INAUGURAL FUNDRAISING DRIVE!
I’m thrilled to announce the Ruth Stone Foundation’s first-ever fundraising drive. When the celebrated and award-winning poet Ruth Stone passed away in the winter of 2011, she left her entire physical and literary estate in trust. Her wishes were that the three houses on the property be put towards the cultivation and furthering of poetry and the creative arts. The Ruth Stone Foundation has been created to make her wish a reality. In order to bring life back into Ruth Stone’s home in Goshen, Vermont, the foundation plans to transform it into a writing retreat and creative space.
While the houses were left in trust, Ruth Stone died without leaving money to maintain them. The houses are in disrepair and in great need of renovation. The estimates for restoration of these historical sites are over $200,000. The first step is a RocketHub campaign to raise a crucial $15,000 to get started on this exhilarating and ongoing project.
With this initial $15,000, we will be able to organize group cleanup projects to ready the houses for restoration, repair the plumbing and electricity to provide necessary accommodations for workers/volunteers (and visitors!), and provide a memorial for Ruth Stone who is buried on the land itself.
This fundraiser will allow us to work towards our long-term goals, which include:
- Renovating the house and the surrounding properties to stand as a dedicated, living commemoration to Stone, displaying her diverse and extraordinary life’s work and distinct personality
- Educating and inspiring visitors, offering a rare and intimate experience
- Providing space, time, and inspiration for creative guests of the house, located deep in the Green Mountain National Forest of Vermont
- Inviting the public on certain days for readings, tours, and multimedia performances
- Maintaining a physical space for artists to explore physical artistic work, through landscaping, gardening and sculpting
- Creating a haven for writers and artists to stay, work, and collaborate
- Small press publishing of books made by hand on a letterpress machine inside the house
Without your help, we will be unable to proceed with rescuing the houses and land or creating a vibrant and innovative space for the future. Donations will breathe new life into a space that once harbored many poets and writers under one roof.
Thank you so much!
The Porch
Whatsoever comes to the screen
firefly or moth
I lean back in the wicker chair
the porch my fragile skin
between me
and the gorgeous open maw
the suckling swallowing world
Ruth Stone
More info on the brand new website HERE!
Bianca Stone is a poet and visual artist. She is the author of the poetry collections Someone Else’s...
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