MONTICELLO, Ill. (WAND) - A seven-figure gift has been announced for Allerton Park and Retreat Center.
The gift from Joan and Peter Hood will go towards improvements in Allerton Park and Retreat Center’s Artisan Village. The donation will support programming and long-term facility care for The Farms: An Allerton Folk School, in addition to serving as a contingency to supplement initial construction costs.
Peter and Joan Hood
The Hoods, who live in Urbana, are longtime supporters of the University of Illinois, where they both worked.
The gift is in memory of Joan’s parents, Marjorie and Frank MacFarlane, for whom the village will be named.
“They loved education and the arts — visual and performing. They were real artisans in the true sense of the word,” said Joan Hood. Her father designed houses and was an organic gardener, while her mother loved painting, rug hooking and square dancing.
“They were just creative people and valued education highly, so when we learned about the Artisan Village, it seemed like the perfect thing to do,” she said.
The MacFarlane Artisan Village, located across from the park’s Visitor Center, already hosts many of the folk school’s courses in The Studio, a Robert Allerton original building that has been renovated to host a variety of classes, including those in fiber arts, painting, birding, natural sciences and more.
Additional buildings in the MAV will also be repurposed into classrooms, public restrooms, a crafting workshop and more.
Construction of an outdoor pavilion and a quad-style walkway between buildings are also included in the plans.
The gift from the Hoods is in the form of an endowment, meaning the principal will be invested and interest can be spent each year.
Although it will not fund major construction, Allerton Executive Director Derek Peterson said it will “get the ball rolling."
“It’s not going to pay for the major renovations and construction, but it will give us confidence to move forward and seek additional donors,” Peterson said.
The gift will also provide consistent funds to keep the folk school operating for years to come by supporting public programming and educational outreach for The Farms.
Peterson said the park has been repurposing structures into programming space for several years.
Copyright 2025 WAND TV. All rights reserved.
