Wormfarm Institute

10/15/2026

Extraordinary faces at the Dia de Mu***os Aztec Ceremony

10/15/2026

On the grounds at Decomposium. Max Sorenson’s installation Gallery with Ash. 📸: Katrin Talbot Katrin Talbot

10/14/2026

A few moments from last weekend’s decomposium. A few elements from Lia Purpura’s De-Composition Writing Workshop. 📸: Katrin Talbot Katrin Talbot

10/09/2026

Wormfarm finally gets to experience The Land Institute's Prairie Fest in Salina, Kan.

Last weekend, Jay Salinas, director of strategic partnerships, road-tripped with local colleagues Curt Meine, Keefe Keely, and Sarah Lloyd to the 50th annual celebration of food, soil, culture and perennial agriculture at the place where they're conducting research into developing more grains like kernza as well as the culture of perennialization.

Plenty of art, poetry, music, tasty food and beverage, and great conversations in conjunction with some of the most brilliant thinkers on agriculture and our place on the land.

10/08/2026

🍄 Decomposium starts tomorrow.

Three days exploring the science, art and rituals of decay and renewal, October 9–11.

Friday and Saturday sessions take place at Freethinkers' Hall (Park Hall), 307 Polk Street, Sauk City, Wis. Sunday sessions at the Andrew Roll Free Congregation Cemetery have reached capacity.

While registration is closed, we will do our best to accommodate unregistered visitors on Friday and Saturday.

Decomposium is free to attend. Some sessions are outdoors, so dress for the weather. For all the details, visit www.wormfarminstitute.org.

10/07/2026

Donna Neuwirth, Wormfarm's executive director, was in Austin recently for the National Convening on Community-Based Practice, hosted by Forklift Danceworks at the University of Texas. Three days of artists, civic leaders, scholars and cultural workers from across the country, all working on one question: how do artists and communities build meaningful relationships and collaborative art practices that can strengthen civic life and shape the future of the field?

Donna shared: I connected with old friends and met new ones. I was thrilled to finally meet longtime hero Allison Orr, an early inspiration for what became Hay Rake Ballet! Thank you to Forklift Danceworks, their partners and the University of Texas at Austin for good company, potent inspiration and hard questions. I can’t wait to put it all to work here in our (biotic) community.

Image: Forklift Danceworks

10/02/2026

Park Hall, known locally as Freethinkers' Hall, hosts Decomposium next weekend. We intentionally selected this location for its historical significance and alignment with values of free inquiry and open dialogue.

A little history. The building went up in 1884 for the Free Congregation of Sauk County. The congregation was organized in October 1852 by German immigrants who had left home after the failed revolution of 1848, looking for a place to think, speak and search for truth without interference from church or state. They founded it on reason, gave women equal standing from the start, and opened its music, poetry and performances to the whole community. The congregation still meets at Park Hall today.

The hall was designed by Sauk City-born architect Alfred Clas, whose firm went on to design the Milwaukee Public Library and the Wisconsin Historical Society Building in Madison.

On Sunday, October 11, Decomposium closes at the congregation's historic cemetery, under white pines planted in 1866.

Thank you to the Free Congregation of Sauk County for opening its hall, park and cemetery to Decomposium, and to the supporters who make the weekend possible: Cricket Design Works; Dane County Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission; Sauk County Economic Development and Wisconsin Arts Board; Sauk County Land Resources and Environment; Soil Health & Agroecological Living Lab (SHALL) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison; and MadAgriculture.

Decomposium runs October 9–11 in Sauk City and Prairie du Sac. Most sessions are free. Registration closes on October 5. Last chance to register. Check out the details: https://www.wormfarminstitute.org/programs/current/decomp26

Photo: Colin Morris

09/23/2026

Wormfarm’s most meaningful work happens at the intersection of people, place, art, and ecology.

On August 15, we joined Rural Urban FLOW and the Ho-Chunk Nation in hosting Dexter Patterson and the BIPOC Birding Club of Wisconsin at Maa Wakacak (Sacred Earth), the former Badger Army Am******on Plant outside Baraboo. Forty participants observed migrating and resident birds, caught a rare sighting of a Golden Eagle, and explored restored prairie, Ho-Chunk land, and the Earth, Sky, Water installation along the Great Sauk Trail.

Led by conservation biologists Curt Meine and Mike Mossman, the day brought together birding, ecology, art, cultural history, and community in one significant landscape.

Lunch from Las Milpas made a good day even better. 🐦🌾

09/22/2026

Decomposium closes Sunday, October 11 with an afternoon of movement, sound, art, conversation, and music exploring mortality, renewal, and our connections to land. We are near or at capacity for Sunday! Please register to add your name to the waitlist. The symposium concludes with:

💃 Kinnari Vora with Antarabhava: A Meditation on Impermanence and Mortality
🔔 Christopher Braddy with an immersive sound meditation
🗣 Dustin Duve, Meghan Allynn Johnson + Andra Olney-Larson in a conversation about death and renewal
🪦 A site-responsive installation by Meghan Allynn Johnson
🎶 Celtic death songs by local music group Wrannock

📍 Free Congregation Cemetery, Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin
📅 October 11, 2026

Most sessions are free. Visit wormfarminstitute.org for more info and to register.

09/17/2026