Foundations For a Living Campus
An invitation to help establish the conditions for stewardship, participation, and community life for generations.
Who We Are
Orkestai Farm is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit based at Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay, NY, where people with and without disabilities, across ages and backgrounds, grow food, learn, create, cook, celebrate, and care for the land together. That commitment to shared experience remains central to the Living Campus as the community and range of activities continue to grow.
A Rare Opportunity
Since 2014, Orkestai’s work has grown through community partnerships, public trust, and patient cultivation. In 2026, a long-term agreement with New York State Parks opened a significant new chapter: the opportunity to establish the facilities, skilled team, and organizational strength needed for an enduring, public-serving campus. Realizing this vision will depend on the generosity, participation, and stewardship of the community, including you!
Rooted in a Remarkable Public Landscape
Orkestai’s Living Campus is taking shape within Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park, one of New York’s most remarkable public landscapes
In the midst of the cultural and economic vitality of western Long Island—and within reach of New York City—this land offers something increasingly rare: a protected, bucolic place where people can encounter soil, season, beauty, and one another in a more grounded way. Planting Fields is a conserved public land with its own history, ecology, and enduring value.
For Orkestai, being based here is both an extraordinary opportunity and a profound responsibility. The Living Campus is being conceived as a place where agriculture, learning, creativity, and community life deepen people's relationship with the land while respecting and strengthening the landscape that makes the work possible. Our ambition is to build in relationship with the sacred ground. Every element of the Living Campus contributes to thoughtful stewardship, meaningful use, and the long-term care of this protected landscape.
COMMUNITY
Gather
Belong
STEWARDSHIP
Participate
Care
FUTURE GENERATIONS
Grow
Discovery
Every season at Orkestai reveals the same truth: places become meaningful when they are cared for together.
A Place for Reconnection
It is increasingly easy to experience land as scenery, food as product, and community as something difficult to sustain.
Orkestai explores another possibility.
Here, agriculture becomes a shared practice of attention and care. The land is not simply something to look at or take from, but something to tend together. Children, people with special needs, families, elders, educators, and neighbors contribute to work that nourishes both human and ecological relationships.
The Foundational Stewardship Campaign
Under our Licensing Agreement, Orkestai is developing both infrastructure and the team to further our mission, supported by gifts from the community.
Three forms of capital work together to establish a living campus that can serve the community well into the future.
Campus Foundations
Physical Capital
The place that makes year-round participation possible
Core Utilities: Electrical Service & Year-Round Water
Program Pavilion with Teaching Kitchen
Year-Round Growing Spaces for Cultivation and Learning
Agricultural Support Building (Restroom, Office, Storage)
Accessible Paths, Parking & Outdoor Learning Spaces
Design, Engineering, Permitting, Project Management
Building the Living Campus in Phases
Launch & Long-Term Resilience
Organizational Capacity
Human Capital
The people who bring the campus to life
Staff Recruitment and Training
Program Leadership & Coordination
Competitive Compensation and Benefits
Development Capacity
Administration and Governance
Leadership Development & Succession
Institutional Capital
The resources that help the institution launch and endure.
Program Launch & Development
Equipment and Initial Operating Supplies
Campaign & Donor Stewardship
Accessibility & Visitor Experience
Operating Reserves and Maintenance
Strategic Opportunities
What This Makes Possible
Buildings can be constructed in a season. A living campus is cultivated over time.
Together, we have the opportunity to establish a place people will return to, contribute to, and grow with through every season of life.
Shared Purpose
Unlike many programs that organize people primarily by diagnosis or ability or other categories, Orkestai is built around shared purpose. People contribute in different ways, reflecting varied abilities, interests, and ways of learning, while caring together for land that nourishes people, supports biodiversity and neurodiversity, and connects us to the wider living world.
Across Generations
Children grow into mentors. Families return. New traditions take root. The Living Campus is designed not only for those who come today, but for those who will return, contribute, and carry its story forward.
Year-Round Participation
Year-round infrastructure allows seasonal programs to become a steady rhythm of learning, exploration, and shared experience. People can return regularly, build familiarity and confidence, and deepen their relationship with the land over time, while the work itself changes naturally with the seasons..
Expressive Agriculture
Expressive Agriculture invites people to encounter the land through farming, music, cooking, movement, craftsmanship, and celebration. What is grown here does not end at the harvest. It moves into meals, traditions, creative expression, gathering, and shared memory..In this sense, culture grows from agriculture. Caring for the land becomes not only productive work, but a source of creativity, connection, and meaning.
See The Vision at a Glance
While this website explores the Living Campus in depth, the poster below offers a one-page overview of the project and the essential elements that make it possible.
Continue the Conversation
Every meaningful partnership begins differently. Some people first experience the farm in person. Others begin with a conversation, a question, or an introduction. However you arrive, we’d welcome the opportunity to explore how you can help establish a Living Campus that will serve people, land, and community for years to come.
Questions, Ideas?
We’d love to hear from you.
Co-Founders, Co-Directors, Ex-Oficio
Joshua Marcus & Alethea Vasilas
Board of Directors
Bethany Kelsey (President)
Abby Cannon (Secretary)
Kieran Gibbons (Treasurer)
Dave Gugerty
Ashton Abbot
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