A continuation of what Bob and Kathleen cultivated on this land:

• a place of refuge and practice for those working towards epiphany in any field of study and form of creation

• to exist as a compounding source of historical truth grounded in present, critical awareness

• to encourage focus, intention, craftsmanship and skill-sharing through a regenerative pool of resources for a growing collective of people from the local community, around the country, and abroad.

• To become more self-sustaining each year in regards to food, energy and other material sources.

This is an artist-run residency that supports the experimentation and practice of the artists who stay here, with aims to provide other resources necessary to their process. We prioritize skill and knowledge sharing.

Our culture was informed by and co-established alongside collectives like  _____babystudio in Los Angeles.  The creative work and organization discovered here resonate with a chorus dedicated to academic rigor, freewheeling imagination, refined craft, devoted beauty, silly untethered joys, ecological sustainability, historical justice and radical, collaborative futures. The work of Dawn Lundy Martin, Timothy Washington, Shoja Azari, Magdalene Odundo, Nancy Garcia, Jennifer Shin, Robin Coste Lewis, Hannah Baer, John Keene, Tlaloc Studios and The Holland Project as well as the curatorial vision of Alex Jones and Lena Hansen are current sources of inspiration and direction.

The Farm is situated between the county seat and university town of Indiana, PA and Clymer, PA, a small town founded in 1905 for the four foot vein of coal that runs through the land, with a vein of clay below it. Originally, the land was the home to the Shawnee and Seneca (of the Iroquois nation), and later witnessed the arrival of the Delaware and many other native peoples under forced displacement by the American settler colonial state. IUP’s land acknowledgment can be read here. Border lines were drawn and colonial ownership was established in the area through the treaty of Fort Stanwix in 1768, one of many conflicting treaties proposed by the English crown to claim territory, and then later reestablished by the newly independent colonies, a part of the continued settler colonialism, genocide and expansion into native lands after the upheaval of the US-British war.

In 1913, a farmer by the name of Debendurfer raised and trained workhorses on a tract of 162 acres in Indiana, PA. With the arrival of tractors by the 1920s, Debendurfer pivoted to dairy farming. By the 1950s, the land was reworked as a beef farm, with income supplemented by work in the local mines. In 1976, real estate developer Clyde Wells bought the land and re-housed Debendurfer, leaving the blue house and original barn structures and storage facilities up for sale. 

That same year, Bob Millward–historian, author and new professor at IUP–purchased the 10-acre subdivision with the original structures from Wells. Kathleen Werner–activist and teacher–joined him in 1979.

With support of family and friends, the open range of fields was replanted with trees. Flora found space to regrow and new pathways were established. An ecosystem–with the earthen dam pond at the center–returned. Over the next three decades, the original buildings were restored, maintained, and repurposed for woodworking, study, and lodging.

To visit was to unfold, learn, discover and create in conversation. Oral histories at the kitchen table, the whole-house library, light slanting through pines, archives of peoples’ histories, cultures and beauties and the violence, revision and propaganda that work to undermine and erase them, the chests of artifacts and antiques, bullfrogs sounding beneath weeping willows, the priority of craftsmanship, the ringing silence of fallen snow, the peering smiles over good food and comfort. The grounds with the company and resources that fill them become an organic invitation into existential, social, and geopolitical awareness. The dissonance felt by exclusionary survival and the willful ignorance that muffles it become heavy carries to unpack. 

Bob and Kathleen’s practice is a truth-telling upheld by academic commitment and deep interpersonal connections that allow for moments of honesty that change our capacity to think, to feel, to understand and thus love across lasting movements of solidarity. We tell stories, we make relics, we pose interventions to sense a belonging to that mood.

Bob and Kathleen remain a steadfast spirit of love, care, and justice in the region. They have allied with neighbors, community members and organizations to maintain a rich relationship with mutual aid, building a network of safety as people from all walks of life come to visit the farm and contribute to its living history and dialogue.

Now, with their retirement and move, their grand nephew, Nicholas Kasunic, artist and teacher, seeks to continue their work.

Hi! I’m Nicholas and I’m the current host at the Farm :) During your stay, I will also be setting artistic intentions and executing them in the spaces, and very much want to pass on any skills and training that might be useful to your practice. I’ll also be managing repairs, upkeep and household duties. The place is cozy, and keeps getting cozier. With each new resident, we’ll work to honor each other’s natural rhythms of rest, work, quietude, zoomies and party time. I’m currently re-reading Bohumil Hrabal’s Too Loud a Solitude (on the nose, I know) and re-watching Terrace House: Opening New Doors. I like meandering tea walks around the pond, playing cards, group exercise classes and giggling at most everything ***

I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA, spending a lot of time with my sisters, next-door cousins and at the Boys and Girls Club in the alley way of our house. I was a part of Pitt’s MFA in creative writing from 2013-2015 and it was there that I studied under Dawn Lundy Martin, Angie Cruz, Uma Satyavolu, Bill Lychak and others, seeking the detailed moments inside unconscious shifts in personal and collective understanding. In 2016, I moved to Los Angeles where I learned stained glass from Derek and Angela Yee at the Barnsdall Community Center and Ceramics from Robert Kibler at Glendale Community College. I taught theology and literature at the high school level for 4 years before more fully investing my time in ceramics. In 2023, I co-founded _____babystudio in Los Angeles with interdisciplinary artists Tommy Huang, Inessa Illes, Sam Young, Isis Cahuas, and Jamiee Zhuge.

I’ve worked as a cook, dishwasher, puppeteer, maintenance tech, teacher, editor, studio manager, director of student life, and most consistently as a nanny, cleaner and private tutor. I’d like to become more competent in electrical, mechanical and plumbing work. I’ve learned rudimentary operations on a sewing machine this past year, and I’m very excited about that.

Recently, I’ve been turning my <abandoned> short stories into stained glass pieces, sometimes as a series, and exploring portraiture in the same medium. I’ve started putting stained glass portraits in tall clay bodies inscribed with text, remembrance and invocations. This season, I will finish writing stories about Joanna and her life inside the town across from the refinery, and the guy that is disgusted with his doppelganger. They have been sitting in me like stagnant pools.

I’d like to thank my mom, dad, my sisters, brothers, my Uncle Bob, Aunt Kathleen, Aunt Suzanne and Uncle Bernie for their support, along with so many family members, friends and mentors. My dad has supported the land and vision since Bob first bought the property; he and my mom are the reasons I am in a position to reestablish its potential.

After the initial application review, I am open to text, phone chats or exchange of inspiration over email or social media as we figure out what will work best <3

Email: itsabluefarm@gmail.com

IG: @jankbabyblue, @itsabluefarm