The Fine Arts Work Center, in collaboration with other arts organizations around the country and abroad, hosts one-to-three-month Residencies in the summer and fall. Writers and visual artists are selected on the merit of their work by the collaborating organization. Apartments, with studio space for visual artists, are sponsored by the collaborating organization, which usually also provides the resident with a stipend to offset personal expenses. The Work Center provides time and space in which to work, and, perhaps most importantly, a community of like-minded peers with whom to share and discuss ideas, the very essence of collaboration. Collaborative residents are also given the opportunity to participate in the Summer Program workshops.
In the summer of 1994, the Ohio Arts Council sent its first two artists to be in residence at the Work Center for three months. Since that time, twenty-one Ohio artists and writers have had the opportunity to live, work, and exhibit at FAWC. This past summer poet Karen Craigo and visual artist Denise Burge lived and worked at the Work Center from June 2 through August 29, 2003. Both residents reported that their stay was extremely productive, and shared their work with the Summer Program community. Karen read to a full house from her manuscript Stone Songs, and Denise created a very whimsical exhibition of paintings and installation pieces created of fabric entitled "Your Mud is Alive!—Drawings and Quilts."
The Maryland Institute, College of Art has participated in the Collaborative Residency program for a number of years as well, sending one visual artist each year for a two-month period. The Maryland residents are also invited to show their work in the Hudson D. Walker Gallery; they traditionally kick off the Gallery’s summer season. In 2003, Maryland resident Karin Horlbeck exhibited digital image collages and video pieces inspired by her FAWC residency. In May 2004, Maryland resident Ormond White, an artist working with installation, painting, and
performance, will show his work at the Work Center.
The Copley Society of Boston awards a one-month residency for the month of September to a visual artist. In 2003, Copley resident Suzanne Ulrich used the time to prepare for an upcoming exhibition, creating collage pieces from scraps of stamps, letters, and remnants of her work
salvaged from a fire that destroyed her studio.
A new prize from Four Way Books includes a month-long residency at the Fine Arts Work Center. In May 2003, poets Susan Browne and Terri Ford shared the residency. Poet Pimone Triplett was the winner of the 2004 Four Way Books residency, and will be in residence at the Work Center in September 2004.
The HISK Foundation sent photographer, Wim Wauman, from Belgium for the month of September in 2002, and the Phoenix Charitable Foundation of Boston, which has been working with Cuban arts organizations and sent printmaker Sandra Ramos in 2002, both hope to again send international artists to the Work Center in 2004.
Residency recipients have described their time at the Work Center as invaluable, citing great artistic growth, unencumbered hours to focus on work, and creative inspiration, encouragement and a sense of validation from a community of kindred spirits as benefits of the program.
For more information about the Collaborative Residency Program, please contact Dorothy Antczak at 508-487-9960, ext. 103.
"This was the second September residency given to me by the Copley Society of Art, together with the Fine Arts Work Center. The only two times in my life that I have had entirely to myself. Truly a unique gift. I’ve been struggling to produce work and begin again since February 2003 when the building my studio was located in was completely destroyed by fire. I had maintained a studio there for 22 years and also stored all past and present work there, as well as all records of my work and slides. I have a new studio in Lynn and have been working away since April. After a week in Provincetown, I began on a new path with my collage, and then reassembled everything I did the first two weeks into a cohesive body of work. I have a show scheduled for April 2004 with Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in NYC, and I want to show this suite of works together. I’m so grateful for my time at the Fine Arts Work Center."
Suzanne Ulrich Copley Resident 2001, 2003
The Work Center continues to work with the GAEA Foundation, which selects artists, writers and musicians, often with an activist bent, for residencies at their property in Provincetown. GAEA Foundation residents in 2003 included Tana Hargest, Will Power, Alice Tuan, Margo Okazawa-Rey, Wendy Brawer Alison Cornyn, and Gwyn Kirk.
