Tag: agriculture

Sat. October 21st, 2023, 1-2:30 p.m.
McBride Studio, 640 KS-177, Matfield Green, KS 66862

Kansas City, Missouri musician and composer Jeffrey Ruckman will lead an exploration of musical sounds that heighten the perception of our environment, incorporating piano, 2 dulcimers, accordion, gong, train sounds, and jaw harp into an examination of the subtleties of sound. This presentation is a segment of his ongoing series, “We Have No Word for Music”, which has been well received at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City. For over 35 years Jeffrey’s compositions have reached national audiences through NPR and PBS, with appearances ranging from Mardi Gras parades to avant-garde concerts.

There will be an informal gathering after the event at Diana Werts’ art studio (the old Hitchin Post bar at 201 S Reed) where we can continue the conversation, jam a little, and enjoy refreshments. Just drive to the south end of Matfield Green and park behind the dark red & metal building on the east side of the road.

Sat. September 23rd, 2023, 1-2 p.m.
McBride Studio, 640 KS-177, Matfield Green, KS 66862

As rancher Josh Hoy knows, grasslands are not unique to the Flint Hills. A fifth-generation rancher in the old-growth tallgrass prairie, he has cowboyed all over the globe while gaining valuable experience and knowledge of the prairie and ranching. Now settled down, he and his partner, Gwen, use instinctive migratory grazing techniques in combination with rebooting herd behaviors at the Flying W Ranch in order to sustainably manage his family’s piece of the prairie. 

Through an epic trek with his father, Jim Hoy, in 2017, Josh observed stockmanship and horse culture from the tallgrass prairie of Kansas to the high steppe of Kyrgyzstan, a country located in Central Asia. In ‘International Grasslands: Kansas to Kyrgyzstan’ Hoy will discuss the similar and disparate flora and fauna, Kyrgyz agricultural practices, and nomadic culture, and will share photographs and Kyrgyz horse gear.