Joan Englemeyer, the force behind City Art Farm, is easily one of the most creative people I have ever encountered. Everywhere you look on her three lot property this artistic drive is expressed; a giant goat sculpture waiting for the Rainier Heritage Parade, lyrical paintings of Somali women on her classroom and studio wall, lush plantings of edibles and flowers and a chicken coop that looks more like a cozy hobbit hole than a poultry home.
On a recent visit I found her in her goat shed getting ready to shear her three mini Angora – Pygora goats. “Each goat is sheared twice a year and I get about 5 balls of yarn per goat. You can see why yarn is so expensive!” said Joan running her hands over the silvery locks of a gentle goat aptly named Pearl.
In her fourth year of running the Farm Joan has few regrets, she would like to paint more but she feels very lucky to have a job where working with kids, searching Goodwill for interesting art supplies and tending her goats is part of her normal day. She runs three sessions of after school classes then has a summer camp that gets started after the fourth of July. “I have high expectations and I treat kids as if they are capable of doing things” said Joan with pride in her voice as she showed me a perfectly stretched canvas prepared by an eight year old student for an up coming painting class.
Summer classes are filling up fast so get your child registered now! For all of you adults wanting to learn felting, urban ag and some of the other myriad skills that Joan can teach you don’t despair – next fall she is hoping to add in more workshops and classes for adults.
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