The summer benefit auction--a festive community event--is the Work Center's major annual fundraiser. The event helps support the Winter Residency Program, which, for more than 30 years has brought twenty artists and writers to Provincetown for seven months of uninterrupted work from October through May. The resident fellows are provided with housing, studios and stipends during the crucial early years of their careers. Fellows have gone on to win every major national prize and honor for visual artists, poets and fiction writers, to publish books and exhibit in the nation's major galleries and museums. Many teach in colleges and universities, and have continued to make valuable contributions to FAWC's Summer Program of Workshops and to Provincetown's creative community.