Farm Celebrates Spring With Artist Fairy House Walk

When one thinks of places to view art, a farm does not typically come to mind. Dylan Vitale is hoping to change that as Celebrate Spring, an annual event held this Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. at Massaro Community Farm in Woodbridge, heads into its fifth year. The event features not only seedlings and farm products for sale, but also a vendor fair showcasing local artists and their work, as well as a fairy house walk that has become a way for artists of all ages and skill levels to be creative.

Vitale, a visual artist, has been involved with the farm for almost a decade. ​“When I bought a house,” he said, ​“I wanted to not only have my own garden, but get involved in some sort of CSA structure where I know where my food is coming from,” he said. 

He joined the Massaro Farm board five years ago and tried to figure out a way he could ​“plug in, in some sort of meaningful way, that wasn’t just showing up to meetings and giving my opinion.”

The festival was already in existence and included the seedling sale as well as a few vendors. Vitale saw it as ​“a bigger opportunity to bring a lot more artists into that space.” He came up with the fairy house idea as a way to get friends involved, asking as many as he could to participate. Over the years people ​“from 8 to 80” of all skill levels have joined in.

As someone employed in the world of fine art — Vitale currently is a museum technician at the Yale Center for British Art — he knows not everyone will have an opportunity to show their work in that realm. He is more than happy to offer artists another option.

“You want to make something? You’re in. You want to bring something you’ve been working on? Bring something to the farm,” he said.

In the first year, Vitale said, he got around 15 fairy houses, some of which now live permanently on the farm. He said it gets ​“a little bit bigger every year” with 25 entries last year. The number of vendors — including visual artists and makers — applying to participate has also increased, with around 30 involved this year. There will also be music by Shaki Presents, food trucks, and farm tours. 

“I want to create situations where people have an opportunity if not to sell something, to get their work seen,” he said. Several success stories have come out of the Celebrate Spring event with artists getting jobs, commissions, and work sold in local businesses. Though several established local artists contribute, Vitale emphasized that everyone is welcome. This year, members of a Girl Scout troop and a church group built houses. And if someone happens to want to sell their house, that’s okay; the farm does not take commission on it. Money from renting vending space goes to the farm, as does the selling of seedlings and farm products, ​“but this one is really designed for the arts community, to get their stuff out there,” Vitale said.

Vitale noted that there is a ​“void right now” of places where the average person can sign up and display their work. ​“Coffee shops, breweries, they all have a limited amount of time they can devote,” he added. ​“Even though this is a one-day event, we especially cater to people who have never done this before. Get a tent, get a table, come on out, and show what you have.” 

Vitale describes the vendors as representing a ​“really wide swath of different things you can see,” including 2D and 3D art, puppets, photography, clothing, and jewelry, as well as organic farm-to-table items. They are also expanding more into hosting nonprofits to come talk about their missions at the festival.

The 57-acre farm, nonprofit and certified organic, hosts many other events throughout the year including a dinner on the farm, workshops and classes, bee keeping, summer camp, after school programs, and lots of work opportunities that include volunteering and a youth employment program. 

“Building community is one of the founding principles of our farm, and that’s really the aspect of the farm I’m working on with this event,” said Vitale, ​“Creating a way for people to get to the farm, to learn about us, to realize that were a community farm, that this place exists for them.”

Vitale grew up in Milford and New Haven, attending Educational Center for the Arts and receiving a painting degree from Massachusetts College of Art. Some of his original artwork can be seen in the yearly flyers for the event, which he also puts on t‑shirts that he then sells at the event, with all proceeds going to the farm. He also sells his own t‑shirts at the event but ​“in the end all those proceeds go to the farm too, because I use it to pay for vegetables,” he added with a laugh. He also earned his master gardener’s certification during the pandemic shutdown. 

“If I’m not drawing pictures or at work, I’m in my garden growing stuff,” he said. 

In recent years he has paid more attention to ​“how the environment is treated, how our food is treated, and how important places like Massaro Community Farm are in teaching people that there are much more effective alternatives to how we treat our own environment.”

The farm brings Vitale’s interests in food, the environment, and art together. ​“My own mission is to add permanent sculpture to the farm,” he said. ​“I’m creating things that will live there for the lifespan of those objects. The only real limit is what people are willing to do. If someone comes to us with an idea of something they want to build on the farm we’re certainly willing to entertain it.”

Many local artists have contributed a fairy house to the event, including this reporter. I found my way there through Craig Gilbert, who told me back in 2021 that Vitale was looking for contributors. 

I started with the idea that I would use something I found in the natural world as a basis for the house. That idea fell apart quite literally when the piece of tree limb I was using broke into pieces, thanks to it already being a home for quite a few hungry bugs. With only four days left to get something together, I took a hammer to an already cracked clay pot and made an even bigger hole that could be a doorway to a colorfully painted fairy home adorned with small rocks and butterflies. 

I became hooked with the idea of creating something new with materials that I already had lying around. Over the next two years I made one fairy house with a chunk of a broken tree limb (that did not crumble!), and another with a basket and seashells, some that I had gathered myself and some from a friend’s thrift shop. 

Last year, my house was located on a longer stretch of the path near a field not far from houses by artists Zohra Rawling, Sara Zundra, and Gilbert. Over the course of the walk, houses dangle from tree branches, rest aside a babbling brook, and nestle between rocks. 

“I want them to sell,” said Vitale. ​“I want them to make the connections. Because I know that outside of this, I have limited opportunities, so they must as well.’

While noting that some of the art is fairy and fantasy themed, Vitale mentioned that the event tries to feature art one might not see elsewhere. ​“This is a place for people who may not even feel comfortable selling at the regular craft fairs they see,” he said. ​“Finding opportunities that are outside of the box, that’s what I’m trying to give.” 

If your interest in creating a piece of art happened to be piqued by this article, fear not: Vitale is working on another event for the fall, a Pumpkin and Scarecrow Festival. But check out this one first. The farm and the fairies are waiting to welcome you in. 

Celebrate Spring will be held at Massaro Community Farm in Woodbridge on Saturday, May 18 from 1 to 5 p.m., with a rain date for Sunday, May 19. For more information about the event including vending, other farm events, and the farm itself, please visit their website.