Shantigar Foundation
in Western Massachusetts
Arts
Meditation
Nature
Jean-Claude van Itallie, Founder
1936 - 2021
Jean-Claude van Itallie
Scholarship Fund
Partners & Friends
Acadians Unite!
Acadians Unite! is a community of land regenerators in the Northeast American bioregion of Acadia which extends from the top of New Brunswick, Canada to the Blue Ridge mountains in the USA’s mid-Atlantic region. Shantigar hosts online convenings of this vibrant network.
Franklin Land Trust
The Franklin Land Trust (FLT) has been protecting farms, fields, and forests since 1987. In 2022, Shantigar protected more than 200 acres of its land as part of FLT’s 650-acre Warner Hill Conservation Project. The trails are well-marked and open to the public who are invited to join Shantigar and FLT staff on seasonal hikes and birding walks. https://www.franklinlandtrust.org/
Indigenous Commons
The Indigenous Commons is a growing kinship collective rooted in nature-centered value systems and guided by shared relationships, knowledge, ceremonies, lore, built environments, and new classes of assets and investments. Shantigar has hosted gatherings of the Indigenous Commons in which they reimagine regeneration and wealth.
https://www.indigenouscommons.co/
Language of Dolls
The Language of Dolls is a new play by Lizzie Olesker, Peggy Pettit, Louise Smith which was partly developed during a residency at Shantigar in 2024. The play, centered on questions of racial and cultural identity, was recently performed at Antioch College’s Foundry Theater.
https://ysnews.com/news/2024/10/the-language-of-dolls-to-be-staged-at-foundry-theate
Pollinator Project
The Pollinator Project at UMass/Amherst is working to improve the health of honeybees and native pollinators in our region. Researchers from the Department of Environmental Science are doing fieldwork at Shantigar to determine which flora protect and nourish local pollinators.
https://ag.umass.edu/resources/pollinators
BioFi Project
The BioFi Project is a collective supporting bioregions to design, create, capitalize, implement, and evolve Bioregional Financing Facilities that connect financial resources and regenerators. https://www.biofi.earth/
Regen Network
Regen Network is a global community and platform focused on ecological monitoring and regeneration that utilizes blockchain technology and the power of the world’s farmers to revitalize the planet. Shantigar regularly hosts Regen Network convenings.
https://www.r3-0.org/project/regennetwork/
Somanautiko
Watermark Arts
Somanautiko is the embodied health care practice of Megan Bathory-Peeler. Somanautiko empowers us to inhabit our bodies as living, moving temples of natural intelligence and explore what it means to live in connection rather than in isolation. https://somanautiko.com/
Watermark Arts is inspired by somatic awareness across all the arts. The organization offers access to teaching, events and gallery shows, videos, books, and a journal. Watermark is led by Elaine Colandrea, a longtime Shantigar teacher of Continuum Movement. https://www.watermarkarts.org/