Mission & Vision
Hawthorne Valley’s mission is to renew soil, society and self by integrating agriculture, education, art and research. Our vision is to reconnect people, place, and purpose.
From Our Roots to Renewal
View Our Current Annual Impact ReportHawthorne Valley is a place to rediscover one’s connection to nature, to how our food is grown, and to ourselves as participants in a dynamic social and natural ecosystem. Through active food production, educational programs for children and adults, ongoing social and scientific research, and the cultivation of a vibrant artistic community, we pursue a modern way of living embedded deeply in the natural world. Our work emphasizes the social, ecological, and economic importance of agriculture in our daily lives.
Our integrated learning campus sits on a 900-acre Demeter-certified Biodynamic® farm in Ghent, NY, centrally located in the Hudson Valley’s scenic Columbia County. Organized since 1971 as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, our initiatives include: an early childhood through grade 12 Waldorf school; on-farm education programs; a full-line organic/natural foods and grocery store; a Biodynamic creamery and organic bakery; a 300-plus member organic/Biodynamic CSA; social, ecological, and cultural research groups; teacher education programs; arts initiatives and more. View the 50th Anniversary Commemorative
900
Acre Working Biodynamic® farm
1200
children visit and learn on the farm each year
200
people have worked or trained as farmers here
670
students have graduated from our Waldorf school
Our work
Our mission and vision come to life through a tapestry of initiatives that make up Hawthorne Valley Association
Integrative Learning
Fostering joy of learning through Waldorf-based, hands-on education geared toward developing the whole person – head, heart, and hands.
Agriculture and Biodiversity
Preserving diverse ecosystems and responsibly managing land resources while cultivating and distributing high-quality Biodynamic® food.
Compassionate Commerce
Conducting business in a way that prioritizes the welfare of the people, animals, and Earth at the heart of our work.
Exploration
Supporting wild nature and resilient agriculture, thoughtfully exploring our economic and cultural life, and fostering connection through original research and outreach.
Expressive Beauty
Nurturing artistic expression in our lives and work.
Collaboration
Providing a laboratory of collaborative learning and research where we partner to address some of today’s most pressing concerns such as climate change, educating creative and resilient children, supporting biodiversity, and rebuilding healthy and fair food systems.
Land Acknowledgement
Read our complete Land AcknowledgementWe pay respect to the Mohican People, and their elders past and present. Please take a moment to consider the many legacies of violence, displacement, migration, and settlement that bring us together today; and please join us in uncovering the truth.
Hawthorne Valley is located within the Hudson River Estuary watershed on the stolen ancestral land of the Mohican People, who call themselves Muh-he-con-ne-ok or People of the Waters That Are Never Still. The Muh-he-con-ne-ok have been stewards of these forests and fields throughout the generations.
We recognize that colonialism, which is ongoing today, resulted in the theft of these lands from Indigenous Peoples. We understand that the colonizers profited from that theft, and that Hawthorne Valley has inherited benefits from those acts. Continue reading.
What we are founding here is a seed – the seed of a living organism. The organism is essentially threefold – pedagogical, artistic, and agricultural – as reflections of thought, feeling and will. Each needs the others if the whole is to flourish. All are interrelated… for young and old alike, this work together will create a place in which to become, in the true sense, a full human being.
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging
Hawthorne Valley remains steadfast on its learning journey towards realizing meaningful and lasting ways to foster diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the fabric of its institutional processes and practices.
This includes the ongoing work of the School’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Committee, the process of more deeply considering and acknowledging the Muh-he-con-ne-ok (Mohican) People—the indigenous inhabitants of the land we are stewarding—and the Association’s commitment to providing DEIB trainings, discussion opportunities, further research about core issues such as cultural appropriation, and support for departmental antiracism plans and actions.
Statement on Rudolf Steiner and Racism
Hawthorne Valley is an Association of cultural initiatives and enterprises originally founded to further the work of impulses arising out of the anthroposophical teachings of Rudolf Steiner. As we continue to engage with the insights of anthroposophy in our efforts to address the ecological, social, and spiritual needs of our times, we also recognize that there are writings and lectures in which Steiner expresses racist ideas.* We wholeheartedly reject the racism in these writings and lectures, and racism in all its forms, and commit to earnestly working towards understanding our role and responsibility in overcoming the systemic injustices of racism perpetuated by such ideas and ingrained in our larger society.
We are committed to creating a safe and welcoming workplace and learning campus that respects the rights and celebrates the diversity of its co-workers, students, customers, and wider community members. We welcome your questions, suggestions, concerns, engagement, and ideas to help us in this journey.
*In coming to these understandings, we are drawing on the definition of race put forth by the American Association of Biological Anthropologists and accept that any definition of racism must include an understanding of its systemic nature. We are deeply grateful to Cory Eichman for guiding our understanding of these questions and definitions through his training Questions of Diversity and Race in Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Science, and to the Council of Anthroposophical Organizations for hosting this training.
Reflections on Hawthorne Valley at its 50th Anniversary
Roots to Renewal: Hawthorne Valley at 50
Longtime Hawthorne Valley School teacher and alum, Simon Frishkoff reflects on Hawthorne Valley at 50
Three Words That Describe Hawthorne Valley
As part of our 50th Anniversary celebration (Feb 2021-July 2022) Executive Director Martin Ping was asked to reflect on what three words best describe Hawthorne Valley
