CAZENOVIA — Stone Quarry Hill Art Park (SQAP) in Cazenovia was recently the focus of a pilot partnership between the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s “Where Women Made History” program and the Women’s Leadership Initiative at Robert A.M. Stern Architects (RAMSA).

Through the new partnership, the architecture and design firm is providing pro-bono design, planning, and technical services to organizations that are reimagining sites of women’s history for the 21st century.

SQAP, which is a member of the National Trust’s Artists’ Homes and Studios (HAHS) program, was selected for the initiative in early 2022.

The project resulted in a series of recommendations for taking advantage of underutilized buildings and landscape features at SQAP to benefit the park’s staff, artists and visitors.

“The primary focus was to develop a planning document for Stone Quarry’s buildings and grounds that would be responsive to the organization’s scale as well as flexible so the organization could phase projects over time as needs and available funding shifted,” said SQAP CEO Emily Zaengle. “We wanted to create a document that would address current challenges of the driveway/parking; make recommendations for how to draw focus or better orient visitors to the Dorothy Riester House and Studio (Hilltop House and Studio); and recommend improvements to existing buildings that would allow them to better meet the needs of the visiting artists, visiting public, and Stone Quarry staff.”

The project team consisted of Zaengle, HAHS Program Manager Valerie Balint, Christina Morris, manager of the Where Women Made History campaign, and a group of RAMSA staff members with diverse professional experiences.

“[An all-women team] wasn’t planned, but it ended up being a very rewarding component of the project,” said Zaengle.

The National Trust and RAMSA members began meeting with Zaengle over Zoom in February 2022 to develop an understanding of the historic site.

On June 3, 2022, the team gathered at SQAP. The site visit included a tour of the grounds and facilities and an art-making experience led by visiting artist Jessica Hyatt.

“She led the team through a series of writing and making activities that asked us to reflect on how we felt on the grounds of the park,” said Zaengle. “The feedback from the team was that this experience totally changed how they approached the project; it helped them experience the park as artists and visitors.”

The visit culminated in an evening reception and conversation with board members, artists, and community constituents.

“It was important to me that the project include feedback from visiting artists, park visitors, and Stone Quarry staff — the people that utilize the site on a daily basis,” said Zaengle.

According to Zaengle, the guide that the RAMSA team ultimately produced makes recommendations that would allow SQAP to further activate its outdoor spaces through its visiting artist program. The suggestions are low-impact and include ideas like hardscaping around buildings to create opportunities for artists to install interactive features that the public can gather around and engage with.

The guide also proposes flexible indoor spaces that can be configured to support artist studios and workspaces as well as a variety of artist-led happenings, including performances, talks, and open studios.

Acknowledging the site’s transition from private/residential use to its current use as an outdoor art space open to the public, the guide also includes recommendations for a more logical site arrival and parking sequence.

Located at 3883 Stone Quarry Rd., SQAP offers a unique environment for artists to create and exhibit their work in natural and gallery settings and provides a space for the community to explore and appreciate the natural world and interact with art and artists.

SQAP stewards the Dorothy Riester House and Studio (Hilltop House and Studio), the former home of ceramicist, sculptor, author, and preservation activist Dorothy Riester (1916-2017) and her husband, Robert.

The Riesters designed and built their distinctive A-frame home with help from local contractors from the late 1950s to the early 1970s.

During their lifetimes, the couple transformed the site from their private residence into a contemporary outdoor art space, acquiring a total of 104 acres, establishing SQAP as a private, not-for-profit organization in 1991, and opening the site to artists and the public.

“The very first act of the newly formed arts organization was an invitation to other artists to come and display their work on the grounds of Stone Quarry Hill,” said Zaengle. “Stone Quarry was not to be a monument or museum of Dorothy’s work; it was and remains an invitation to visiting artists and the visiting public. It was important to Dorothy and Bob that the land be open to the public.”

Zaengle added that as a not-for-profit, SQAP continues the Riesters’ legacy.

“The organization chooses to continue to open the grounds to the public every day of the year on a pay-what-you-wish admission model because we believe in the importance of public access to art and the outdoors,” she said. “[We also] continue the Riester legacy of inviting artists to engage with the land through our visiting artist program. Visiting artists create temporary art on the grounds. The public benefits by having access to art, and the program provides artists opportunities to experiment, test ideas, and work with new materials. The guide that RAMSA produced for Stone Quarry Art Park continues this idea of site-responsive, flexible spaces that can be activated and used in a myriad of ways by artists, by visitors, by staff.”

In 2014, Hilltop House and Studio, along with the Riesters’ original 23-acre property, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places for its significance as a highly intact example of a mid-twentieth-century modern house and artist studio.

According to the register, “The building exemplifies mid-century house design with its use of common, ready-made materials and prominent front-gable massing, large expanses of windows, and open interior plan. However, unlike a typical mid-century house, the building also incorporates elements of Dorothy Riester’s sculptural background and her desire to integrate nature into her art.”

In February 2021, the site was accepted into the HAHS program, which is a coalition of independent museums that were once the homes and working studios of American artists.

For more information on SQAP, visit sqhap.org.