From the desk of Mary Jo Murphy, Executive Director

Greetings!

The wooden sign on the entrance to the farmhouse at Snow Farm reads 1820; the timber-framed center section is marked 1736 — a reminder that this is the oldest standing home in Williamsburg. Long before it became a creative campus, this land was an active dairy farm owned by the Snow and Clary families. Stone walls traced the fields, a spring fed into the pond, and red-painted barns dotted the landscape while cows grazed the hillside.

When the farm fields grew quiet over a century later, founder Jane Sinauer walked the property, absorbing its history and imagining new possibilities. She re-envisioned the barns and farmhouse not as relics of the past, but as places where creativity and handicraft could flourish once again. Rustic interiors became working studios. Barn doors opened to light-filled spaces with long views. The hum of farm life gave way to the energy of artists at work.

Today, as you wander Snow Farm’s campus, you’ll notice traces of both our original history and Jane’s vision brought to life. Now in our fifth decade of operation, our histories have become intertwined, and subtle signs of Snow Farm’s creative endeavors are now imprinted across the landscape. Small drawings of creatures are tucked into beams in the 2D studio. A welded metal robot sits watchfully in a tree. Handcrafted glass trinkets hang in the windows of the flameworking studio. Along a stone wall, metal letters spell R-E-M-E-M-B-E-R. These pieces — left intentionally and sometimes spontaneously — are gifts from those who came before, small markers of joy and connection for the next visitor to discover.

Community mattered here in 1736. It mattered when the barns were filled with hay and cows. And it matters just as deeply today. For decades, this campus has welcomed people from near and far to learn, create, and share in the experience of making something by hand.

We invite you to step into one of our red barn studios, take a workshop, and become part of the story. Your memory is waiting to be made.