Artists and curators have long embraced the southwestern U.S. desert as the landscape equivalent of the sublime yet neutral “white cube.” This course addresses the history of land art and landscape-based institutions alongside current strategies for moving these practices into literal and metaphorical new territories. Lecture-based discussions and research assignments examine philosophical and political conceptions of “the rural” and specific models for curating, programming, community engagement and art making in a variety of rural contexts. Final projects investigate curatorial opportunities for display and intervention within the agricultural landscape of Vermont.