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I left [my residency] forever changed, forever marked as a person. I left with the certainty that I am a writer, with a commitment to the creative life that I have never since questioned or doubted. I left understanding that separation and seclusion are essential in order to create, but also that life must necessarily surround us at all times, shaping and inspiring and even distracting us.
— Jhumpa Lahiri, author of The Namesake
Artists: Have you recently been in-residence? Doing a residency soon? We'd love to hear from you! We are collecting stories for our "work in progress" blog about artists' residency experiences -- challenges and triumphs, transformations and observations. Email us with your blog submission. Please include your name and the residency name.
Posted november 20, 2009 by madrono
One of the things that we hope will characterize Madroño Ranch: A Center for Writing and the Environment is a strong sense of place. It's right there, implicitly and explicitly, in our mission and vision statements.
But how does one develop a sense of place?
Posted december 16, 2009 by hollywren
I am thick into the world around me. By vocation I listen, I go where my curiosities take me, I embed all over the place. Yet so much of the work and life of a writer is solitary--a beautiful aloneness--and one which at its best breeds both a secret life, and words that serve the needs and desires of readers. Just as important to the process is the occasional company of others who are similarly engaged. It is at the intersection of these values--amidst the quiet and the conviviality--that I am most able to recognize what I have to say and how I will say it. For me, it is not an overstatement to insist that an artist residency is a sort of Shangri-La--one which I can get to from here.
Posted october 24, 2009 by caitlin
I know this has been a time of uncertainty and struggle for so many organizations, and yet as I visit art schools and residency programs, funders and artists around the country, I am struck by the sense of possibility, and the opportunity to transform ourselves.
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