Page 4 - BusinessWest September 18, 2023

We’re All Ears
Dave Wisseman says this year’s maze, seen at right from a drone, is designed to get people thinking about AI and all its implications.
4
SEPTEMBER 18, 2023
<< FEATURE >>
BusinessWest
At Mike’s
Maze, Visitors
Can Take
In the Big Picture
BY GEORGE O’BRIEN
[email protected]
“For us, the corn maze is such a huge part of our business that it made sense to slow down the other things in the fall and focus on making sure the maze is the best it can be.”
“Where art and agriculture come together.”
That’s how Dave Wisseman, the soon-to-be 10th-gen-
eration owner of Warner Farm in Sunderland, described the famous corn maze that has put this operation on the map.
And he’s right. The designs that are cut by a Bob- cat into the 10 acres of feed corn growing on one field at this gorgeous piece of land in the shadow of Mt. Sugarloaf certainly constitute art — whether the
resulting image is of Babe Ruth, the Mona Lisa, an homage to the country’s national parks, or this year’s creation: a nod, if one can call it that, to artificial intelligence.
Or at least the discussion about AI.
But there is more coming together with agriculture than art at what has become an institution in Western Mass. and a destination that draws people from the 413 and well beyond. Indeed, there are also large doses of tourism, entertainment, innovation, inspiration, culture, and education.
And a whole lot of entrepreneurship.