Harvest Moon Newsletter

Fall 2025

We’ve had full intentions of sending out more newsletters but the crazy busy summer got the best of us. We’ve held artist residencies and day camps and youth nights, visits from daycares and travelling tattoo artists and the Swan Lake Indigenous-Led and Community-Based Wetland Restoration Youth Program. We hosted the 24th Perennial Harvest Moon Festival, the EcoChallenge, along with classes from Brandon University, and all of the teachers in Prairie Spirit School Division were in town for a Professional Development Day.

As the seasons turn, we shift gears and start looking ahead. Change is upon us, bringing challenges and opportunities. If you’ve ever wanted to be an active member of the Harvest Moon Society, now is a great time to get involved. We’re about to embark on some strategic planning and are looking to add some new board members at our AGM in February. There are also some exciting employment opportunities with HMS developing. If you’re interested in learning more, send us an email at info@harvestmoonsociety.org.

The 24th Perennial Harvest Moon Festival

Thank you all for coming out to Clearwater once again and helping us celebrate rural life and culture. It was another amazing Festival and it wouldn’t happen without all of the volunteer hours that get put in by so many folks. From the organizing committee to the set-up crew and campground safety and traffic and those in the kitchen and ticket booth and the enviro crew and all the people involved in tear-down and clean-up and all the others I’m forgetting: we could not do it without you. Let’s not forget security and first aid an everybody involved in the workshops and the sound crew and everyone who made the Hootenanny Stage and kids area so fun. And the folks of Clearwater getting involved in so many ways. A giant thank you to all that you do to make the festival a success!

Time to start planning for the 25th! Mark your calendars: September 18-20, 2026.

EcoChallenge

The day before the Festival, the Harvest Moon Society hosts a day of land-based learning for grade 7 & 8 students from Prairie Spirit School Division. For this year’s event we had over 150 students from TGMS in Crystal City, Glenboro School, St. Claude School, and Prairie Mountain Elementary in Swan Lake at the Clearwater Sports Park and on the Lessons From the Land hiking trail. Over 40 volunteers including subject matter experts, group chaperones, and kitchen crew helped us put this day on and they all went above and beyond to ensure everyone had fun in the pouring rain!

We couldn’t have done it without our partners and sponsors at Covers & Co, Pembina Valley Watershed District (PVWD), Redboine Watershed District, and Border Agricultural Services Association (BASA).

Artist Residencies

We had a great summer of artist residencies at the Harvest Moon Learning Centre. Our Recent Graduate Residents Jessica Beaugrand and Mae Desmond visited in June, and then we had Canadian landscape painter Julie Himel visit us from Toronto for ten days in July. Julie really took to Clearwater, soaking up all of the colours and connections and community. She has promised she’s coming back and we can’t wait. You can see some of the work she produced during her visit here, here, here, and here. She also shared some thoughts and photos here.

In August we were visited by Julianna Biernacki, a rug tufter from Hamilton. Julianna knew she wanted to do a residency this year and she’d never been to Manitoba so she googled “Manitoba artist residency” and found us! We’re so glad she did. We learned so much about rug tufting as an art form and Julianna’s practice that looks at the intersection of different crafting styles. Julianna was here for three awesome weeks, leading a workshop at United Community Arts in Pilot Mound, and creating amazing art like this tufted rug book and this animation made from rug panels.

Our art-filled summer came to a close with a short pre-festival residency with Ella Korth, a singer-songwriter who splits time between Manitoba and Nashville. Ella was accompanied by Madeleine Roger and the two of them filled the halls of the HMLC with gorgeous tunes in the leadup to the festival. Ella has her first record, full of original tunes, coming soon so keep an eye out for that.

You can learn more about our residency program and view the art created at Harvest Moon by checking our our Artist Residency page.

Lauren & Jo-Lene

Lauren Treble has been our Land Based Learning Interpreter for the last six summers but, after receiving her education degree from Brandon University, is now a teacher. Lauren’s ability with the kids who have attended our daycamps and field trips is amazing and her students are going to be lucky to have such a great teacher. Our coming summers are going to look a lot different without Ms. Treble but she has developed a great framework for us to work from. She will be missed and we hope she visits often.

Another fixture around the halls and grounds of the Harvest Moon Learning Centre is Jo-Lene Gardiner. Jo-Lene has been involved with the organization for many, many years but has officially been on staff as our Education Liaison for the past six. Jo-Lene is stepping back from that position, though she’ll definitely still be around.

On a personal note, these two have taught me (Dustin) so much and I cannot thank them enough. They have been the heart & soul of the Harvest Moon Society for my five years here and I honestly don’t know what we’ll do without their creativity and knowledge. Thank you both so so much!

Land Based Learning Interpreter

So, we’re going to be looking for a new Land-Based Learning Interpreter (LBLI). This position’s main focus is on leading our summer youth programming. Lauren has built upon framework that was provided to her when she started to develop a solid curriculum of day camps and youth nights and our New Moon Kids Camp (a three-day daycamp for ages 7 to 11). We hope to work with our next LBLI to develop and execute a plan for next summer and are flexible in what the position looks like and how we approach it.

If you’re creative and organized, great with kids and knowledgeable about (or eager to learn about) environmental stewardship, sustainable food systems, and regenerative agriculture, we’d love to chat with you abut the possibilities.

We’d like the position to run 12 to 16 weeks (May through August), 35 to 40 hours/week, and start at $20/hour. We have accommodations in our dorm rooms or eco-cabins available for the right candidate.

If you or anyone you know might be interested, please reach out to our Coordinator and explore the possibilities.

Agrarian After Dark

Mark your calendars! We’ve set a date for the third iteration of Agrarian After Dark. On Saturday, January 17, 2026, we’re headed back to The Park Theatre for another evening of conversation and connection between farmers and eaters. We’re welcoming Manitoba Organics to our organizing committee that once again contains representatives from Harvest Moon, The Dogs Run Farm, Young Agrarians, and Fireweed Food Co-op, and we hope you’ll join us.

Save the date and follow AAD on Instagram to keep up-to-date on ticket sales and other info.