Living Research at Threefold Educational Center

by Bill Day

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. Threefold’s 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 eighteen months, 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. The institution continues to develop its physical facilities to create appropriate spaces for working, meeting, exhibiting and performing, a process that evolves as new needs and opportunities arise.

Frank Chester (center) and colleagues at work in Threefold’s Red Barn Painting Studio.

A major step in this effort 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. Frank and his co-workers constructed a truly collaborative learning community: a common language (alchemical transformation), common content (forms arising from the platonic solids), and a common research protocol (the lawful working of the four elements through geometry).

The work of this team of researchers culminated in an exhibition at Threefold Auditorium, “Art as Research and Scientific Inquiry as a Creative Act.” The exhibition included sequences of geometric forms built in paper, clay, cardboard, Plexiglas, wood and various metals; photographs; spinning forms; models of interior planes; a journal examining the relationship of music to form and health; forms in edges dipped in soap solution; an alchemical explanation of the chemistry behind that soap solution; sculptures weaving the elements with human development through birth, death and resurrection; and a “geomation” short film made up of almost 2,000 still pictures. All the pieces on display were works in process, artifacts of each researcher’s line of inquiry that also offered a window onto the group process as a whole.

The exhibit’s opening on November 5 coincided with a symposium, co-sponsored by Threefold and the Collegium of the North American School of Spiritual Science, entitled “How Do I Research My Questions?” Presentations by physician Gerald Karnow, educator John Barnes, scientist Henrike Holdrege and eurythmist Dorothea Mier set the tone for a weekend of explorations into the nature and meaning of spiritual scientific research, starting at the level of each individual’s personal questions: How do individuals identify and begin to work on our life questions? Can pursuing this intimate, personal process help us develop a methodology for spiritual scientific research? How can we connect our personal quests with our responsibility to all of humanity, and to the cosmos?

Threefold’s Researcher in Residence program will continue in 2011 with a two-week fellowship led by Frank Chester and Dorothea Mier on the theme “Into the Center of Our Heart.” As in 2010, a dozen applicants will be selected to work and study with Frank and Dorothea at Threefold beginning in late September. The fellowship will culminate in a symposium that will provide rich and unusual opportunities to experience some of the results of the residency and further explore the themes in a social setting.

The 2010 Threefold Research Fellows (left to right): Seth Wulsin, Simeon Amstutz, James Steil, Hajak Baghboudrian, Lachlan Grey, Mariel Farlow, Marcus Macauley, Frank Chester, Mark Gardner, Jordan Walker, Daniel Wall, Vassag Baghboudarian

Frank Chester discussing a problem.

Frank Chester considers a question in geometric modeling with Lachlan Grey.

Visit www.threefold.org for more information about the Threefold Educ ational Foundation.