artist, writer, and musician stays, (long and short), and a press pause press yearly retreat
Come enjoy the peace and pause to work and/or breathe for a short or long time. Have a book to finish? An album to write? Press Pause at Flying Fox Farm will have you covered with multiple stay locations across the farm.
Musicians and audio-peeps can expect to have access to a state-of-the-art recording studio (and even a producer!). Writers can expect to have access to multiple writing locations and quiet places to read, write, and gather. Artists can expect to have access to art supplies and beautiful sunsets. Makers and builders can expect to have workspaces and access to the tools they need. We even hope to have a kiln!
When the center is up and running, Press Pause will hold a six-day retreat every spring open to artists, writers, and musicians.
Former contributors will always receive farmstay discounts and access to early registration for the yearly Press Pause retreat.
outdoor event venue: Little Hill Amphitheater, and indoor gathering spaces for workshops/other events
Flying Fox Farm has the most beautiful park, with rolling hills, big trees, and some newly planted blossoming cherry trees. Near a little hill in this park will be an amphitheater for Press Pause concerts and readings. :)
It will be the best.
Flying Fox Farm will also have indoor spaces to gather and work together.
move your body: recreation
Many times we as artists forget our bodies in spending so much time in our heads and hearts. That won’t happen at Flying Fox. Farmstayers can expect beautiful places to walk, play games, and maybe even swim if SE’s pool dreams come true.
A note from SE, ed in chief
Hello! Thanks for taking a look at our dream for Press Pause at Flying Fox. My husband (a musician) and I are still at those beginning, nail-biting stages of building this thing, where we look at each other with hope and fear and anticipation and worry and joy in the beautiful vision. The farm takes our breath away, not only because of how beautiful it is now but also because of what we know it will become. We are confident we can build our vision, yet we both have full-time jobs, are raising a toddler, and have bills to pay. Nor are we rich. Nor do we have huge teams of people helping us. We are doing this thing just he and I. We know it will take time. We know it will take hard work. We know it will sometimes feel like it won’t happen. But we will keep going because that’s how much we want to share Flying Fox Farm with you.
I will tell you a little story. It’s called “Cherry Trees”.
About six months ago, my husband and I were feeling really run down. Our son Julius was constantly sick from daycare, I’d gotten laid off, and my husband was pulling all-nighters at work so he could spend more time at home during the early days of having a new son. And the farm? Well, the farm was looking at us with this shitty sarcastic attitude and saying, Why aren’t you doing anything with me? I thought you wanted to build me into that Press Pause retreat center. I really liked that idea, but I guess it was just talk. You guys are lazy. You aren’t even mowing! Look at me! Why did you even start doing this? This is never gonna happen is it? Just admit it!
We were getting sick of the farm’s attitude. We were getting sick of feeling overwhelmed and small compared to this vision we have, which sometimes seems so gargantuan and out of reach that we feel like idiots for having the vision at all.
The Flying Fox Farm driveway runs along what we call “the park” because that’s what it will be when we are done with it, Little Hill Amphitheater and all. (We name everything what it will be when the vision is complete. : ) )
The future amphitheater was all I could think about whenever I pulled into the driveway. How would we get the money? How would we build it? Will it ever happen? It made me feel like a failure that the amphitheater wasn’t on that little hill yet. That we hadn’t even started building a single cabin out where the cabins are going to go. That nothing was getting done. I wanted to give up.
Then to get out of our heads one Saturday, we took a drive to a beautiful nursery we love so we could check out some cherry trees. I really adore cherry trees. They make me feel hopeful every time I see one in full bloom. So naturally, part of the vision of the park includes blossoming cherry trees lining the drive.
The nursery had a single sale that day we weren’t aware of. On cherry trees! And I’d just gotten my tax return. :) We bought seven, my husband making fun of me for being wary of even numbers because of some questionable psychology I read long ago. The next day, my friend Kate, assistant editor of Press Pause, came out to the farm. We sat on a blanket in the sun with Julius, watching my husband plant the trees in the park, laughing about how we were soooooooo busy with the child that we couldn’t help (Julius was particularly easy to take care of that day), and chatting about the future of Press Pause at the farm.
That Sunday we may not have built the amphitheater, but we planted trees that give me hope.
For the first time, I wasn’t thinking about our vision for the farm in terms of what we hadn’t yet gotten done. I was simply enjoying the park.
The cherry trees changed our minds. It’s not that we don’t sometimes still feel small and incompetent compared to what is left to do. It’s that we now know that if we keep plugging away at and celebrating those little by littles, the vision will slowly appear before us, ready to be shared.
We can’t wait!
If you want to help us reach our vision, please consider donating. If you have thoughts or ideas or want to get involved in some other way, email se.harsha@presspausepress.org.
$25,000 of our goal will cover printing, labor, shipping, distribution, and advertising costs for the next five years, and $25,000 of our goal and any other money we raise beyond that will go toward building our writers and artists retreat on Flying Fox Farm, including renovating existing spaces into studios, building small cabins, building maker spaces and a music production studio, and building an amphitheater and event spaces.