist in the Midwest is to practice in relationship with the prairie. We drive long miles on two-lane highways; we shelter during tornadoes. Most days find us contemplating the wide sky above or encountering an unexpected possum in the backyard. The land and its creatures envelop our days. How do we continue to open our practice and allow the land to speak within our work? By incorporating concepts of rewilding and seasonal, ceremonial practices into our art, we can expand our work into a larger ecosphere that gives space and voice to the more-than-human world. This workshop conversation will include readings from creators and thinkers, examples of ceremony and creative practice, and open sharing and dialogue with each other. Feel free to bring examples of your work to share with the group, or simply come as you are.
About the Presenter:
Leslie VonHolten writes about the connections between land and culture. She focuses her work on prairie and grassland spaces, and her art columns and essays have been published or are forthcoming in The New Territory, Literary Landscapes, About Place Journal, Dark Mountain Project, and Lawrence.com, among other sites. Leslie has served as a board member for the Garden of Eden art environment in Lucas, Kansas; was a founding member of the Percolator Artspace in Lawrence, Kansas; and has been a book commentator for High Plains Public Radio in Garden City, Kansas, since 2015. She was honored with a Tallgrass Artist Residency in 2022.
Steve Snell wants adventure, or at least the image of one. He recently paddled and painted all 2,341 miles of the Missouri River in a canoe in search of art and once floated part of the Connecticut River in a couch boat in search of adventure. Snell’s work engages American history, mythology, and the image of the Western landscape. He has been an Artist-in-Residence at the Tallgrass National Preserve in Kansas, the Teton ArtLab in Wyoming, and along the Chilkoot Trail in Alaska and British Columbia, which was sponsored by the National Parks Service and Parks Canada. Steve will be talking about his plein air painting journey and how it’s been shaped by local history and place.
About the Presenter:
Steve Snell’s work is represented by Weinberger Fine Art in Kansas City, MO and Courtney Collins Fine Art in Big Sky, MT and has been shown in galleries and film festivals throughout the country. Snell holds an M.F.A. in Studio Art from the University of Massachusetts Amherst as well as a B.F.A. in Painting and B.S. in Art Education from Miami University. He is currently an Associate Professor of Art in the Foundation Department at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Adventure Art on the Mighty Mo’ is a video series about art, adventure, and life along the Missouri River told through the act of painting, storytelling, and paddling all 2,341 miles of it. Each episode takes place at a different site, in which a watercolor painting is created. Painting is the vessel through which larger questions are asked, observations made, and river stories told. The intention of this work is to create an updated portrait of the river, challenge some of the stereotypes associated with it, and inspire broader public engagement and appreciation.
Join Matfield Green Works board member Diana Werts and husband Kelly for a sing-a-long with The Land Band.
Enjoy company and community with a sing-a-long led by The Land Band. Doors open at 1p.m, and singing will start at 1:30 p.m., followed by a potluck dinner at 4 p.m. Bring your favorite dish to share.
Later, at 6 p.m. the Land Band performs at the Old-Time Barn Dance at Pioneer Bluffs.
The Sing-Along and Barn Dance are free; donations to support the programs are appreciated.
Matfield Green Community Building/Fire Station, 200 Rogler St, Matfield Green, KS 66862
Join Matfield Green Works for the 2023 Matfield Green St. Patrick’s Day Parade Saturday, March 18th. All are welcome to march, ride or watch!
Marchers and riders line up at 10:30 a.m. in the Community Room, located beside the former Elementary School. The parade starts at 11 a.m., followed by a community picnic back at the Community Room at noon.
Theme: Luck O’ The Irish
Photo by Amy Jones.
Parade Route:
Start on Bocook Street then to Lincoln, Mercer, Rogler, and finally to Community Building.
Community Picnic:
The community picnic will take place immediately following the parade on the lawn of the Community Building. Matfield Green Works will provide hot dogs, buns, condiments, cookies, and soft drinks. If you’d like to bring food or drinks to share, please do! It’s not a requirement for attendance but we love a good potluck. Matfield Green Works will have very limited seating so please bring your own chairs or picnic blanket.
The Three Parade Rules:
Everyone is welcome to join the parade! Our only request is to stick to this year’s theme, Luck O’ The Irish. As a reminder, this is a family and community event.
Have fun!
If you march in the parade and throw treats to attendees, please walk close to the side of the road. This ensures treats land in the crowd, not the road. We do not want little kids coming onto the road while chasing candy.
Prizes will be awarded for:
Best Decorated Float
Best Costume – Adult
Best Costume – Kid
Best Costume – Animal, defined as a pet or farm animal who walks with you under your control
To March in Parade:
If you’d like to march in this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade, send Theresa or Diana an email at matfieldgreenworks@gmail.com with your name and phone number, or show up on the day of the event. RSVPs are also accepted via Facebook or Instagram messages. We extend a special invitation to all local elected and appointed officials. Please identify your office, but please do not distribute election material.
Please join Matfield Green Works in reviving a time-old Matfield Green tradition – Matfield Green Days! Activities for kids, a scanning station for Matfield Green memorabilia, and a community Happy Hour are all planned for this year’s Matfield Green Days. We are celebrating recent programs and giving an update on progress renovating the gallery/visitors welcome center. We will also honor partners and collaborators and hear about their projects.
The process of artistic expression can be a rewarding tool for exploration and self-discovery. This session will take the form of a nature walk along Crocker Creek as the artist nurtures a discussion of the place of creativity in our daily life, and also shares the forces that have shaped his own work through the past forty years, including both human studies and contemplations of the natural world.
The walk is approximately half-mile and involves an easy creek crossing and goes into riparian areas that have some poison ivy, although the trail is maintained. Loose fitting, long pants and long-sleeves are advisable. Bring a hat, sunscreen, bug spray and a refillable water bottle. Modern restroom facilities will be open in the granary. Guests are encouraged to bring a picnic and linger. Crocker Creek is the unofficial “beach” and swimming hole for Matfield Green residents. It’s a little dry this week but still great for exploration and wading.
Just for fun, after the nature walk, Dave will show his home grown, 50s-style sci-fi production, “Killer Mutant Deer from Outer Space”. Much of the movie was filmed on the grounds of Pioneer Bluffs.
Matt, when he’s not busy being and architect, husband, and dad to two future birders, is on the Kansas Bird Records Committee (KBRC) and a reviewer for Eastern Kansas of Cornell University’s eBird database, as well as past president of Kansas Ornithological Society, and former trustee with Audubon of Kansas. He’s also really fun and easy going and can answer all your bird-related questions. We’ll start in a circle of chairs in a shady glen listening to Matt talk about what is great about birding; using technology in birding; changes we are seeing in bird populations with habitat loss/global warming, and how important the Flint Hills are for nesting prairie birds and migratory shorebirds.
We’ll also hear from special guest Tony Capizzo, Flint Hills Initiative Manager for The Nature Conservancy, about the special qualities of the new Flint Hills Prairie Preserve and the rare bird species that contributed to getting it recognized as an important habitat. Then we’ll take an easy one-hour hike that involves a creek crossing (not difficult but your shoes will get wet).
IMPORTANT NOTE: We will meet in the parking lot of the Cassoday Country Store, just south of the Cassoday turnpike exit on I-35, and we will carpool to the preserve, where parking is limited. Wear sun protective clothing, bring bug spray and a refillable water bottle.
In the event of rain, the event is cancelled and tickets will be refunded.
Flint Hills (Junction City) native and Academy Award winner Kevin Willmott became famous for the movies he has written with Spike Lee (“CHI RAQ”, “Da 5 Bloods” and “BlacKkKlansman”). But film buffs nationally and internationally have heaped praise on him since the 2004 release of his “C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America.” Before that, he had a cult following among Kansas film buffs for “Ninth Street,” a 1999 film set in Junction City featuring Isaac Hayes and Martin Short.
The beautifully restored, well-ventilated loft of the historic barn at Pioneer Bluffs is the setting for a screening of a 2020 documentary Kevin wrote and directed called “William Allen White: What’s the Matter With Kansas?” The film goes beyond the known facts of the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Sage of Emporia” and reveals the history of radical populism in Kansas and how White single-handedly drove the Ku Klux Klan out of the Free State. Following the screening, Kevin will invite the audience to consider how the film is still relevant today, talk about current projects and take questions.
Guests are invited to bring a picnic lunch to enjoy before the program on the beautiful grounds of the historic ranch stead and explore the new Nature Trail or even take a dip in Crocker Creek with its swimming hole and gravel bar.
