the fields project Bringing Art and Agriculture Together
The Artists

About Us

In July 1998, at the 100th anniversary of the founding of Eagles’ Nest Art Colony, a group of living artists joined for the purpose of continuing the heritage of artistic expression embodied by the original Colony.

An account of the Eagle's Nest Camp - by Elizabeth Dickerson Palmer
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The Original Colony founded in 1898 by Lorado Taft, instructor at the Art Institute of Chicago and a group of artists seeking a place to take their families for the summer and at the same time create art in its many forms. Each summer they not only created their art, they shared it with the community of Oregon. The Oregon Public Library was designed by summer architects. The top floor of the Library is an art gallery where pieces from the many colony artists are displayed. Among these pieces is the maquette of Lorado Taft’s ‘The Blind’. “Blackhawk”, Taft’s concrete statue on the bluff overlooking the Rock River, the sculpture fountain in Mix Park, and the monument in front of the Court House are all part of the Eagles’ Nest Art Colony and Taft legacy.

In 1999, the first Fields Project included eight artists from across the US and Canada. An artist from Tucson, AZ., was the first to do a fields sculpture. Since then, there have been four to six field sculptures each year, two of those by area high schools. Eighty-one artists have participated over the last ten years and forty-one farm families have shared their homes with these artists. We are an all volunteer organization made up of artists, art lovers, farmers, business owners, educators and community leaders. In any given year it takes approximately one hundred volunteers to implement the Fields Project nine day event.

Continuing the Lorado Taft legacy, the Art Legacy program is placing 10 sculptures in 10 years in Oregon. The first sculpture was installed in 2005 and we have follwed with another installation each year. The Fields Project, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization with a 501C3 designation granted by the Internal Revenue Service. Contributions are tax deductible to the full extent allowed by law.

Oregon Illinois is a community of 4100 located on the banks of the Rock River where IL Rte 64 and IL Rte 2 meet ninety miles west of Chicago thirty-five miles south of Rockford and twenty miles north of the Dixon Exit off IL toll way 88 and seventy five miles southeast of Galena, IL. Ogle County covers 757 sq miles with a population of 50,511.
Copyright 2008 The Fields Project