Join us at Art Omi for a mushroom immersion workshop, led by Olga Tzogas of Smugtown Mushrooms.
Mushrooms—and their underground network of cells, called mycelium—are the unsung heroes often missing from our daily rhetoric and imagination. This might be partially due to their association with decay and death, but we intend to celebrate this aspect of their being and how it can help frame our understanding of life itself.
During this full day immersion (10:30AM - 4PM) at Art Omi we will take a look at the role mushrooms play within various ecologies. By looking at their ecological roles, we will inquire how they offer a template for present and future networks of community care and organization, built around regenerative, ecological, and social justice practices. We will learn basic concepts of mycology, explore their biology, and learn approachable methods for growing mushrooms in your community garden or your kitchen—skills that could maybe even be applied in your neighborhood parks and sidewalk tree plots (even if only for ecological healing).
We will gather to tap into our senses as we learn how to identify mushrooms, learn how to make medicine with them, and other skills that will help us infuse mushrooms into our daily lives. Fungi are not only found within forest ecosystems, they are found in every ecosystem across the globe, so folks from cities should definitely feel encouraged to join us!
Our aim is for participants to leave our time together with a greater sensitivity to the mushroom world and feel excited and confident to continue diving deeper into relationships with our mushroom kin.
Cost
$40-$150 sliding scale.
Sliding scale is meant to make these offerings as accessible as possible while also honoring all of the labor and resources that have gone into the preparation and distribution. Please reference this sliding scale resource to support you as you decide your amount.
Scholarships are available for this workshop. For scholarships please email herbancura@gmail.com with subject “Mycelial Web.”
Run through of the day
10am - Morning Circle
Intros
Agreements
Intentions
Embodied Movement
10:30am - Morning walk
Learning how to use a field guide or dichotomous key
Ethics of foraging, do’s and dont’s, and how to properly harvest based on your needs
How mushrooms grow and disperse spores
Learn the basics to recognize them in the field
What are common mushrooms that grow in the Northeast
Fungal Habitats and Ecological functions
12:00- Snack break-cozy creative learning time
12:30 Presentation/and/or Cooking Demos
medicinal preparations
cooking preparations
folklore + traditional uses
mycology + the ecology of the region
2pm - Afternoon Freeform Walk
Group Game (Building awareness, increasing our senses and perception of ourselves within the land and mushroom kingdom)
Solo time (Take what you have learned so far and bring it out to the trees with you! This is a time to gather on your own, sit with a tree, draw, stretch, dance, play, sing and connect deeper with the land and their gifts)
3:15pm- “Meet + Greet”
A walk through with our new friends we found in the woods today! A visual and interactive connection with the foraging table + findings of the day. Together we go through and reintroduce ourselves back to the plants + mushrooms we found and gathered, to learn and build deeper relationships. This time is also a place to share what we felt or what came up while we were on the land today.
4:15 Closing Circle
How to continue building relationship to the mushrooms beyond our time together
4:30pm END
Accessibility Information
Restrooms are available in the Benenson Center and the educational center.
There is no cafe at Art Omi. Visitors are welcome to bring food and drink from outside sources and picnic outdoors. Filtered water is available free of charge at the Benenson Center. Note that Art Omi is a carry-in / carry-out facility, and there are no trash receptacles out in the park. We ask that you carry out all materials or waste that you generate upon completion of your visit to the park.
The Sculpture & Architecture Park is accessible on foot throughout all weather, all year long. If seeking to experience all of the artworks on view, one will traverse grassy fields, forested paths, hills, and footbridges. There are no paved walking paths, and occasionally the trails become muddy and sometimes even impassable. Ticks, poison ivy, mud, and other natural hazards may be present. Be prepared with sturdy footwear and appropriate attire to best enjoy your experience.
The Benenson Center, Newmark Gallery, and restrooms are accessible to wheelchairs. For visitors with mobility or other accessibility concerns, please email herbancura@gmail.com with subject Mycelial Web - Accessibility.
Lunch will NOT be provided, please bring lunch and snacks to sustain you throughout the day. We will be offering some snacks and a mushroom cooking demo.
Directions
From Hudson, NY
Take NY-66 North towards Chatham. Make a left at the intersection of NY-9H North. Continue onto NY-9H North and turn right onto CoRte 22. Art Omi is located on the left at 1405 CoRte 22, Ghent, NY. Approximately 18 minutes from Hudson.
From Capital Region Area/North
Take i90 South to the Hudson NY-9 exit, and follow route NY-9 South to NY-9H South. Continue onto NY-9H South and turn left onto CoRte 22. Art Omi is located on the left at 1405 CoRte 22, Ghent, NY. Approximately 30 minutes south of Albany.
From NYC/South
Take the Taconic Parkway North to Exit 88, NY-82 Ancram/Hudson. Take NY-82 North. Follow NY-82 North and turn right onto NY-23 East/NY-9H North. Turn right onto CoRte 22, Art Omi is located on the left at 1405 CoRte 22, Ghent, NY. Approximately 2.5 hours by car from NYC.
If folks do not have a car but are able to take the Amtrak train to Hudson, NY we can coordinate a group pick up. We can also support coordinating carpool rides from New York City.
In Person Gathering
Gathering will take place on Sunday, September 11, from 10am-4:30pm at Art Omi, 1405 Co Rte 22, Ghent, NY 12075
Facilitator
Olga Tzogas started her love affair with Fungi and plants over 15 years ago, with the help and guidance of family, teachers and students. In 2011, Smugtown Mushrooms was started, to provide cultivation supplies to grow mushrooms, indoors or outdoors, for food and for medicine. We also host workshops, organize events and bring community together for the love of mushrooms alongside the continuous path towards social + environmental justice. Olga continuously is eager to learn more and embrace the never-ending, vibrance of mushrooms, fungi and the natural world. Olga teaches workshops throughout the continent about wild mushroom identification, medicinal mushrooms, biology, and mushroom cultivation. Olga, alongside the collaboration of the collective, The Mycelium Underground, helped create the New Moon Mycology Summit in 2018. She was a core organizer for the 2016 Radical Mycology Convergence and the MycoSymbiotics Festival from 2015-17. Annually, Olga guides small groups immersing in land based and traditional knowledge of Northern Greece, highlighting the fungi and plants there.
