Conceived by Wisconsin-based artist and educator Brenda Baker, the installation is a colorful outdoor clothesline made up of hundreds of authentic pieces of work clothing donated by agricultural workers, which act as stand-ins for the unseen people whose labor produces the food we eat. The Clothesline Project will be installed on The Wild Center’s campus in Fall 2023; a traveling version will visit regional farms and farmer’s markets beginning in 2024.

The Clothesline Project includes a video component told through the lens of filmmaker Eli Gore, as he collects the stories and oral histories of agricultural workers from around the Adirondacks. Nine farms will each have their own film, with the goal of encouraging people to rethink their relationship with food and the energy required to produce it.