Millay Colony for the Arts

2012 Workshop Season Announced!

2012-01-26T10:58:00.001-08:00

The Millay Colony for the Arts offers four-day retreat workshops on Colony's sylvan setting. Each class includes twelve hours of workshop time, all meals, and ample time to work, ruminate and explore our lush natural surroundings. Private bedrooms and spacious private studios are available for all participants.

These workshops offer artists a chance to delve into their work, explore new ideas, meet extraordinary teaching artists and collaborate with others while spending intense work-time on our gorgeous campus. Fragrant with blueberries, thyme, and wildflowers, the quiet loveliness of our campus provides uninterrupted calm and inspiration—the perfect retreat for creativity and relaxation.

We also offer a program of Weekend Workshops at the lovely Trisha Brown Studio in Manhattan. These two-day/eight-hour workshops offer intenstive sessions with some of the most exciting teaching artists around. Lunch included both days.

New Writing with Carole Maso
May 30 to June 2 2012

Workshop Details Coming very soon!

Carole Maso is the author of ten books including the novels The Art Lover, AVA, The American Woman in the Chinese Hat and Defiance; prose poems, Aureole and Beauty is Convulsive; a book of essays, Break Every Rule; and a memoir, The Room Lit By Roses. She is Professor of Literary Arts at Brown University and she lives in the Hudson River Valley. She says of her work, "I believe my books, darkly imagined, deeply emotional, are no less accessible than others, and require only a certain faith and willingness to surrender in order to be entered. My desire is to create spacious fields of narration in which the reader might feel alive and vibrant and possible and free."

Generating Sound in Poetry with Tracie Morris
August 30 to September 2 2012

In this course we will explore the relationship between body, page and voice. At the end of the course students can present page-based or space-based work to the community.

We'll be doing physical exercises and writing. The workshop is not restricted to any one medium and a cross-disciplinary approach is welcomed.

Tracie Morris is an multidisciplinary poet, performer and scholar and works extensively as a sound artist, writer, bandleader and actor. Her installations have been presented at the Whitney Biennial, Ronald Feldman Gallery, the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning and the New Museum. She holds an MFA in poetry from Hunter College and a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University. Dr. Morris is an Associate Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute. Her poetry book, TDL: To Do w/ John (2012) is published by Zasterle Press. Rhyme Scheme, a longer poetic manuscript is published by Chax Press for publication in 2012. She is also developing two audio projects: The Tracie Morris Band and sharpmorris, a collaboration with composer Elliott Sharp.

During the months of April, May and June 2012 we will offer weekend workshops with Rachel Levitsky and Christian Hawkey, Frances Richard and Patricia Spears Jones at Trisha Brown Studio in NYC. Details coming soon...

For more information and to apply: http://www.millaycolony.org/workshops

Newsletter Online

2011-12-21T07:05:00.000-08:00

Carl Ferrero, "Mantra"

Just one of the images from Millay alum in the latest newsletter from the Colony. A few pics, a piece from Lexa Walsh about the Nina Katchadourian workshop, a new poem from alum Cathy Wager, other tidbits await your eyes.... http://www.millaycolony.org/newsletter

Winter Retreats for Artists and Collectives

2011-11-30T07:58:00.000-08:00

As our Residency season winds down and the last vegetables in the garden begin to fade, we are preparing for the cold crisp months ahead. A serious and cozy season when we invite artists to come a winter retreat of any length on our campus.

Enjoy a private bedroom and studio, access to our fully stocked kitchen & dining room, two libraries, a dark room, laundry, computers & printer, phone/fax and incredible grounds near ice-skating and cross-country skiing.

If you are an ALUMNI ARTIST...we would love to re-connect with you for a winter residency. You can come for two days, two weeks...whatever amount of time works for you. Any time between December 1 and March 28. For a small fee or a work exchange, you can have a private room, private studio and access to our kitchen, dining room, libraries and all public rooms.

If you are an ARTIST, but not an alum...you are most welcome. The terms are as above, but the fee/work exchange is slightly more. We are happy to accept guest artists and writers who need to prepare for an upcoming exhibit, publication deadline, or focus on their work. Acceptance is based solely at the discretion of the Colony administration, along with the number of weeks the guest artist can stay at the Colony.

If you are an Arts Group (theater company, small press, gallery staff, band, collaborative duo etc.)...you can have a pastoral retreat/think-tank/working vacation with all the trimmings at our dazzling Upstate New York campus. Up to Seven private bedrooms with double beds. Up to Seven private studios for work. Meeting and Dining Rooms. Possibility of Chef-prepared Dinners. This is rental by the night.

Whatever your needs, we can make your Colony retreat productive, inspiring and refreshing.

www.millaycolony.org/winter_shakers

Pre-Holiday Party in Prospect Heights!

2011-10-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

These are just a few of the pics from our last dapper holiday fest...

Come to our next!

Pre-Holiday Party in Prospect Heights

Saturday, November 5

Please join us to celebrate and honor the work of four wonderful arts organizations:

Fence and Fence Books

The Millay Colony for the Arts

The N+1 Foundation &

The Poetry Project

Party in a gorgeous Brooklyn Brownstone with a big backyard (heat lamps will keep us cozy). Enjoy food, wine, and good company.

7:00 to 8:00 - pre-party for Millay residents, alums, & friends.

8:00 to late - party with drinks and merry making for all.

381 Park Place #1, Brooklyn NY

Prospect Heights Neighborhood

Ph# 718-564-4516

B/Q to 7th Ave; 2/3 to Grand Army

Cave Canem Brings the Drama Benefit Performance Oct 24

2011-10-11T11:55:00.000-07:00

Here at the Millay Colony we adore Cave Canem in so many ways. Co-founder Cornelius Eady is a Millay alum, just for starters. As many of you know, we have a dedicated residency for a Cave Canem fellow every year. Well, we could go on, but would rather spend this time directing your attention to the benefit performance to support CC's incredible doings.

Here are the details:

a performance to benefit CAVE CANEM
directed by TED SOD
MAHOGANY L. BROWNE emcees

featuring:
... SUZZANNE DOUGLAS performing selections from FLED by MAY JOSEPH
*
TRACIE MORRIS performing selections from EXISTING CONDITIONS by CLAUDIA RANKINE and CASEY LLEWELLYN
*
LILI TAYLOR performing a monologue from STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN by JESSICA HAGEDORN
*
SAMANTHA MAURICE and JOHN DOUGLAS THOMPSON performing selections from BRUTAL IMAGINATION by CORNELIUS EADY

||| TICKETS |||
General Seating $40
VIP Tickets $125 - $500
Visit our website to purchase your tickets today!
http://www.cavecanempoets.org/benefit
||| PERFORMERS |||

Actress, singer, director and producer SUZZANNE DOUGLAS has appeared on Broadway in The Threepenny Opera, It’s a Grand Night for Singing, The Tap Dance Kid and Into the Woods. Off‐Broadway, she recently appeared in the premiere of Kara Lee Corthron’s Julius by Design. She has won two NAACP Image Awards for her performances in, respectively, Tap, alongside Sammy Davis, Jr. and Gregory Hines, and Regina Taylor’s play Crowns. She co‐starred with Robert Townsend in the Warner Brothers’ family sitcom The Parent ’Hood, and has appeared in several critically acclaimed television shows, including The Good Wife and NYPD Blue.

Currently appearing in productions of The Grasshopper Way and The Winterʹs Tale, SAMANTHA MAURICE has been acting since playing the role of Molly in Annie at age six. She is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and also studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London. Ms. Maurice recently performed as a dancer in Ray Bradbury’s musical 2116 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

TRACIE MORRIS is an interdisciplinary poet who has worked extensively as a sound artist, writer, actor, academic and multimedia performer. She is the author of the poetry collection Chap-T-her Won and five forthcoming projects: two books of creative writing, a collection of critical writing, and two recording projects—sharpmorris (with Elliott Sharp) and Introducing the Tracie Morris Band. She is Associate Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at Pratt Institute.

LILI TAYLOR has appeared in dozens of films since 1988, including Dogfight, Mystic Pizza and Rudy. She is well known for playing the lead role of Valerie Solanas in the 1996 film I Shot Andy Warhol and for her portrayal of Lisa Kimmel Fisher in the Emmy- and Golden Globe- winning HBO drama Six Feet Under. Ms. Taylor received the 2005 Best Actress award at the Copenhagen International Film Festival for her role in Factotum.

JOHN DOUGLAS THOMPSON has been called “one of the most compelling classical stage actors of his generation,”winning Obie and Lucille Lortel awards for his portrayal of Othello with Theater for a New Audience. He has performed in such modern classics as Cyrano de Bergerac on Broadway and Hedda Gabler at the New York Workshop Theater; and he played the lead role in Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones at the Irish Repertory Theater.

||| DIRECTOR |||

TED SOD's directorial credits include, among others, How To Be A Good Italian Daughter in Spite of Myself, (Cherry Lane Theatre); Blood Type: Ragu (Actors’ Playhouse/Capital Rep); By Jupiter (York Theatre Co.); Agnes of God; A Night In Tunisia; Talley’s Folly; Wit (George Street Playhouse) and Who Popped Poppi Chulo? and Scarlet Sees the Light for the New York City Fringe Festival. He is the librettist of the musicals The Cousins Grimm and 27, Rue de Fleurus; and produced, wrote and acted in Crocodile Tears, an independent feature. Other works written for the stage include Stealing, Damaged Goods, Salon, The Kiss, A Rude Awakening, Satan and Simon Desoto and The Lost Art of Conversation. He has acted in plays produced by The Public Theatre, The Culture Project, Second Stage, Playwrightsʹ
Horizons, American Place Theatre, BAM Theatre Company, the Circle, Seattle and Yale Repertory Companies, among others; and has appeared in the television series Bored To Death, Nurse Jackie, Ugly Betty, Law and Order, Law and Order: Criminal Intent and Law and Order: SVU. Mr. Sod is currently dramaturge for the education department at The Roundabout Theatre Company in New York City.

||| POETS & PLAYWRIGHTS |||

CORNELIUS EADY is the author of eight books of poetry, most recently Hardheaded Weather (Penguin, 2008). His Victims of the Latest Dance Craze received the 1985 Lamont Prize from the Academy of American Poets; Running Man, a jazz opera with a score by Diedre Murray and libretto by Eady, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama; and a production of Brutal Imagination won the 2002 Oppenheimer award for the best first play by an American playwright. With Toi Derricotte, he is co-founder of Cave Canem. He is Professor of English and the Miller Family Endowed Chair in Literature and Writing at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

JESSICA HAGEDORN's novels include Dream Jungle; The Gangster Of Love, nominated for the Irish Times International Fiction Prize; Dogeaters, nominated for a National Book Award; and Toxicology, forthcoming from Viking Penguin in 2011. Recent work in theatre includes the musical play Most Wanted, a collaboration with composer Mark Bennett and director Michael Greif; Fe in The Desert and Stairway to Heaven; and the stage adaptation of Dogeaters, which was presented at the NYSF/Public Theater, in Manila and elsewhere. Ms. Hagedorn is the Parsons Family University Professor of Creative Writing at Long Island University in Brooklyn.

MAY JOSEPH is a puppeteer, theater director and the founder of Harmattan Theater in New York City. The author of Nomadic Identities: The Performance of Citizenship (1999), she currently is completing a play, Fled, and a book on urban citizenship, Metro Lives: Performing the City. She is Professor of Global Studies in the Department of Social Science and Cultural Studies at Pratt Institute.

CASEY LLEWELLYN is a theater artist whose work interrogates identity and form. Excerpts of her play The Quiet Way have been presented as part of the Little Theatre series and Puppet BloK at Dixon Place. She has performed in and written for David Neumann's work at Barnard College and was seen last year at The Tank in All you need is one good idea, son, choreographed by Yve Laris Cohen.

CLAUDIA RANKINE has published four collections of poetry, most recently Don’t Let Me Be Lonely. Her plays include the revelatory Provenance of Beauty: A South Bronx Travelogue, called an “elegant meditation on a pocket of the city you might never think of exploring with guidebook in hand” by The New York Times’ Charles Isherwood; and Existing Conditions (with Casey Llewellyn), a full-length work exploring race, gender and nation building. A recipient of the Cleveland State Poetry Prize and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Lannan Foundation and elsewhere, she is the Henry G. Lee Professor of English at Pomona College.

||| EMCEE |||

Cave Canem fellow MAHOGANY L. BROWNE is the author of several books, including Swag and Dear Twitter: Love Letters Hashed Out On‐line. She has released five LPs, is the co‐founder of the Off Broadway poetry production Jam On It, and co‐producer of New York City’s SoundBites Poetry Festival. She is an Urban Word New York City mentor; publisher of Penmanship Books, a small press for performance artists; a freelance journalist; and host and curator of Friday Night Slam at New York City’s Nuyorican Poets Cafe.See More

http://www.cavecanempoets.org/benefit

Reading & Wine-tasting at Poets House in NYC to Benefit The Millay Colony

2011-10-04T09:10:00.000-07:00

Cathy Wagner & Timothy Donnelly
read new work

followed by a wine reception featuring
the best wines of Fall with delicious food to complement

October 6, 6 PM
Poets House
10 River Terrace, New York City
Tickets $10 - fully tax deductible

Catherine Wagner's published collections include Miss America, Macular Hole and My New Job (Fence Books) and a dozen chapbooks, including Everyone in the Room is a Representative of the World at Large (Bonfire Press). She has also edited the anthology Not for Mothers Only (Fence Books). She is an Associate Professor of English at Miami University, Ohio.

Timothy Donnelly is the author of two books of poetry, Twenty-seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebenszeit, and The Cloud Corporation. He earned a BA from the Johns Hopkins University, an MFA from Columbia University, and a PhD from Princeton University. Donnelly is an assistant professor and director of undergraduate creative writing at Columbia University. He is also the poetry editor for Boston Review.

http://www.millaycolony.org/alumni_artists_group

The House that Edna Built

2011-09-15T13:28:00.000-07:00

DEADLINE EXTENDED to October 1

2011-09-09T10:42:00.000-07:00

Due to Hurricane Irene issues in NY State. We're fine, but many potential applicants are flooded and requesting extra time. Blessings to them and to all applicants!

www.millaycolony.org/apply

Jonathan Skinner returns to The Millay Colony for the Arts

2011-09-06T12:37:00.001-07:00

Hello all you many, you brave and brash readers of this blog,

We want to let you know that ecopoetician Jonathan Skinner will be back at The Millay Colony for the Arts this September. Last year's workshop was a tour de force. Jonathan arrived with some 100 books ranging from critical theory to field guides. The class had its own library and, when not reading and talking, spent a lot of time in the 100s of acres of woods, meadows, streams, crests and valleys near The Millay Colony listening, watching and generating.

Join us this year for Jonathan's class in all its lushness, sagesse and brilliance...

Listening Sounding Writing: An Ecopoetics Workshop with Jonathan Skinner

September 29 to October 2

"We'll meet outdoors, approach local soundscapes, translate bird and insect song, walk with our ears, and write out of deep listening. We'll track sounds with Ak'abal, Eigner, Howe, Johnson, Khelbnikov, MacLow, Neidecker, O'Sullivan, Patton, Vicuna and many others. In addition to poems (new or renewed) we'll try our hand at field recordings and scoring/writing sound walks."

This workshop includes 12 hours of class time, all meals (made from fresh organic produce) and a private bedroom and studio if desired. For a full workshop description and bio of Jonathan Skinner, visit www.millaycolony.org/workshops.

Hope you can join us! JS is incredible and we have an amazing natural laboratory to work with/in.

Millay Colony for the Arts Offers 2nd Annual Cave Canem Residency

2011-09-06T09:18:00.000-07:00

Millay Colony for the Arts continues its collaboration with Cave Canem with the second annual CC Residency for the 2012 season. The Colony, which offers one-month residencies to six visual artists, writers and composers every month between April and November, has designated one of each year’s 48 coveted spots for a Cave Canem poet.

Founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady to remedy the under-representation and isolation of African American poets in MFA programs and writing workshops, Cave Canem is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.

“We’re pleased to partner with the Millay Colony for the Arts to establish an annual residency for a Cave Canem poet,” said Cave Canem Executive Director Alison Meyers. “Opportunities for writers to work uninterrupted in tranquil surroundings are rare—so this residency is a very welcome addition to our program of services.”

Caroline Crumpacker, Executive Director of the Millay Colony, agreed. “All of us at The Millay Colony are honored to be working with Cave Canem, a generous/generative organization that has added so much depth and intelligence to the conversation around and within contemporary poetry. We very much look forward to welcoming Cave Canem fellows to our Colony and, thereby, expanding the conversation that takes place here.”

The Colony offers comfortable private rooms, private studio spaces, and ample time to work in a quiet, pastoral atmosphere. The facilities are located on the property where the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay lived at the height of her literary career. The campus has seven-acres of meadows and forest in Austerlitz, New York, USA, adjacent to the former Millay home and gardens and the exquisite Harvey Mountain State Forest.

The Millay Colony provides food for breakfasts, lunches, and weekend dinners. On Monday through Friday evening meals are prepared by an excellent local chef. There is no obligation, however, to be present with the group at the prepared evening meal. We have a share in a nearby bio-dynamic farm and so the bulk of our food is local and farm-fresh.

To Apply:
Cave Canem Fellows will go through the juried application process. One Fellow is guaranteed a residency. The rest of the Cave Canem Fellows who’ve applied will also be considered for additional spots.

Online application submission for 2012 Residency Program. http://millaycolony.submishmash.com/submit

Application submissions via mail also available for 2012 season. http://www.millaycolony.org/apply

Cave Canem applicants should indicate their status as fellows in response to the application question, "How did you hear of Millay Colony?" Details and form are available on the website.

Domain Has Properly Propagated!

2011-08-18T06:52:00.000-07:00

Website is up and running and lively as usual. Application process back on track. All the information you need and the online forms are available.
www.millaycolony.org/apply

Website Up Shortly

2011-08-17T09:26:00.001-07:00

Quick post to note the temporary nap for our website. Lots of you wonderful artists are working on your applications and have been stymied by domain issues. Not to worry! All will be back online very soon...

New Residency Options and Deadline

2011-08-02T13:58:00.000-07:00

The Millay Colony for the Arts today announced three important new additions to its roster of artist residencies on its pastoral upstate New York/Berkshire area campus. While continuing to offer month-long residencies to visual artists, writers, and composers, the Millay Colony is now offering three new ways to spend time as a resident. "In our continuing efforts to meet the ever-evolving needs of the artistic community," says Executive Director Caroline Crumpacker, "we are now able to support artists who can't manage a full month away, but for whom a shorter residency could provide a tremendous boost. We also want to recognize the importance of collaborations and collectives to and within contemporary art-making."

The Two-Week Residency
In order to accommodate artists who cannot partake of a month-long residency, Millay is now offering two two-week sessions in the month of September only, for up to seven artists per session. These sessions function exactly as our popular longer sessions do, highlighted by private bedrooms, private studios, and all meals.

The Virtual Residency
This new residency is specifically for working artists and/or artists with children who cannot spend prolonged time away from home but could benefit from the support of a residency in modified form. The 'Virtual Resident' can participate in one of The Millay Colony's month-long residency on weekends only and will receive a stipend of $1,000 to assist in securing time off/childcare/art supplies or other resources necessary to the making of new work.

The Group Residency
The Millay Colony awards one five-day Group Residency each year to a group of between three and seven collaborating artists. This is available to any artists groups, including but not limited to musicians and bands, publishing collectives, theater and dance troupes, galleries, etc. -- or simply individuals collaborating on a project.

"Millay Colony's new residency formats demonstrate the Colony's responsiveness to the needs of today's artists," says Alliance of Artists Communities' executive director, Caitlin Strokosch. "Artists with young families and artists with a collective practice are particularly under-served by other resources and it is exciting to see residency programs developing creative solutions to these challenges."

The Millay Colony for the Arts is an artists' residency program and artists' center located on the extraordinary property of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay in Austerlitz, NY. Its mission is to nurture and promote the vitality of the arts by providing artists with a rural home that encourages intensity and exploration in the context of nurturing artistic community.

The deadline for 2012 residencies is September 15, 2011.

To apply for any of these residencies visit www.millaycolony.org/apply or for more information call Residency Director Calliope Nicholas at 518-392-3103

A Few Pictures from the Party...

2011-07-29T07:40:00.000-07:00

At ccSCOOP.

At Berkshire Eagle, by Susan Geller.

More to come!

Kevin Vaughn Innaugurates the Cave Canem Residency at Millay

2011-07-15T11:50:00.000-07:00

Photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

"My proposed project for my time at Millay is to further work on my debut collection of poems. In it, I appropriate the titles of the original series of "Star Trek" from the 1960s. I chose the titles for their poetic beauty, such as "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" and "Who Mourns for Adonais", but not out of any specific reference to the television program itself. However, when I arrive at Millay, I will have come directly from the University of Missouri's Greece Summer Seminars, where I will be studying literary translation and at work on the Polish National poet, Adam Mickiewicz's, "Crimean Sonnets". With hope, the two projects can cross-pollinate each other."

Kevin's publication credits include: Callaloo, Crab Orchard Review, and the anthologies "The Southern Poetry Anthology: Volume V: Georgia" ed. William Wright and "Killer Verse: Poems about Mayhem and Murder," eds. Kurt Brown and Howard Schlecter.

Millay Colony for the Arts has partnered with Cave Canem to support the development of African-American Poetry with the dedication of a residency to a CC poet. 2011 is the first of many to come.

PARTY! Come one, come all...

2011-07-13T05:44:00.000-07:00

July 23rd
5 to 8pm
BENEFIT
Artmaking is not a luxury.
Supporting it is fun!

For details and to buy tickets: www.millaycolony.org/events

June Goodness at the Colony

2011-06-15T13:09:00.000-07:00

From top: Dustin London, Liz Ainslie, flowers with bee, flowers with barn, Lydia Paar and friend

June residents are feasting on the surrounds here, as are the bees, birds, and our little four-legged mascot Chelsea. You can see her keeping writer Lydia Paar company. What haven in the hills for art is complete without an under-the-table muse?

Renowned Artist Nina Katchadourian to Lead Workshop at the Colony

2011-06-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

Family: Artmaking with Nina Katchadourian
June 30 to July 2 2011

This subject is something that is often (un)comfortably close at hand, rich with potential, and complicated to work with. The workshop aims to take an objective view of the topic on one hand, by looking at the work of artists (Janine Antoni, Patty Chang, Richard Billingham, Sally Mann, Gillian Wearing and Neil Goldberg among others) who have taken it up from a variety of proximities, but also to delve into the deeply subjective. This presents challenges: how do you allow an unknown viewer access to a story you are so close to? How do you prevent the personal from becoming solipsistic and self-indulgent? Working with this subject can obviously be personal, but it can also be a way to explore broader subjects concerning genealogy, history and origin, and the question of what it means to "be related" to someone in the first place.

The workshop is not restricted to any one medium and a cross-disciplinary approach is welcomed. Although not required, participants are encouraged to bring family documents that hold particular allure from them as possible starting points to work from.

Nina Katchadourian works in a wide variety of media including sculpture, photography, video and sound. Several times, she has worked with her family directly in collaboration (such as in "Accent Elimination," where she and her parents worked with a professional voice coach to acquire each other's accents) or other times by examining a family document in depth ("The Nightgown Pictures," based on a photo-document made by her grandmother about Katchadourian's mother). Other projects, such as "The Genealogy of the Supermarket," looks at the way family is portrayed through the images of people that appear on common grocery store products. Katchadourian was born in Stanford, California and grew up spending every summer on a small island in the Finnish archipelago, where she still spends part of each year. She is based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been exhibited domestically and internationally at places such as PS1/MoMA, MASS MoCA, Artists Space and SculptureCenter in New York, the Serpentine Gallery, London, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. In 2006 the Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs, New York exhibited a 10-year survey of her work and published an accompanying monograph entitled All Forms of Attraction. Katchadourian is represented by Sara Meltzer gallery in New York and Catharine Clark gallery in San Francisco. More information on Katchadourian's work can be found at http://www.ninakatchadourian.com/.

Save the Date!

2011-05-25T15:01:00.001-07:00

Our annual party on the gorgeous grounds of the Colony!

Last year, despite intense weather, we had our best party yet. The coolest art by Chris Kardambikis and Jasdeep Khaira hung from our buildings and tent, as well as adorned tabletops. Laura Silver hula hooped. We had wine and conversation, music and auctions. Open studios. Food. Poets. Writers. Artists of all stripes and those who love them.

This year we will have all the goods - plus ambient dancers in the mix! We think Edna sure knew what she was doing carving out this corner of the world for all sorts of reveling...

Color at the Colony

2011-05-20T08:48:00.000-07:00

Kate Vida was in residence here last month and used the grounds to amazing advantage. The sets were eye-popping, as you can see, as well as ear! Working in the office we could hear the occasional over-inflation of the props. We're really excited to see the video clips from this shoot and hope to share snippets soon. Meantime, gawk these pics!

Photos by Adam Baran

Kate Vida is an interdisciplinary artist based in Connecticut and New York City. Her wearable forms exaggerate and amplify relationships between what the body can do and what the forms enable (or deny) the body to attempt. She received her MFA from Yale University in Painting and her BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. She has performed at The Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven and Mass MoCA, North Adams. Vida recently apprenticed at The Budapest Puppet Theater in Budapest, Hungary where she learned traditional mask construction techniques.

Barn Swallow: Millay Newsletter Online

2011-04-27T09:29:00.001-07:00

Millay Colony for the Arts is at last fully digital! Well, our newsletter is. Lots of zeros and ones somehow magically provide the color, poems, details, and photos from doings at the Colony for your viewing pleasure. We're using a new online interface that simulates pages turning with the touch of the cursor. You can zoom in and all around then back out. It might take some getting used to, but it's easy once you get the hang of it!

Inside you'll find a personal essay from July resident Robert Glück, a write-up on our pilot program with Teachers & Writers (see photo below), application tips from two-time poetry juror Rachel Levitsky, and much more.

Teaching-Poet Adam Wiedewitsch in Germantown High School

Barn Swallow Issue 10 Winter/Spring 2011 is chock full. Check it out and let us know what you think. www.millaycolony.org/newsletter

2011 Residency Season Underway!

2011-04-20T11:02:00.001-07:00

The long winter seemingly has not left the hills here. No, not snow. But chill and fog and huddling over hot drinks are still with us. The signs of spring do show themselves. The robins poking the field for worms - there must be 30 of them at any one time - the mudded road, and oh, the residents! Artists and writers and music at the Colony. Creatures all foraging the lay of the campus for words, color, lines, and notes. (And coffee, of course.)

Tisa Bryant Workshop Retreat

2011-04-08T08:18:00.000-07:00

Try Anything: A Lab for New Writing
May 29 to June 2, 2011

According to the Oxford Dictionary, an experiment is defined as "an action of trying anything." To try to reproduce the mind's questions, the eye's scrutiny of place, relation, space, the meaning of being in the world, alive and feeling, may demand that we break rules, trespass borders, re-imagine the embodied voice, its language of signs and symbols. What does one do when such attempts at translating ourselves are not easily contained within a single genre, form or register? This class is lab for such questioning, regeneration and discovery. We will create new writing borne from the Millay environment, the bodies of your own poems, essays, fictions or plays, all inspired by various source texts, trunks of special junk and myriad cellular memories. We will make new writing that functions on a number of levels (or not at all!), by design, or by the nature of the beast. Throughout, we'll share our own attempts, findings, failures and intentions, and encourage deeper forays into creative possibility. Requirements: Bring some old, new, or in progress works, and try to give yourself over to fascination, obsession and different ways of doing.

Tisa Bryant is the author of Unexplained Presence (Leon Works, 2007), a collection of hybrid essays on black presences in film, literature and visual art. She is co-editor of the cross-referenced journal of narrative and storytelling possibility, The Encyclopedia Project, which produced Encyclopedia Vol. 2 F-K, in 2010. She is also co-editor of War Diaries, an anthology on black gay men’s desire and survival, published in 2010 by AIDS Project Los Angeles. Her work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in the journals 1913, Animal Shelter, Mandorla, Mixed Blood, in the ‘zine, Universal Remote: Meditations on the Absence of Michael Jackson, and the solo exhibits of visual artists Jaime Cortez, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, and filmmaker/installation artist Cauleen Smith. She teaches prose, hybrid forms and innovative ethnic literature at the California Institute of the Arts.

The Millay Colony for the Arts offers four-day retreat workshops on Colony's sylvan setting. Each class includes twelve hours of workshop time, all meals, and ample time to work, ruminate and explore our lush natural surroundings. Private bedrooms and spacious private studios are available for all participants.

These workshops offer artists a chance to delve into their work, explore new ideas, meet extraordinary teaching artists and collaborate with others while spending intense work-time on our gorgeous campus. Fragrant with blueberries, thyme, and wildflowers, the quiet loveliness of our campus provides uninterrupted calm and inspiration—the perfect retreat for creativity and relaxation.

For more information and to apply: http://www.millaycolony.org/workshops

Updated Deadline for 2012

2011-03-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

We know fall is a long way off. Oh don't we feel like spring isn't even here yet.
Regardless, it's time to let everyone know we've moved up our application deadline for 2012 residency season to September 15, 2011. This will help us get all our wonderful artists and juries and slides and colors and lines in conversation prior to the holidays. Yes, a V8 moment...

Mourning Akilah Oliver

2011-03-09T13:47:00.001-08:00

All of us at The Millay Colony are mourning Akilah Oliver. She was one of our poetry jurors this year and two years ago. We are grateful to her for this, as for we are for her poetry and her self.

http://www.litmuspress.org/oliver.html

Tabling at AWP

2011-02-01T07:26:00.000-08:00

Cara and Caroline so happy at the Millay table!

It's our plan to be in DC this week. Table I-13 in the bookfair. Amidst the journals and books and readings and signings and poets and memoirists and screenwriters and bookmarks and of course the snow. All that snow! If the USPS can go on, so will art.

Snow Art in the Berkshires

2011-01-05T11:06:00.000-08:00

New genre artist Sonja Hinrichsen descends in snowshoes on the rolling hills of Columbia County this January to make snow art in response to the landscape. The project will be open for the public to view and participate as Hinrichsen walks the “canvas” at the Columbia Land Conservancy managed property of the Ooms Conservation Area at Sutherland Pond.

Hinrichsen first conceived of the project while spending a winter in the Colorado Rockies photographing footprints and animal tracks in the snow. This led her to experiment with her own footprints as she was walking across large expanses of untouched surface area. “The snow became a giant canvas,” says Hinrichsen, “almost limitless, yet unforgiving of any execution flaws…my designs are required to be composed of one single uninterrupted line.”

Hinrichsen, a Millay Colony for the Arts alumna, will create each drawing as one single performance act, which can take anywhere between 20 minutes and several hours, depending on the size and density of each piece. Also varying is the length of time the art will survive. “At the time of its creation,” she says, “the duration of each piece is completely unpredictable. It can last as long as a few days or as short as a couple of hours only.” Hinrichsen doesn’t mind this. In fact, that is part of the appeal. “I like the ephemeral character of this work and how it defines the landscape during its short presence. I like that these works are reclaimed by nature within a short time, while they live on only in their photographic documentation.”

Sonja Hinrichsen received her MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute and two State Exams in visual art and media art from the Academy of Fine Art Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany. Sonja, who exhibits nationally and internationally in solo and group exhibitions, has received numerous awards and fellowships as well as 21 residencies in artist colonies around the world including her 2007 stay at the Millay Colony. During the length of this winter visit she will reside as a Winter Shaker at the Colony with additional snow works on the grounds available for viewing.

The 180-acre Ooms Conservation Area at Sutherland Pond contains a scenic pastoral landscape with spectacular panoramic views of rolling countryside and the Taconic Mountains. The property is owned by the Open Space Institute and managed by the Columbia Land Conservancy. Hinrichsen plans to create a series of snow drawings during her two week stay.

Directions to the Rock City Road parking area and entrance at http://www.clctrust.org/ooms.htm. For further information the public can contact Columbia Land Conservancy at 518-392-5252.

MINI RETREATS for Arts Groups

2010-12-01T09:19:00.000-08:00

The Millay Colony for the Arts Announces a New Program of
MINI RETREATS for Arts Groups

You already know The Millay Colony as a gorgeous pastoral residency program for individual artists. But you may never have thought about us as the perfect place for group-retreats. We have inaugurated an exciting new program offering retreats of between two days and two weeks to small arts groups all winter and in limited sessions throughout the year...

Your group (theater company, small press, gallery staff, band, collaborative duo...etc) can have a pastoral retreat/think-tank/working vacation with all the trimmings at our dazzling Upstate New York campus. This includes:

Up to Seven private bedrooms with double beds.
Up to Seven private studios for work.
Meeting and Dining Rooms.
A Fully Stocked Kitchen.
Wireless Internet, Computer, Printer, Copier, Fax Machine and General Supplies...
Possibility of Chef-prepared Dinners

Whatever your needs, we can make your Colony retreat productive, inspiring and refreshing.

www.millaycolony.org/winter_shakers

FRIENDS AND THE ARTS

2010-11-10T08:54:00.000-08:00

BEN STATZ AND KATY LEDERER
and The Board of the Millay Colony for the Arts
invite you to celebrate
FRIENDS AND THE ARTS

Wednesday, November 17th, 6:30PM
The Rouge Wine Bar, 99 Bank Street, NYC
Open bar and hors d'oeuvres

RSVPs and donations kindly requested at
http://www.millaycolony.org/invite
All donations will be matched up to $5,000.

Your attendance at the event and your contributions support residencies for artists at The Millay Colony for the Arts. We are a 501(c)3 registered non-profit serving writers, visual artists and composers and bringing artists into Upstate schools. To read more about us, peruse our Web site.

Warmest regards - and hope to see you there!

Ecopoetics Workshop with Jonathan Skinner

2010-10-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

October 30th to November 2nd
Ecopoetics after Copenhagen: Language, Form, Site with Jonathan Skinner

Jonathan Skinner leads a hands-on workshop in ecopoetics at The Millay Colony for the Arts. This retreat/class includes twelve hours of workshop time, all meals, and ample time to work, ruminate and explore our lush natural surroundings. Private bedrooms and spacious private studios are available for all participants.

...Join us and delve into your work, explore new ideas, meet an extraordinary teaching artist and collaborate with others while spending intense work-time on our gorgeous campus. Fragrant with blueberries, thyme, and wildflowers, the quiet loveliness of our campus provides uninterrupted calm and inspiration—the perfect retreat for creativity and relaxation.

Visit www.millaycolony.org/workshops for full details...

***

A field-based workshop, offering an introduction to environmental writing in relation to current poetic practice, in the post-Copenhagen moment. Setting our compass by key works of postmodern ecopoetics (Charles Olson, Gary Snyder, Lorine Niedecker, Larry Eigner, Ronald Johnson, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Ed Roberson, Cecilia Vicuña), let's hit the trail, charged with bringing our writing practice to the task of response.

In what ways do land art (Robert Smithson), research poetry (Juliana Spahr), conceptual writing (Kenneth Goldsmith) or mestizo poetics (Cecilia Vicuña) change our relation to place? When the very air we breathe is bought and sold, can poets reclaim the commons? How do we meaningfully respond, as poets, to disrupted urban environments, collapsing bee colonies, displaced communities, or the Pacific garbage patch?

This workshop sets out some of the tools for redefining language practice in the face of climate change and related global catastrophes, with a special emphasis on site-specific writing.

www.millaycolony.org/workshops

Millay Colony Application Deadline (and a bit about blogging too)

2010-09-15T08:18:00.000-07:00

Hi all,

I need to have a meta-moment here and note for the cyberspheric-record my reluctance to blog. Here I am blogging as an instrument of The Millay Colony for the Arts, and that is palatable. But, even though I enjoy reading blogs (as participant and as voyeuse both), I really resist the self-seducing lure of recording my thoughts in that beguiling netherworld betwixt personal missive and full-on publication. Who am I in this space and to whom am I responsible? I like to know those questions before I open my cyber-mouth. And yet, here I am. Because I want to let you all know that the Colony is exquisite in September. The vegetable gardens over-floweth with tomatoes, peppers, basil -- and the residents can pick and cook at their whim. When they are not working, and they generally are working. I love getting coffee in the Millay kitchen and hearing about break-throughs, new projects begun, old ones wrestled to completion...

...Lila Zemborain, Bob Gluck, Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich, Leslie Silver, Tisa Bryant, everyone ...our conversations in the kitchen, as I got my coffee in the morning, at the table as we ate dinner or drinking wine in the late summer meadows, were a big part of my year. I love hearing about your work, in your voice, in such casual environs....

...where, you may ask, oh reader of this post, is she headed, this blog-defying and yet blogging writer of this post? She is preparing to tell you that the deadline for applying to our little slice of paradise is fast approaching: October 1, 2010 is the deadline for sending in an application (online or by snail mail) for a one-month residency with all the trimmings at Millay...Yes! A lovely private bedroom! Yes! A huge private studio! Yes! All meals! Yes! A CSA from a local bio-dynamic farm! Yes! Acres and acres of loveliness! Yes! You will work hard! Yes! You will read and write and paint and sculpt and hybridize and compose and create and invite your soul and bike on bike trails and hike on hiking trails and pick fresh veggies and swim in swimming holes and hear and see and read great work. Yes! All that and more. So apply. If I can blog, you can go to www.millaycolony.org/apply We look forward to hearing from you. kisses, CC

Millay Colony Designates Cave Canem Residency

2010-09-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

Millay Colony for the Arts inaugurates a Cave Canem Residency beginning with the 2011 season. The Colony, which offers one-month residencies to six visual artists, writers and composers every month between April and November, has designated one of each year’s 48 coveted spots for a Cave Canem poet.

Founded in 1996 by poets Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady to remedy the under-representation and isolation of African American poets in MFA programs and writing workshops, Cave Canem is a home for the many voices of African American poetry and is committed to cultivating the artistic and professional growth of African American poets.

Application deadline October 1. Details available:

http://www.cavecanempoets.org/residencies-millay
http://www.millaycolony.org/apply

Alumni News

2010-09-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

From Alumni Composer in Residence Martin Hennessy:

"If you are free, please tune in (or log on) to WWFM 89.1 or copy and paste http://www.wwfm.org/listen.shtml on Monday September 13th from 8PM -10PM EDT for a broadcast of a recent All Hennessy program at Westminster Choir College. The recital features the world premiere of RUMINATIONS (poetry by William Bronk) and much more and features the wit and power of baritone, Elem Eley as well as the dazzling clarinet playing of Bruce Williamson with yours truly at the piano. Elem and I contribute interviews with host Bliss Michelson throughout the program."

October 1 Deadline Approaching

2010-08-25T09:58:00.000-07:00

No, summer isn't over. We promise. Still plenty of time to tuck your toes in the sand somewhere or value the shade of the nearest willow (or building). But time is, as it does, moving forward. We know you'll want to think about your work sample over weeks and not hours. Gather your thoughts for an artist statement in an inspired and organic fashion while pondering your project rather than rush in a furious manner the night before. Well, maybe you will anyway. (Oh don't we understand!)

Here's a gentle reminder nonetheless...October 1 deadline approaches.

Also, you can now apply online! http://www.millaycolony.org/apply has all the details.

Back to your regularly scheduled leisure (or workshift!).

Ronaldo Wilson Workshop!

2010-08-11T11:08:00.000-07:00

We loved having Ronaldo V. Wilson here for his Archives and Ephemera Poetry Workshop. Photos, poems, objects, lines, language, and wine. Poof! It's gone....

Summer Party Fun!

2010-07-30T12:51:00.001-07:00

Millay Colony on WAMC

2010-07-20T07:32:00.000-07:00

Listen in at 11am as Caroline Crumpacker, Calliope Nicholas, and composer in residence Jen Wang appear on WAMC's Roundtable. They will talk with host Joe Donohue about the Open House and Concert this Saturday. General Colony doings bound to figure in.

Live online at http://www.wamc.org/

Cavorting at the Colony: Open House and Concert

2010-07-14T10:10:00.001-07:00

JULY 24, 5 PM to 8 PM

Join us for our annual Open House and Concert on the lush grounds of the Colony. Composer Laura Andel will guest curate the music including Albany's own efbom. Artmakers Chris Kardambikis & Jasdeep Khaira will decorate the buildings and grounds! Fleisher's Grassfed and Organic Meats will cook up homemade sausages. Hudson Wine Merchants & Hudson-Chatham Winery will choose delicious spirits.

Open Studios!
Sale of art, books, cds!
Hula Hoop Dances!
Outrageously good food!
Music!
Incredible Wines and Hard Ciders!
Mind-Bending Art!
Fun under the stars...
Call 518-392-4144 to buy a ticket or for more info.

http://www.millaycolony.org/

Artmaking with Nina Katchadourian

2010-06-03T09:47:00.001-07:00

June 30th to July 3rd

Family: This subject is something that is often (un)comfortably close at hand, rich with potential, and complicated to work with. The workshop aims to take an objective view of the topic on one hand, by looking at the work of artists (Janine Antoni, Patty Chang, Richard Billingham, Sally Mann, Gillian Wearing and Neil Goldberg among others) who have taken it up from a variety of proximities, but also to delve into the deeply subjective. This presents challenges: how do you allow an unknown viewer access to a story you are so close to? How do you prevent the personal from becoming solipsistic and self-indulgent? Working with this subject can obviously be personal, but it can also be a way to explore broader subjects concerning genealogy, history and origin, and the question of what it means to "be related" to someone in the first place.

The workshop is not restricted to any one medium and a cross-disciplinary approach is welcomed. Although not required, participants are encouraged to bring family documents that hold particular allure from them as possible starting points to work from.

Nina Katchadourian works in a wide variety of media including sculpture, photography, video and sound. Several times, she has worked with her family directly in collaboration (such as in "Accent Elimination," where she and her parents worked with a professional voice coach to acquire each other's accents) or other times by examining a family document in depth ("The Nightgown Pictures," based on a photo-document made by her grandmother about Katchadourian's mother). Other projects, such as "The Genealogy of the Supermarket," looks at the way family is portrayed through the images of people that appear on common grocery store products. Katchadourian was born in Stanford, California and grew up spending every summer on a small island in the Finnish archipelago, where she still spends part of each year. She is based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been exhibited domestically and internationally at places such as PS1/MoMA, MASS MoCA, Artists Space and SculptureCenter in New York, the Serpentine Gallery, London, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. In 2006 the Tang Museum in Saratoga Springs, New York exhibited a 10-year survey of her work and published an accompanying monograph entitled All Forms of Attraction. Katchadourian is represented by Sara Meltzer gallery in New York and Catharine Clark gallery in San Francisco. More information on Katchadourian's work can be found at http://www.ninakatchadourian.com/.

Workshop Schedule: Each day begins with a fresh breakfast followed by a three- hour workshop at 10:00 AM. Total workshop time for the retreat will be twelve hours. The afternoon can be spent working in the studio, visiting local sites, swimming in a nearby lake or walking the mountain trails. Dinner is served overlooking our gorgeous meadows. Evening hours are devoted to worktime.

Fees: $600 includes tuition, private room, private studio and all meals. $375 includes tuition and meals only.

For more information check the website http://www.millaycolony.org/workshops or get in touch with Caroline Crumpacker at 518-392-4144 or director@millaycolony.org.

Ronaldo V. Wilson Poetry Workshop Retreat

2010-05-26T10:57:00.000-07:00

July 30th to August 2nd
Archives and Ephemera: A Poetry Workshop with Ronaldo Wilson

What materials might we bring into the realm of the poem? With what sources can we open the life of the mind into language that captures and reveals our imaginations, intentions, and explorations? An archive is defined as "a place or collection containing records, documents," "a long term storage area," and "a repository for stored memories or information," while ephemera is marked as a "short lived thing," and "printed matter of passing interest."

This workshop asks you to bring in and work from your archives and ephemera, ideally anything that can fit in a standard sized brief case or grocery bag, depending on your records, habits, findings, and tastes. Perhaps you have a small archive of photographs, news clippings, or journals you've been collecting? Or, maybe you have a series of loose notes, sketches, objects, or partial but striking drafts that you've left untouched and wish to revisit?

Throughout the week, you will focus on your own archives and ephemera as a means of generating a cycle of new poems. Students will work on in-class exercises, as well as discuss freshly drafted works. To further inspire our writing and conversation, we will look to poets who work with various modes of the archival and the ephemeral to include Cornelius Eady's Brutal Imagination, C.A. Conrad's Advanced Elvis Course, Harryette Mullen's Sleeping With the Dictionary, Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge's I Love Artists, Wayne Koestenbaum's Rhapsody of A Repeat Offender, and Meena Alexander's Quickly Changing River.

Ronaldo V. Wilson is the author of Narrative of the Life of the Brown Boy and the White Man, winner of the 2007 Cave Canem Poetry Prize (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008), and Poems of the Black Object (Futurepoem Books, 2009). He is a graduate of the PhD program in English at the CUNY Graduate Center, and NYU's Graduate Creative Writing Program. Wilson has won numerous fellowships to include the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center, Cave Canem, Kundiman, Djerassi, and Yaddo. A co-founder of the Black Took Collective, he teaches creative writing and African American poetics at Mount Holyoke College.

www.millaycolony.org/workshops

Save the Date - July 24

2010-05-19T09:01:00.000-07:00

Millay Colony's annual Open House and Concert happens this summer July 24. Details still forming, but you can be sure wine, music, art, and field flowers under the stars will be part of the soiree. This year guest composer Laura Andel will curate the music. Originally from Buenos Aires, Andel performs worldwide. She's also, of course!, a Millay alum....

MASS MoCA Memorial Weekend Concert

2010-05-06T11:17:00.000-07:00

Millay Colony neighbors MASS MoCA have a dynamite Memorial Day Weekend program coming up...Carolina Chocolate Drops in concert!

Spend the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend at MASS MoCA in North Adams! Erasing the gap between the 1930s and today, Carolina Chocolate Drops are a striking North Carolina trio who bring modern sizzle to the legacy of classic African American string bands with fiddles, banjos, and even kazoos. Concert starts at 8 PM, but come early for the opening of Petah Coyne: Everything that Rises Must Converge in the galleries from 5-7 PM. Tickets for both events available by calling 413 MoCA111 or visiting massmoca.org.

MASS MoCA exhibited Nina Katchadourian who will be leading a workshop retreat for Millay in June.

EDNA in the works

2010-04-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

Pictured is the inaugural issue of a journal of art made in residence at the Colony. We are receiving incredible work from 2009 residents for this next one. Pieces of score, poems, excerpts, collaborations, plays, book art, all sorts of provocative making will be represented!

Millay Colony goes to Denver!

2010-04-06T07:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, we too will be at the AWPalooza (thanks, Mark Nowak! - see Harriet). A table, photos, EDNAs, and the ever amazing Caroline Crumpacker with steadfast sidekick Cara Benson will grace the Bookfair. We'd love to see you in the actual world, so do come by!

Also, check out the Center for Book Arts table where there will be info on their upcoming Poetry Chapbook competition. Millay Colony has sweetened the deal with Winter Shaker residency time for the winner!

We will be posting photos and updates from Denver...

2010: Workshop Retreats Announced!

2010-03-30T09:12:00.000-07:00

The Millay Colony for the Arts offers four-day workshop retreats on the Colony's sylvan setting. Each class includes twelve hours of workshop time, all meals, and ample time to work, ruminate and explore our lush surroundings. Private bedrooms and spacious private studios are provided. Attendance is limited to six persons per workshop.

June 30 – July 3: Family: Artmaking with Nina Katchadourian

July 30 – August 2: Archives and Ephemera: Poetry with Ronaldo Wilson

Sept 30 – Oct 3: Weather as Muse: Video with Bernadine Mellis

Oct 30 – Nov 2: After Copenhagen: Ecopoetics with Jonathan Skinner

For full details and guidelines go to the website:

http://www.millaycolony.org/workshops

Winter

2010-03-05T07:23:00.000-08:00

I'm hoping that the Winter is treating you well. It's been a snowy, quiet time at the Colony lately, with only a few Winter guest artists here in recent weeks. Sarah Madsen and Tania Love are here now, and they fill the Colony with sweetness. Tonight Tomas Noel and a collaborator arrive for a few days...

I always use this time for programming, catching up on various organizational tasks, fundraising, hello-saying, general love-sending. This week has all about applying to the NEA for funding...I salute the NEA for adding artists' residencies to their programs. And for having the most helpful staff, even in the face of harried callers, like my good self, freaking out about not getting a DUNS number and other mind-numbing issues.

And, dear reader and grant-apply-er, please know that it is not the fault of any person who works at the Endowment that one must, in order to apply, register with myriad Web sites designed primarily for producers of industrial plastics and destined to fail at key moments in the application process. The government, that vast web of folks and sites, makes them do it...

In other news, one of our jurors (the lovely Deb Poe) took a snapshot of my puppy Chelseagirl Penelope Crumpacker, as she held forth at the Colony office.

Normally she is joined by Calliope's dogs Handsome Hugh and Pearl...here is Chelsea with Hugh last October...have no doubt, these two are the real brains of our operation...

Otherwise, we look forward to a glorious weekend in our Winter Wonderland.

If you are at all inspired to visit the Colony in all its pristine cool white loveliness, give us a call -- 518-392-4144 -- and we will happily show you around.

Looking forward to Spring at Millay, and to your visit, reader. Anytime.

Alumni Rachel Meuler Show in Brooklyn

2010-03-02T10:05:00.000-08:00

SUM OF THEIR PARTS new paintings
Thu 4 March Opening Reception 5-9pm

Through 25 March

RABBITHOLESTUDIO
33 Washington St, Bklyn, NY
718.852.1500

Workshop Retreat Schedule Firming Up

2010-02-26T12:02:00.000-08:00

We are busy setting the line-up for this year's workshop retreats and should be able to announce the list within a week. Last year featured painting with Jason Middlebrook, poetry with Tomás Urayoán Noel, poetry with Eleni Sikelianos, and critical writing with Frances Richard. This year? Details coming soon....

In another sphere

2010-02-02T11:22:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

This is the first time that I have ever written on a blog. I hereby enter the zone between intimate conversation and publication...hi hello and other greetings of the day and days.

I will be writing about all things residency-related, from my perch at The Millay Colony for the Arts.

You, reader, will come to know the characters that fill my days here: Warrior-baker Calliope Nicholas, Demoiselle of Letters, Cara Benson and, of course, my bouncy puppy Chelsea Penelope.

More soon -- I like this. I can say whatever I want.

xx, CC

Winter Shaker Report from Diane Simmons

2010-02-02T08:36:00.001-08:00

Back from a Winter Shaker week at Millay where I worked on pulling together a short story collection.
Back, I'm remembering--and I'm glad--that I have a job where I see lots of students, a house to live in, and a husband to talk to about all that goes on, a teen age daughter to worry about.
Still, all of these good things aren't writing, and I realize that the week at Millay allowed me to live my work all the time, not just for the 2-3 hours a day I manage to steal--if I'm lucky--in "real life."
I know I could never live the life of an artist full time; I need people to see and places to go. It's scary to be alone most of the time with your own head.
But the opportunity Millay offered does remind me of the difference between art and busy-ness, and I'm very grateful for that.

Diane blogs at http://freezeinthedark.blogspot.com/.

From Winter Shaker and Former Resident Patti Capaldi...

2010-01-13T11:55:00.000-08:00

"It’s been so wonderful to be here watching the various changes with snow and storms, etc. Not wanting to leave on Saturday. My 3 wk stay was extremely helpful and constructive in getting work done away from the city and holiday distraction.

"Back to teaching soon. Loved the poetry trail - I don’t recall walking 14 years ago!"

For more on Patti's work visit
http://www.nyfa.org/nyfa_artists_detail.asp?pid=1534

Winter Shakers at the Colony

2009-12-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

Time to come in from the cold. Make art. See a moose. Tromp the snowy pastures and raid the library. Writers, composers, visual artists visit for one to three weeks. Nothing like a winter bonfire to shift the paradigm of the possible. Stay tuned for reports from the field...

Holiday Party Report

2009-12-14T08:26:00.000-08:00

Oh my! Can you say packed? Complete with the requisite bed-top coat art, plentiful platters, smokers braving the ccccold, and much cheery chatter, the party was a full on blast.

2009-12-07T12:36:00.000-08:00

Caroline & I spent the weekend with the va jurors, intense, but good. Lots of excellent art out there!

Holiday Party this Saturday!

2009-12-07T09:09:00.000-08:00

Please join us in celebrating a wonderful year of literature and art!

Saturday, December 12

7-9PM: a celebration of the 2009 Fellows of the Millay Colony for the Arts
9PM-: general festivities hosted by the Millay Colony, Fence/FenceBooks, and Spectacular Books

381 Park Place, #1, Brooklyn
Between Underhill and Washington
B/Q 7th Ave; 2/3 Grand Army; 4/5 Franklin

Cocktails, beer, and hors d'oeuvres will be served

Hope to see you there!

Millay, Fence, & Spectacular

Katy Lederer+1 (718) 564-4516

Welcome to the Millay Colony!

2009-12-07T08:06:00.000-08:00

This is our inaugural blog post. Yes, at long last some tidbits pix and tips from the womb of the Colony...more to come!