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August 7–11, 2025 | Albuquerque → Quemado → Santa Fe, NM
Thresholds invite us to pause—to notice, to feel, to cross.
This retreat centers on that liminal space: the charged moment between stillness and movement, sky and earth, knowing and not knowing. Walter De Maria’sThe Lightning Field is more than a site—it’s a perceptual threshold. Designed to be experienced over 24 hours, it offers no spectacle on demand. Instead, it asks us to slow down and attune ourselves to subtle shifts: in light, in landscape, in self.
We’ll begin there—in the remote New Mexico desert—held by silence, sky, and the unknown. Then, we’ll spend the rest of the weekend in Santa Fe: unwinding, processing, and reflecting through loosely structured prompts, quiet wanderings, and shared conversation.
This retreat is for those drawn to art that unfolds over time, to landscapes that rearrange your interior, and to the radical act of standing still at the edge of something new.
Lightning is never guaranteed—but something is bound to strike.
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CONTENTS
New Mexico has long been a magnet for artists looking to reorient—away from spectacle, toward essence.
In the 1970s, land artists like Walter De Maria began shaping monumental works in remote environments, inviting viewers into a slower, embodied relationship with space and time. The Lightning Field was completed in 1977, after years of surveying, calculating, and installing. It remains one of the most iconic and inaccessible works of American land art: visible only in person, experienced only by those who stay overnight.
De Maria believed art should be encountered, not consumed. He designed the piece to unfold over hours, shifting with the light and sky, emphasizing duration and scale over instant comprehension.
This retreat carries that ethos forward—not to interpret the work, but to inhabit its rhythm. To ask: What becomes visible when we get quiet enough to see? What becomes possible when we linger?
Today’s creatives are up against a different kind of disconnection. It’s not just burnout—it’s a frayed attention span, a life mediated by screens, and a creeping sense that time is speeding up. We’re inundated with inspiration but starving for meaning. Even rest feels rushed. It’s rare to experience something without trying to document it, rare to be somewhere without needing to say what it means. Point of Contact is a deliberate disruption.
This retreat invites you to slow down your seeing, stretch your sense of time, and enter a state of presence that’s difficult to access in daily life. At the center of the experience is The Lightning Field—a work that can’t be streamed, summarized, or consumed. It asks for your attention. It gives you a horizon. The retreat unfolds across five days, moving from city to solitude to slowness.
We’ll begin in Albuquerque, journey west to Quemado to experience the Field, and close in Santa Fe with time to reflect, integrate, and expand. Along the way, we’ll engage with the practice of looking—really looking—as a form of contact: with landscape, with ourselves, with what matters.
This is not a retreat filled with programming. It’s spacious, contemplative, and quietly rigorous. Think: land art as teacher, long shadows, shared meals, unstructured afternoons, early mornings, and evenings to gather, share impressions, and ask questions that don’t have easy answers. Point of Contact is for artists, thinkers, and creative seekers who are craving more than just a break. It’s for those who sense something vital lives in the pause—and want to meet it.
Thursday, August 7 — ARRIVAL
→ Make your way to Albuquerque
→ Settle in and rest with your own lodging that night
Friday, August 8 — POINT OF CONTACT
→ We’ll meet for a group lunch in Albuquerque
→ Journey together to The Lightning Field
→ Overnight in the remote cabin with simple meals and wide skies
Saturday, August 9 — SHIFT & SETTLE
→ Morning departure from Quemado
→ Drive to Santa Fe & check in at El Rey Court
→ Free afternoon to rest, wander, or explore
Sunday, August 10 — INTEGRATE
→ Morning workshop to reflect & reconnect
→ Open afternoon for solo or small-group adventures
→ Final shared dinner to close the circle
Monday, August 11 — DEPARTURE
→ Breakfast & closing reflection
→ Early afternoon travel home
Presence & Duration
What does it mean to truly be somewhere? What shifts in perception happen when you stay long enough to notice? De Maria designed The Lightning Field to be experienced over 24 hours—through different light conditions, weather, and moods.
Perception & Perspective
How does an artwork shift when you move within it? What does scale do to our sense of self? How does distance—physical or emotional—alter meaning? From one vantage point, The Lightning Field seems flat; from another, the poles stretch infinitely.
Energy & Charge
How do we sense energy beyond what we can see? Even when lightning doesn’t strike, the field feels charged. This part of the retreat taps into subtle energies, attunement, and the unseen forces that shape experience.
Trace & Transformation
What do we take away from an experience we can’t document? How does something leave a mark without leaving a trace? De Maria restricted photography because The Lightning Field isn’t meant to be a captured object—it’s an experience.
You get a thrill from standing in the middle of nowhere...
If the idea of being surrounded by miles of open sky, silence, and steel rods electrifies you (metaphorically speaking), you’re in the right place.
You don’t need a five-star itinerary to have a five-star experience...
If you can find magic in the shifting light, the hush of the desert, and the unpredictability of inspiration—this is your kind of adventure.
You like your conversations deep and your silence deeper...
Small talk? Meh. You’re here for the big questions, the shared wonder, and the kind of stillness that makes room for new thoughts.
You get excited about nerdy art history tangents...
If you’ve ever gone down a Wikipedia rabbit hole on land art, minimalism, or the philosophy of space and time—welcome home.
You want to witness something you can’t quite explain...
Some things are best experienced, not described. If you live for those moments that leave you awestruck, we’ll see you there.