Part of the charm and very nature of Ojai’s unique Taft Gardens & Nature Preserve begins with the complex task of getting there, before the “being there” sinks in. It’s a complicated trek, involving an unmarked street off of Highway 150, a route with twists and a coded gate, before the road crosses a running creek which, when serious rain comes (as happened recently), passage is highly unwise.
Once you make your way into this remote locale in the Santa Ana Canyon, north of Ojai proper, it’s hard to deny that this is one of the more enchanted and inspiring pieces of real estate in the entire 805. Of course, “real estate” is a misleading term, for this curated acreage is taking the nature preserve seriously. Founded in 1981 along with the Conservation Endowment Fund by horticulture aficionado John Taft, the property has been available for tours, rentals, weddings, and peace of mind pilgrimages for visitors. The 264-acre gardens have taken on a fresh new twist only since 2020, with the addition of an integral art and artist residency program on the site.
For that, we can partly thank COVID.
Retracing the genesis of the residency program, after the pandemic hit, artist Cassandra C. Jones recalled “I was home, doom scrolling, my kids were home, my husband [Mikael Jorgensen, keyboardist with Wilco] was home. I had the idea [for the residency]. I’m like a fire hose of ideas, and I don’t always follow them all, but because I had nothing else to do, I went with it in the moment. I had the idea and literally sat down and wrote a proposal to start an artist residency.”…