Five Farms: Stories from American Farm Families

April 27–August 21, 2009
Kreps and Lyndhurst Gallery

PUBLIC RECEPTION & TALK: Thursday, April 30, 6–9 p.m.
Producers John Biewen and Wesley Horner will share the evolution and work of the larger Five Farms project. Talk at 7 p.m.

Photographs by: Alix Lowrey Blair, Andrew Lewis, Tom Rankin, Elena Rue, Steve Schapiro

Audio: Ben Adler, John Biewen, Rob Dillard, Camille Lacapa, Susannah Lee





Once, most Americans were farmers. Now, only about one in a hundred works the land. While providing our food, farmers and ranchers are the stewards of almost half of the nation’s land – a billion acres. Five Farms, presented as a multimedia exhibition, puts a personal face on the lives and livelihoods of farmers across the country. Through their voices we learn what it takes to farm and produce the food that we count on when we go to the market.

The farming families who are profiled in this project—they live in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Iowa, Arizona, and California—share their experiences in the audio stories and pictures in this exhibition; in a series of five one-hour radio documentaries on public radio stations nationwide (starting in May 2009, check local listings); in a series of radio features on National Public Radio’s™ All Things Considered™, and on a multimedia website (www.fivefarms.org).

Five Farms is funded by a major grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, with support from WFCR Amherst, Massachusetts; Iowa Public Radio; Native Public Media/National Federation of Community Broadcasters; The Hopi Foundation; Capital Public Radio, Sacramento; and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University.

The radio series is distributed by PRI, Public Radio International, for broadcast nationwide by public radio stations. Additional support comes from the PRI Program Fund, whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

This project also received support from the Council for the Arts, Office of the Provost, Duke University.






banner image:

Partial view of the Lyndhurst Gallery, one of four exhibition spaces at CDS. Photograph by Christoper Sims.


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