(Editor’s note: This article was originally published in June of 2018. It has since been updated with new estates.) The old song told us what Old MacDonald kept in his barn, but none thought to mention a Picasso among the livestock. Yet a growing number of landowners are cultivating contemporary art alongside cattle and crops, and in doing so, creating hybrid spaces that function as both productive greenspaces and cultural institutions. We’ve sought out some of the world’s most beautiful pastoral settings where art and agriculture coexist. Though often far from the usual cultural circuits, they reward the effort for serious devotees of contemporary art willing to make the trek.
Tippet Rise Art Center in Fishtail, Montana
Roughly two hours north of Yellowstone National Park and just a steep six-mile drive up the dirt road from the only other attraction in Fishtail, Montana—the Cowboy Bar and Supper Club—you’ll find Tippet Rise. It’s one of the newest contemporary art and sculpture centers in the U.S. Located on a still-working 10,260-acre sheep and cattle ranch that was once the private residence of Modernist landscape painter Isabelle Johnson, the farm opened to the public in 2016 after current owners Cathy Halstead, a painter herself, and her husband Peter, a classical pianist, purchased it. Along with herds of sheep and thickets of sagebrush bushes, seven monumental sculptures by big-name artists such as Alexander Calder, Mark di Suvero, Stephen Talasnik, Patrick Doherty and the design firm Ensamble Studio dot the land, all set against picturesque views of the snow-capped Rockies.
Kultivator in Färjestaden, Sweden
In the rural village of Dyestad on the island of Öland off the southeast coast of Sweden, Kultivator blends organic farming with visual art by initiating socially engaged projects with the help of visiting artists and the surrounding agricultural community. Founded by in 2005 by artists Mathieu Vrijman and Malin Lindmark Vrijman and farmers Maria Lindmark and Henric Stigeborn, the experimental co-op has developed nearly 40 exhibitions on topics like environmental sustainability and ethical food production. They’ve shown these creative and educational shows over the world, such as in “Partake, Ruminations on Art and the Culture of Food” in San Francisco in 2006 and the 2015 food and refugee workshop “Table of Plenty” held in Berlin. In Öland, Kultivator operates out of a dairy farm complete with two dozen cows, chickens, ducks, sheep and horses where more than 80 artists, researchers and farmers have visited over the years to create new work and collaborations.
Donum Estate in Sonoma, California
As California’s viticulture matured, wineries in Sonoma and Napa began to reimagine the estate as a space where hospitality and contemporary art could coexist. Donum Estate was among the first to pioneer this convergence in a deeply intentional way. In 2011, Danish entrepreneur Allan Warburg and his wife, Chinese-born art collector Mei Warburg, acquired the property and began transforming it into a site where contemporary sculpture and ecological stewardship would become inseparable from the wine experience. Today, more than 60 sculptures are installed across its hills, making it one of the largest accessible museum-grade private collections of outdoor sculpture in the world.
Quinta do Quetzal in Vidigueira, Portugal
Dutch art collectors and patrons Cees and Inge de Bruin fell in love with the idyllic Alentejo region of southwestern Portugal after their first visit 40 years ago. In 2006, they finally decided to put down some roots by starting their own vineyard on the microclimatized slopes of Vidigueira, where winemaking dates back to Roman times. Using a few of the ancient techniques passed down for centuries there, the estate now offers some of the best wines in the region while simultaneously presenting some of the most cutting-edge art in their extensive on-site gallery space from the family’s personal collection. Exhibitions change every few months and feature works ranging from emerging artists like Trisha Baga and Gareth Nyandoro, to more established names such as William Kentridge and Marlene Dumas.
Hauser & Wirth Somerset in Bruton, England
Nestled in the hedgerowed hills of the Somerset farming region in southwest England is the latest outpost of the internationally renowned, blue-chip mega dealer Hauser & Wirth. Iwan and Manuela Wirth, the Swiss husband and wife power duo behind the gallery, snapped up the 18th-century Durslade Farm in 2014, then in a state of disrepair after nearly a century of disuse. The existing compound comprised of a farmhouse, stable, cow sheds, piggery and threshing barn has now been transformed into exhibition galleries, offices, a bookshop and gift shop by the Paris studio, Laplace. Visitors can also dine at the gallery’s on-site restaurant, where an ever-evolving menu boasts charcuterie galore from animals raised right on the farm.
Paradise Ridge Winery in Santa Rosa, California
Since 1994, Paradise Ridge Winery has exhibited sculpture art in Marijke’s Grove, a love letter to 91-year-old founder Walter Byck’s late wife Marijke Hoenselaars. About a decade ago, the family began seriously hosting installations of the art Burning Man—large sculptural works made for the festival often end up on the grounds of the vineyard in exhibitions planned around them. In 2012, in partnership with the Voigt Family Sculpture Foundation, the winery organized a two-year exhibit called “The Spirit of the Man,” which included several works created at Burning Man. David Best’s Temple of Remembrance—made entirely of steel and crafted in nearby Geyserville—was part of that show and never left. “We decided to purchase it,” Rene Byck, Walter’s son, told Observer in 2023, noting that most of the winery’s artwork is for sale.
Château La Coste in Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, France
Located between Aix-En-Provence and the Luberon National Park, Château La Coste is a rolling 500-acre estate boasting biodynamic vineyards and a preternaturally lush garden of designer fruit, vegetables and roses. In and around the starchitect-designed buildings and luxe on-site hotel sit artworks by some of the most recognizable contemporary names from the last 100 years—Fernand Léger, Louise Bourgeois, Damien Hirst and Tracy Emin, just to name a few. The grounds continue to invite new works as well—each year an artist is invited to choose a place in La Coste’s provencal landscape that speaks to them to create a work that will live there permanently, becoming part of a two-hour-long wooded art walk that winds through the estate. There’s also art indoors at the vineyard. Damien Hirst took over the estate in 2024; there was also a show of works by California-born artist Joe Masler and French artist Claire Tabouret.
Castello di Ama in Tuscany
Nestled in the picturesque hills of Chianti, Tuscany, just under an hour from Siena, Castello di Ama is a love letter to the land, blending wine production and contemporary art into a seamless and intimate experience that captures the “genius loci”—the very essence of this storied place. Curator Philip Larratt-Smith, who has long been part of the estate’s journey, sums it up in the book Growing and Guarding as “a microcosm of time, history, nature, and art. It embodies a contained and intimate space where nothing is monumental, grandiose, or exaggerated. Everything blends harmoniously with the landscape.” The vineyard is a living art gallery, hosting a rotating selection of artworks and installations, including new commissions annually.
