$34,196 raised / Goal: $30,000
Special thanks to these donors & sponsors:
We’ve reached our initial goal! All donors will receive a digital download of the film when completed in 2022.
Additional donations will help us bring the story of Marguerite Wildenhain and Pond Farm to audiences nationwide. Through an exciting partnership with station KRCB, PBS for Northern California, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to teach millions of Americans about Marguerite’s extraordinary art, her influential teaching, and the history and ecology of Pond Farm. Why is art necessary? How did American potters learn from a European master? What did Marguerite teach us about finding balance and inspiration while living so close to nature? These are among the many questions our new documentary film, Marguerite: From the Bauhaus to Pond Farm, will address. After over a year of isolation during the pandemic, we have much to learn and share from Marguerite’s life. She lived alone at Pond Farm, nestled above Armstrong Woods, yet found inspiration and resilience in her solitude—an experience so many of us understand now more than ever. Please don’t let this opportunity expire. Help us complete this timely film and reach our goal today.
A half-hour documentary, Marguerite: From the Bauhaus to Pond Farm focuses on one of America’s most talented mid-Century ceramicists—a feminist and environmentalist in her time—and founder of Pond Farm, the annual summer gathering that trained a generation of American artists in Sonoma County, California.
The film tells Marguerite’s backstory and how she rose to prominence at the Bauhaus. Born in France, Marguerite studied with renowned architect Walter Gropius at the Weimar Bauhaus in Germany. Characterized by its approach to design that combined aesthetics and utility, the Bauhaus was one of the most influential art schools of the 20th Century. Through talent and hard work, Marguerite was the first woman to earn the designation of “Master Potter” in pre-World War II Europe. With the rise of Nazism, she joined a community of talented Jewish artists that fled to America, eventually landing in California, where she joined an experimental artist community along the Russian River in Guerneville. It was a vibrant, yet fleeting collective that disbanded after two years. However, Marguerite remained in Sonoma County, where for three decades she shared her expertise with hundreds of eager American artists. She passed away in 1985.
Marguerite: From the Bauhaus to Pond Farm is centered around the story of Pond Farm, the school Marguerite operated from a remote location above Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve. Every summer for six weeks, she drilled students in exacting ceramics techniques that she learned at the Bauhaus. Students came from across the country, many returned year after year. Her students included famed sculptures like Robert Arneson, who aptly described Marguerite as “the grande dame of potters.” Once students mastered her techniques, Marguerite encouraged artistic exploration. She often wove art history, philosophy and literature into her daily lectures to inspire students to do more than simply make art; she asked that they develop their intellectual and artistic imaginations as well.
The film shares the visual beauty of the Austin Creek State Recreation Area, the rugged chaparral and oak woodlands that surround the Pond Farm compound.
Marguerite used this environment as an important teaching tool. She showed students that the natural world was rich with forms and colors that could inform their art. In this way, Pond Farm was not simply a ceramics school, but a holistic study of seeing, thinking and living with the world around us.
Marguerite is the central character in the film. Although she passed away in 1985, she lives on in a vast collection of archival film footage, photographs, and works of art. In addition to these visual elements, the documentary includes interviews with some of Pond Farm’s most accomplished students and instructors. These artists serve as the principal narrators for our story, recounting key moments in Marguerite’s life. For more information about Pond Farm Pottery, Marguerite Wildenhain and her students, visit our Pond Farm Pottery webpage.
Distribution
Marguerite: From the Bauhaus to Pond Farm is in the final stages of production. It will be distributed on public television stations nationwide in 2023 via NorCal – Public Media. We will work closely with KRCB, PBS for Northern California, to bring our documentary to PTV stations across the country and millions of viewers who have yet to learn about this important story.
Filmmaking Team
Executive Producer, Michele Luna
Michele Luna was the Executive Director of the Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods from 1994 through 2021. She has thirty years experience in nonprofit administration with an emphasis in volunteer programs. Michele has demonstrated skills in the areas of Board development, financial management, fund development and desktop publishing. Since 2008, Michele was active on a nationwide level with State Parks and other organizations doing advocacy and lobbying for environmental causes. She is currently retired and volunteering her time to promote the film and support efforts to revitalize Pond Farm Pottery, a National Historic Landmark.
Director and Producer, David Washburn
David Washburn makes films for public television that focus on histories and communities that are often underrepresented or misunderstood, including veterans, American Muslims and lesser known artists. His feature documentary, Three Chaplains (Independent Lens, 2023), follows Muslim chaplains and their fight for equality in the US military. An American Mosque (World Channel, 2014) recounts the arson that destroyed a mosque in rural California and the interfaith healing that followed the hate crime. He was a lead filmmaker on multiple short documentary series, including Agency: The Work of Artists (Montalvo Arts Center), Veteran Documentary Corps (Documentary Film Institute), and Loyalty: Stories (Washington Post, NBC News). His work is funded by the Doris Duke Foundation, Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, and ITVS, among others.
Producer, Marcy Beck
Marcy Beck joined the Stewards’ board in late 2012. With the future of the planet at stake, she is honored to serve Stewards in helping to secure funding to protect, preserve and restore our public lands and to connect community-led programs with our parks. Her background in environmental program development and organizational governance in the public and nonprofit sectors helps inform her efforts on Stewards’ behalf. Marcy’s poetry writing is regularly inspired by the natural wonders of our Russian River Sector State Parks, from the forest to the sea.
KRCB, virtual channel 22, is a Public Broadcasting Service member television station licensed to Cotati, California, United States and serving the San Francisco Bay Area. Owned by Northern California Public Media, it is a sister station to National Public Radio member KRCB-FM.
NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION – STEWARDS OF THE COAST AND REDWOODS
Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods is the film’s backer and fiscal sponsor.
Stewards is a non-profit organization that partners with the Russian River Sector of California State Parks to promote, restore and protect the natural and cultural resources in our parks. The sector includes Armstrong Redwoods State Natural Reserve and Austin Creek State Recreation Area, and Sonoma Coast State Park, including the Willow Creek watershed.
UPCOMING FILM SHOWINGS AND EXHIBITS
There will be a film showing event on February 8, 2024 in Newman Auditorium in conjunction with an exhibit of Marguerite Wildenhain’s work at Santa Rosa Junior College.
The Pottery of Marguerite Wildenhain, an exhibit at Santa Rosa Junior College will run from February 5 to March 14 in the The Robert F. Agrella gallery, which is located on the first floor of the Frank P. Doyle Library
1501 Mendocino Avenue
Santa Rosa, CA 95401.
Visit our event listing for more information.
An opening reception will take place on February 8, 4-6pm with the film showing in the Newman Auditorium beginning at 6:15.
For more information about supporting and donating to our documentary film visit this page on Stewards of the Coast and Redwood’s website.