News Release: 4/3/2025

Hillsdale Workshop Alliance
O Box 360, Hillsdale, NY 12529
www.TheWorkshopExperience.org

For Immediate Release Contact: Jim Carden / jim@taconicridgefarm.com
THE HILLSDALE WORKSHOP ALLIANCE ANNOUNCES THE 2025 “WORKSHOP EXPERIENCE WEEKEND” Hillsdale, NY (March 27, 2025) – The Hillsdale Workshop Alliance, a group of local businesses who produce and support experiential workshops, has announced the fifth annual Workshop Experience Weekend will take place May 10 and 11, 2025. The event will feature a weekend packed with a variety of workshops, classes, and open gardens. This year’s event boasts an exciting lineup of new instructors and fresh class topics. A few highlights include:
? Kenter Davies, the renowned NYC-based music facilitator and Instagram sensation, will lead the event’s very first group choral experience.
? Dan Pelosi, recipe writer for The New York Times and celebrated cookbook author, will be hosting a workshop at HGS Home Chef.
? A book event with Amy Chaplin, a chef and author of two James Beard Award-winning cookbook, will be co-hosting an event with Tamar Adler. The workshops held during the Workshop Experience Weekend include the following:
? The Art of Bonsai with Matthew Puntigam ? Storytelling: Creative Writing with Ashley Mayne
? Pasta Is a Year-Round Sport with Dan Pelosi
? Blacksmithing: Forging Hearts with Marsha Trattner
? Fleece to Yarn - Introduction to Fiber Milling & Drop Spinning with Margot Becker
? At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen - Book Event with Amy Chaplin & Tamar Adler
? Mushroom Foraging with John Wheeler
? Storytelling: Exploring the Mother with Sarah Katan
? "What a Wonderful World" One Day Choir with Kenter Davies
? Learn to Knit with Lizz Hill Wiker
? Mother's Day Sunday Brunch Workshop with David Wurth
? Botanical Bundle Dyeing with Hannah Ross
? Pizza Fundamentals: Techniques & Tools for Home Pizzaiolo with Rafi Bildner
? Paper Play with Jen Dieringer
? Blacksmithing: Forging Roses with Marsha Trattner
? Woven Woolen Coasters with Margot Becker
? Learn to Bird with Ben Nickley
? Garden of Margaret Roach Tour + Plant Sale by Broken Arrow Nursery
? Garden of Peter Bevacqua & Stephen King Tour + "Ask the Arborist" Booth by Green Cross

The Hillsdale Workshop Alliance curates and promotes experiential learning in creative fields in and around Hillsdale, NY through their website TheWorkshopExperience.org. Whether the instructors are local experts, or visiting makers/instructors, the goal is high quality workshops presented in beautiful settings that can be enjoyed by local audiences and visitors alike. “Many of this year’s workshops are designed with a mother-focused theme, perfect for celebrating Mother’s Day weekend,” says Taconic Ridge Farm owner, Jim Carden. “It’s an ideal way to treat your mom to something special and memorable.” Sarah Katan’s storytelling workshop will explore themes that celebrate motherhood, while Marsha Trattner’s blacksmithing workshops offer participants the chance to craft a steel-forged heart or rose—meaningful keepsakes that would make a great gift for any mom. Both open gardens generously donate 100% of their proceeds to local charities and the Ancram Center for the Arts is a non-profit, adding a meaningful charitable dimension to our weekend. While the Workshop Experience Weekend takes place over a single weekend, most of the Alliance’s members offer classes year round. More information on the classes as well as member organization profiles can be found on their website, www.TheWorkshopExperience.org.

The Hillsdale Workshop Alliance includes Margaret Roach (garden columnist for The New York Times), Matthew White (owner of Hillsdale General Store and HGS Home Chef), Paul Ricciardi (co-director of the Ancram Center for the Arts), Lewis Cleale (owner of Nobletown Fiber Works), Jim and Pam Carden (owners of Taconic Ridge Farm), Aubrey Lynch (Dean of Faculty and Student Affairs at American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School), and Jenny Elliot and Luke Franco (owners of Tiny Hearts Farm). *** Margaret Roach has been a leading garden writer for 30 years, at “Martha Stewart Living,” “Newsday,” and since April 2020 for “The New York Times,” where she began her journalism career. She is the author of “A Way to Garden” and two other books. Margaret hosts a public-radio podcast, lectures, and holds tours at her 2.3-acre Copake Falls garden, which she likes to think of as a giant birdfeeder, welcoming a diversity of insect, bird and other animal life. Matthew White is a long-time interior designer and antiquarian. As many do, he left the city for what he thought would be a quiet country life, only to restore two historic antique buildings in the Hamlet of Hillsdale. There he oversees popular local businesses as proprietor of Hillsdale General Store, a country lifestyle shop, and HGS Home Chef, a kitchen store with two teaching kitchens, where he produces cooking classes led by acclaimed chefs and cookbook authors. Paul Ricciardi is co-director of the Ancram Center for the Arts, where he, along with husband and co-director Jeff Mousseau, has created and/or produced 8 years of ground-breaking performance, including Taylor Mac's HOLIDAY SAUCE, THE PLEIN AIR PLAYS, and YOU DON'T KNOW THE LONELY ONE with David Cale, Dael Orlandersmith, and directed by Robert Falls. Paul is the creator and Director of AOH’s Real People Real Stories (RPRS), a program that utilizes a unique approach to support community members in sharing compelling, personal narratives, which is now being utilized by the Taconic Hills Central School District as part of the Elementary School writing curriculum. Lewis Cleale is the proprietor of the Hudson Valley’s newest artisan fiber-processing mill, Nobletown Fiber Works, producing yarn and fiber products for farmers in the greater tri-state fibershed. For more than 30 years, he has worked on and off Broadway as a professional actor and singer. A country boy from Maine, Lewis has called Hillsdale home since 1998 when he purchased and restored his 1825 Federal home in the hamlet. Presently, Nobletown Fiber Works provides woolgrowers custom processing capabilities but looks forward to opening a retail shop, offering classes in the fiber arts, as well as raising a small flock of the world’s tiniest sheep breed, Ouessant. Jim and Pam Carden own and operate Taconic Ridge Farm and Forgather, event and hospitality properties in Hillsdale. Jim is the founder of The Bell House, Union Hall and Floyd in Brooklyn, and Pam works in advertising in NYC. Natives of Kentucky and Iowa, they feel so at home in Hillsdale and are inspired by all the beauty and creativity in the area. Aubrey Lynch, recently named Dean of Faculty and Student Affairs at American Ballet Theatre Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, looks forward to his regular weekend getaways in the Hillsdale area. A former principal with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and original cast member and former associate producer of “The Lion King,” Aubrey has been Chief Education and Creative Programs Officer at the prestigious Harlem School of the Arts. His philosophy: “The arts aren’t extracurricular; they’re extra-essential.” Jenny Elliott and Luke Franco of Tiny Hearts Farm in Copake are farmers, not florists, first. They are also classically trained musicians. The Tiny Hearts team is committed to growing an ever-wider palette of high-quality, healthy-for-the-land, healthy-for-people flowers. Their popular flower shop in Hillsdale has a workroom, where they create flowers for weddings and other events, provide customers with weekly CSA bouquets, and teach workshops on all aspects of practical and creative floristry. # # #