Research

Toward an Art and
Science of Wholeness

2012 Living Questions Research Symposium

September 20-23

Color Wheel, Goethe

Every day we confront intractable problems on a world scale, problems that seem to defy solution. There is no shortage of ideas to address these problems; ideas and counter-ideas abound. But what is really needed, a new way of thinking, remains elusive. How can we expand our perception of the world, our conception of knowledge, and our capacity to act upon our knowledge? We must develop a science that accounts for the realms of life, soul and spirit, and the material world. We must cultivate both the Artist and the Scientist that lives in each of us.

Join us in a working conference where we will share in one another’s efforts to wake up to the realms of existence where solutions to today’s most pressing problems are to be found.

Keynote Speakers

Craig Holdrege
Co-founder and director of The Nature Institute, Ghent, NY.

Robert Karp
Executive Director, The Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Association.

Michael Howard
Artist and educator, Living Form Studio.

Malcolm Gardner
Translator and editor.

Research Perspectives

Sponsored by the Henry Barnes Fund, individuals representing a broad range of research intiatives will present and discuss their work.

Community Labs

Hands-on discussions with representatives of Threefold Community institutions – Eurythmy Spring Valley, the Fiber Craft Studio, the Fellowship Community, the Pfeiffer Center, and others – will demonstrate the research basis of their daily work.

Conversation Groups
and Open Space Sessions

Ample opportunities will be presented for participants to share their questions and perspectives.

A Pathway to Living Knowledge

Following the Symposium, Craig and Henrike Holdrege of the Nature Institute will present A Pathway to Living Knowledge, a one-week course focusing on the nature of phenomenological inquiry.

Dandelion Study II, Nicole Wessels

Watch This Space!

More details about the conference, and registration information, will appear here as soon as it is available.

The symposium is being supported in part by the Henry Barnes Fund for Anthroposophical Research, which is administered by the North American Collegium of the School for Spiritual Science.

Grants are available through the Henry Barnes Fund for researchers wishing to present at the Symposium. To learn more about this opportunity, please write to research@threefold.org or call 845-352-5020 x18.

A Research Manifesto

At the 1924 Christmas Foundation Conference, Rudolf Steiner placed spiritual scientific research at the center of the work and mission of anthroposophy. In 1926, Threefold Farm in Spring Valley, New York, was founded as a living laboratory for spiritual science in social threefolding, biodynamic farming, and the arts. Our mission was codified in 1965, when the Threefold Educational Foundation was chartered by the State of New York Education Department “to establish, conduct, operate and maintain conferences, programs of research and adult education in all fields of human endeavor emphasizing the principles and methods enunciated by Rudolf Steiner.”

We recognize that research is not a luxury, it is a necessity—life itself depends on it. However, research, like any living thing, requires a convergence of essential elements in appropriate amounts. These elements include: qualified researchers carrying worthy questions; time and space in which to do research, and means for researchers to live on; and a social and physical setting that is supportive of the researchers’ work. In short, what is urgently needed is for qualified researchers to be paired with appropriate institutional, social and financial support.

Over the past year, Threefold Educational Center has consciously acted on its task as an anthroposophical institution, which is to create and foster the conditions necessary for spiritual scientific research to take place. A series of conferences hosted by Threefold have brought together interested parties from all over North America and Europe, in part to investigate and discuss the nature and meaning of such research in the past and going forward. A community of researchers and a constellation of questions have been identified. We have developed our physical facilities to create appropriate spaces for working, meeting, exhibiting and performing, a process that continues as new needs and opportunities arise.

A major step in this process was the creation in 2010 of the Threefold Researcher in Residence program. Our first Researcher in Residence, artist and geometrician Frank Chester, worked with a team of eleven research fellows at Threefold from September 19 to October 30. Their work culminated in an exhibition at Threefold Auditorium, “Art as Research and Scientific Inquiry as a Creative Act.” The exhibit’s opening coincided with a weekend Symposium on Anthroposophical Research, co-sponsored by the Collegium of the North American School of Spiritual Science and Threefold.

As the Threefold Researcher in Residence program takes shape and evolves, a continuous dialogue with the Collegium of the School of Spiritual Science is intended to ensure that our work harmonizes with the Collegium’s efforts in the same direction.