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Join Us October 1-10 for the Farm/Art DTour
A golden October morning begins with a slight chill, ideal for a ride in the country by bike, car or horse-drawn wagon. Today, hay bales are sculpture. Fields are performance stages. The music of fiddles harmonizes with cows. Curious, large objects made by artists from around the country are hosted by farmers in their hayfields after the last harvest.
From October 1-10, the Wormfarm team—along with participating landowners, collaborators and local businesses—invite you to travel the Farm/Art DTour, a self-guided excursion through 50 miles of scenic farmland in rural Sauk County, with trailheads in Plain and Sauk City, WI (where you’ll pick up your DTour Map!)
See artwork inspired by the land, hear songbirds and pasture performances, smell fresh cut hay and campfires, discover roadside poetry around the next bend in the road, and enjoy an abundance of local delicacies. Come closer and get curious. We guarantee you’ll make new discoveries or get your metaphorical money back (after all, it's a free event!)
2022 marks the 9th iteration of the Farm/Art DTour, “DTour” for short (no apostrophe), pronounced ‘detour.’ Why the goofy spelling? The thinking back in 2011 was to underscore the another-way-ness of what we hoped to offer. Another way to go, another way of seeing, another option, an unlikely alliance, another… spelling. Since that first year, the DTour has grown beyond our wildest dreams, from a few thousand to tens of thousands of visitors.
This meandering drive in the country has the potential to be at once a sensual awakening, wayfinding workout, digital detox session (intermittently), and an immersion in a small section of the actual messy, fragrant, pulsating, living and dying earth. Practically, it’s an introduction to a new hiking path, cheese factory, artisanal beer, Ho-Chunk artist, farmstead bakery and the art of what farmers do every day. The DTour suggests an alternate path—one that invites travelers to be alert, eyes peeled, ears attuned, senses heightened, attention paid.
The gently curated stops on the old-school, foldable paper map (available at the Sauk Prairie Area Chamber of Commerce) serve as punctuation in the changing narrative of this unique landscape on the edge of the Driftless. Some Map Stops are commas: a brief pause, a series to note, a slight shift in emphasis or tone. Others are periods, full stop. Get off your bike or out of your car. Exclamation points may trigger an argument (!) My favorite are the question marks: an encounter that may puzzle or please, provoke or enchant. Which is it? That's for you to decide, we just work here.
So come join thousands of fellow wanderers from down the road a piece, or hundred of miles away, as we come to our senses and celebrate live culture in all its forms.