From Picassos to Pigs: A trip to Kykuit, Union Church, and Stone Barns June 28, 2004 | Archives As grade schoolers will take trips to Plymouth, The Junior Associates of MoMA set out yesterday to learn about our history, which begins in part at Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate and former home of one of the Museum’s founders, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. Our tour guides made us feel like VIPs as we ducked into “forbidden” rooms, like the grotto, and peeked behind curtains. We saw the underground galleries where Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller kept some of his modern art collection, including, curiously, a room of commissioned Picasso tapestries based on some of Picasso’s most famous works. We also strolled the numerous gardens and terraces in which Governor Rockefeller had deftly placed sculptures by Henry Moore, Louise Nevelson, and David Smith, among others. After getting a feel for what life would be like on the estate (a round of golf followed by lemonade or a martini on the porch overlooking the Hudson might be nice), as well as an in-depth history lesson of the philanthropy and artistic interests of the family, we headed off for Union Church to view the stain glass windows. But these aren’t just your typical windows. The rose window in the front of the Church was designed by Henri Matisse in honor of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, and was his last work. The other nine windows were unmistakably designed by Marc Chagall, and three of the windows are dedicated to the memory of John D. Rockefeller Jr., Michael Rockefeller, and Nelson Rockefeller. From there, we moved up the road a bit to the recently renovated Stone Barns, which has been in the Rockefeller family since the 1930s. To commemorate the life of Peggy Rockefeller, her husband David and their daughter, Peggy Dulany, decided to create a center that would demonstrate, teach and promote sustainable, community-based food production. The result is the Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, a nonprofit farm, educational center, and restaurant, namely Blue Hill, which uses resources from the farm and the Hudson Valley farmers. Like stepping out of an Edith Wharton novel and into an episode of The Simple Life, we hit the fields to learn about weeding geese, "the egg mobile," and what an artichoke looks like before it's on your plate. After visiting the pigs in the woods (who knew?), we got out of the dirt and back in touch with our NYC routes with a tour of the wine cellar. The day concluded with a cava reception, menu perusing, and a surprise (although we like to pretend that we coordinated it) visit by David Rockefeller, who thanked us all for coming. Our pleasure. Back To Blog Main Page   Past Entries 2007 Archives Back To Blog Main Page