The Fine Arts Work Center was founded in 1968 by a now illustrious group of artists, writers and patrons, including Fritz Bultman, Salvatore and Josephine Del Deo, Alan Dugan, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Motherwell, Myron Stout, Jack Tworkov, and Hudson D. Walker. The founders envisioned a place in Provincetown, the country's oldest continuous arts colony, where young artists and writers could live and work together in the early phase of their careers. The founders believed that the freedom to pursue creative work within a community of peers was the best catalyst for artistic growth. The Work Center has dedicated itself to this mission for 40 years.

Today the Work Center is one of the most renowned residency programs in the country for emerging artists and writers. Each year the Visual Arts and Writing Committees, comprised of internationally recognized artists and writers, select twenty Fellows (ten visual artists and ten writers) from some 1,000 applications from around the world. The selection process is rigorous, and the Fellows are accepted entirely on the basis of work submitted.

For the seven-month period of October 1 to May 1, the selected painters, sculptors, installation artists, photographers, fiction writers and poets leave behind routine distractions to come and work on the tip of Cape Cod in our Fellowship program. The Fellows receive living and studio space, as well as a modest stipend; the only requisite is that they focus on their work while they are at the Center. Each year, writing Fellows have the opportunity to read from their work to the community and to publish their work in the Center's Shankpainter literary magazine. Visual artists are invited to exhibit their work at the Center's Hudson D. Walker Gallery.

Since the Work Center's founding, more than 800 Fellowships have been awarded. Fellows have made an enormous impact on American arts and letters, publishing hundreds of books of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, and exhibiting sculptures and paintings in countless museums and galleries worldwide. Past Fellows have won virtually every major national award in their respective fields including the Pulitzer, MacArthur, Whiting, Pollock-Krasner, Tiffany, Prix de Rome, Guggenheim, NEA, and National Book Award.

THE SUMMER WORKSHOP PROGRAM

The faculty and location have established the Work Center's summer courses in creative writing and visual arts as among the nation's finest and most attractive. The faculty includes some of the most respected and renowned artists and writers working today, and the program's location in America's oldest continuous arts colony is ideal. Each summer 600-700 adults seize the opportunity to study with a faculty of master artists and writers. The Summer Workshop Program has been accredited by American University, Lesley University and Maine College of Art in Portland. Revenues from this stellar program help support the Fellowships.

OTHER RESIDENCY PROGRAMS

The popular Returning Residency Program encourages former Fellows to return to Provincetown by offering apartments and studios at discount rates during a number of weeks in the Spring and Fall. This is a great opportunity for former Fellows to escape energy-sapping routines, recharge their creative batteries and, once again, live and work surrounded by other artists and writers. All Returning Residencies are offered on a first-come, first-served basis, and are subject to space and time availability.

The Long-Term Residency Program for former Fellows extends the opportunity to live in Provincetown for up to three years at below-market rents. Five new live/work spaces at the Meadow Road development on Bradford Street are offered to former Fellows (for up to three years) who meet the affordable rental guidelines; each unit is approximately 1,000-square feet with separate studio space.

In collaboration with other arts organizations around the country and abroad, the Fine Arts Work Center hosts one to three-month Collaborative Residencies in the Summer and Fall. Writers or visual artists are selected on the merit of their work by the collaborating organization. Apartments, studio space and stipends are sponsored by the collaborating organizations; the Work Center provides the space in which the sponsored artist can work and, perhaps most importantly, a community of like-minded peers with whom to this individual can share and discuss ideas, the very essence of collaboration.

The Ohio Arts Council, a collaborative residency partner since 1994, sends a writer and a visual artist for three months every summer. The Maryland Institute, College of Art sends one visual artist each year for a two-month period. For the past several years Four Way Books has sponsored one month-long residency for poets published by the press. The Copley Society of Boston, also a long-time collaborative partner, awards a one-month residency to a visual artist. The Gaea Foundation also works in collaboration with the Work Center, though its residents live off-site in a cottage on Commercial Street. Artists, writers, musicians and performers, usually with a political or activist bent, are given one- to two-month residencies and a stipend to live and work in Provincetown.

THE VISITING ARTISTS AND WRITERS SERIES

Since 1968 the Fine Arts Work Center has brought nationally recognized artists and writers to Provincetown for public lectures, readings and exhibitions. Each year thousands of people enjoy these presentations, which are free and open to the public. Recent visiting artists and writers include Galway Kinnell, Marge Piercy, Mark Doty, Paula Vogel, Robert Pinsky, Oscar Hijuelos, Jonathan Franzen, Richard Prince, Ha Jin, Marilynne Robinson, Denis Johnson, Mark Strand, Bill Jensen and many, many others.

MFA IN VISUAL ARTS

Since September 2005 the Massachusetts College of Art and Design ("MassArt") has collaborated with the Fine Arts Work Center to offer a low-residency Masters of Fine Arts program in Provincetown. Candidates selected by the Boston-based MassArt study and work in Provincetown at the Center during four 24-day residencies in September and May over the course of the two-year program. They are taught and evaluated by a faculty of prominent resident and visiting artists. During the periods between the Provincetown residencies, the students, many of whom are already pursuing careers in the arts, return home to work under the guidance of approved mentors who visit their studios once a month. On-line history and academic courses support an understanding of the historical and cultural context of contemporary work, including their own. At the conclusion of the program, candidates return to the Work Center for a final two-week residency in September to present their thesis shows, participate in thesis reviews, and submit their written theses.

COMMUNITY OUTREACH

The Work Center has initiated a partnership with Lower and Outer Cape public schools in a new "Fellows in the Schools Program" in which resident Fellows teach visual art and creative writing workshops in the local schools. Hundreds of students have participated in this program. Cape Cod educators also benefit from special scholarships offered through the Work Center. Local teachers who attend week-long workshops in creative writing and the visual arts in the Summer Workshop Program.

THE LOCATION

The Fine Arts Work Center is located in an environment renowned for its beauty and artistic heritage. Surrounded by dunes and beaches now protected by the Cape Cod National Seashore, Provincetown was the Pilgrims' first port of landing in 1620. It developed into a colorful Portuguese fishing community and the nation's most enduring art colony. The Work Center is situated on Pearl Street near the commercial center of Provincetown on the site of the historic Days Lumberyard, where studios have been offered since 1914 to the likes of Charles Hawthorne, Ross Moffett, Hans Hofmann, Robert Motherwell, and Helen Frankenthaler.

Work Center facilities include 20 living units, 13 working studios, a state-of-the-art print shop, a woodworking shop, a darkroom, a student lounge, a computer center, an auditorium, an art gallery and administrative offices.

The first and second stages of the physical expansion of the Work Center were completed in 2005. Renovation of the main Days Lumberyard building is the centerpiece of the third and final phase of our Building for the Future capital campaign.

Through year-round events that involve local residents and attract thousands of visitors to Provincetown, the Fine Arts Work Center actively supports and participates in the cultural and economic growth of the community.