Vol. 41, No.1 Summer 2012
In this Issue
The Art of Adaptation Nan Goldin Named 2012 Medalist Success for the Second Century National Council Goes to Cuba
3 5 6 7
architects architects || composers | filmmakers | interdisciplinary artists | theatre | visual artists | writers
100 High Street Peterborough, NH 03458-2485
Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 11 Peterborough, NH
LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR
Pouring a New Foundation
Summer 2012 • MacDowell
Artists
2
Every once and a while, one gets to do something tangible that will have a lasting impact. Watching the foundation being poured at the site for the new library, I felt that way. Gifts to The Campaign for the Second Century not only made this wonderful project possible, but they also strengthened the foundation on which our residency program thrives: our endowment. David Macy, the Colony’s resident director, is overseeing the library project, which is generating all the excitement of a trip to the moon. The staff in New Hampshire got a thrill each time the horn went off to signal the dynamite blasting the ledge at the site. Meanwhile, artists-in-residence are having fun visiting the pigs that were introduced onto the property to prepare the land for a new meadow. A great team of people are working on the new building, and by next spring we will be celebrating the opening. There are many people to acknowledge for helping us to make our campaign fund-raising goal. They join all the
supporters who have helped since the Colony was started — those whose names are on studios, plaques, and Fellowships, and those whose names don’t reside on plaques but whose support has been so important in helping us to reach this point. In this issue of the Colony’s newsletter, we hail the completion of The Campaign for the Second Century thanks to your help, and share some of the latest work by MacDowell artists who continue to need our support more than ever. Last year, we received 2,569 applications and accepted about 10 percent of that. With each new round of applications, we see so much talent. Artists are bursting with creative ideas, and we try to identify the best and help them to bring their ideas to fruition. In the process of creating art, artists may start and abandon several ideas; experiment; adjust. Often, they are well trained in their discipline, and with the solid foundation provided by those that went before, they add their unique vision. It’s great to see this happening in the studios day in and day out, and I hope you enjoy reading about some of the recent work by MacDowell artists in these pages.
Cheryl A. Young Executive Director
Hayes Goes Solo at the Whitney Through her photography, video, sound, and installation work, interdisciplinary artist Sharon Hayes examines the intersection of politics, history, speech, and desire. Her current solo exhibition at New York City’s Whitney Museum of American Art, Sharon Hayes: There’s So Much I Want to Say to You, presents 10 new works specially commissioned by the Whitney alongside 10 of her existing works — all of which articulate forms of what the artist calls “speech acts.” Presented within a site-specific environment that is simultaneously a structure to contain the works on the Whitney’s third-floor galleries and a work itself, the show includes such things as a 100-foot-long curtain of text introducing the exhibition, a video installation of voice portraits, a new film Courtesy Photo
installation made in collaboration with 1960s feminist activist Kate Millett, and a live performance. The show is accompanied by a book that includes original contributions from Hayes and two dozen other writers, artists, and activists (including writer and MacDowell Fellow Lynne Tillman), as well as fliers, photographs, LP covers, and other materials related to the history of protest, political action, and speech. Hayes’s largest museum installation to date, There’s So Much I Want to Say to You will be on display at the Whitney through September 9th.
An Ear to the Sounds of Our History (’68), digital C-print, 2011, by Sharon Hayes.
The genesis of Undersong — a cycle of chamber compositions by composer Jason Eckardt that are performed consecutively, without pause, to form a CD-length super-composition — can be traced directly back to time he spent at MacDowell in 2010. “The conception of the cycle came to be as a result of my MacDowell residency — in particular, meeting the poet Laura Mullen,” says Eckardt. “I was not planning on creating a cycle, but then I met Laura. We were very sympathetic to one another’s aesthetics, and Laura shared a draft of The Distance (This), which, at that time, had ‘undersong’ in the title. The more I thought about the metaphorical implications of her poem and its relationship to my music, the richer it became. The shards that comprise much of the music’s surface also came to represent the ‘noise’ that often covers, distorts, or skews a simpler essence that lies below.” Part II of Eckardt’s Undersong, which was Jason Eckardt released by Mode Records in June, was used in another MacDowell Fellow’s work: Rosalind Solomon’s video piece A Woman I Once Knew. “These two projects would have never been realized without both the time and the creative atmosphere MacDowell provides, which foster artistic exchange,” says Eckardt.
New & Notable Projects Helène Aylon, visual artist Whatever Is Contained Must Be Released, memoir Julia Haslett, filmmaker An Encounter with Simone Weil, documentary L.M Kit Carson, filmmaker Africa Diary, documentary Courtesy Photo
David Lipten, composer Best Served Cold, CD Kevin Moffett, writer Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events, fiction
Leigh-Ann Pahapill, visual artist Likewise, as technical experts, but not (at all) by way of culture, exhibition
Raymond Martinot/ Courtesy of the Cornell Fine Arts Museum
When playwright Marilee Talkington came to MacDowell in 2010 to focus on a new experiential theatre piece called Sticky Time, she found a collaborator in composer Chao Jan Chang. “He did an open studio at MacDowell, at which he played an abstract piece he was working on, ‘Short Storm in a Forest,’” explains Talkington. “I was blown away by it, so I approached him and suggested that we work together. He ended up composing new pieces for me and constructing a library of haunting sounds that were weaved throughout the piece.” Part sci-fi and part philosophical journey, Sticky Time blends the styles of avant-garde multimedia art installations with narrative storytelling via an ensemble of actors, rich choreography, and 360-degree sound, set, and video design. “Half of my time [at MacDowell] was spent researching and educating myself on modern physics theories and ancient spiritual thought about the creation of time, its function, and our relationship to it,” says Talkington. “The rest of it was dedicated to designing, building, and testing the three-dimensional video projection workstation that would become the main production design element in the show. Because of my MacDowell residency, I was able to find time to concentrate solely on this project, and it paid off for me more than I ever Actor Rami Margron performs in Marilee Talkington’s Sticky Time, could have hoped.” which was produced at Crowded Fire Theater in San Francisco in November of 2011.
Roger King, writer Love and Fatigue in America, novel
Honor Molloy, writer Smarty Girl, novel
Marilee Talkington
Tina Psoinos
Artistic Alliances
Above left: Leigh-Ann Pahapill with her installation-inprogress, Likewise, as technical experts, but not (at all) by way of culture, which she worked on in Heinz Studio in 2011. Above right: An installation view of the exhibition on display at the Cornell Fine Arts Museum.
Quotable “The
sense of community at MacDowell is truly special. The most wonderful aspects of my residency were all the connections I made with other artists, and the new ways I learned to look at my own — and other artists’ — work. I also started a few collaborative projects that will expand my horizons beyond fiction.” —Writer Nawaaz Ahmed (pictured right), who completed the first draft of his first novel, Sings Like a Bird, while in residency in Kirby Studio in 2011. A partial draft of the book won the Hopgood Award from the University of Michigan last year.
The Art of Adaptation
An Enigmatic Encounter Featured on the cover of this issue of MacDowell, visual artist Michelle Jaffé’s sculpture and sound installation, Wappen Field, explores the use of armor to mask and shelter the body from interference. Comprised of 13 chrome-plated steel helmets suspended from the ceiling, the installation allows the viewer to place him/ herself within one of the helmets, each of which contains a speaker that produces an assortment of male and female vocal sounds. “Wappen Field is a participatory experience,” explains Jaffé, “where visitors are invited to perceive sound spatially, and where each element, woven together, amplifies the other. The vocal and sonic configuration explores facets of human experience; evokes dissonance, discord, and cacophony; and evolves to consonance, sympathy, and harmony in a way that imagines the collective unconscious as energy propelled between the yin and aesthetic in her work, which aims to question the relationship between archetypes and socio-cultural structures.
Above: A helmeted participant in Michelle Jaffé’s Wappen Field installation, which was exhibited at BOSI Contemporary in New York from July 8th–August 5th.
Summer 2012 • MacDowell
Above: Composer George Edwards in Irving Fine Studio in 1995.
George Edwards_Five-time MacDowell
Fellow and composer George Edwards passed away on October 23, 2011. After receiving an undergraduate degree from Oberlin College, he went on to earn an MFA in Music Composition at Princeton University, after which he was accepted as a composition fellow at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood. He taught music theory and composition at the New England Conservatory and was a lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1976, he joined the faculty of Columbia University, where he went on to become an associate professor of music in 1986 and vice chairman of the music department in 1989. He was named MacDowell Professor Emeritus of Music by the Committee on Education Policy of the Trustees of Columbia University in January of 2009. A member of the American Composers Alliance, he received many awards and honors during his career, including a Koussevitzky Music Foundation Award, a Rome Prize Fellowship, and a Naumburg Recording Award. He is survived by his wife, poet Rachel Hadas, whom he met at MacDowell in 1976, and a son. He was 68.
Panos Ghikas_Painter and teacher
Panos Ghikas died at the age of 95 on Feburary 19, 2012, in Cape Neddick, Maine. A graduate of the Yale School of Fine Arts, he was the recipient of a Fulbright fellowship and a Blanche Colman Award. A master gilder and egg tempura expert, he created a mural in gold leaf for the World Trade Center’s 110th-floor restaurant, Windows on the World. He taught at the Boston Museum School at the Massachusetts College of Art, and was also a professor at Harvard Carpenter Center, RISD, Bowdoin College, and George Washington University. Represented by Acme Fine Art in Boston, he had eight residencies at the Colony from 1956–1967. Memorial contributions were made in his name to MacDowell.
Katherine Russell Rich_Author
to encounter the sculptural environment as a cohesive fabric
yang impulses of the universe.” Jaffé employs a minimalist
3
Katherine Russell Rich died on April 3, 2012, in New York City. She was 56. She was best known for her courageous memoir The Red Devil: To Hell With Cancer — and Back (1999), which chronicled her protracted battle with breast cancer. She also wrote about her experience with cancer in such places as The New York Times and Oprah Magazine. Her second memoir about the time she spent living in India, Dreaming in Hindi: Coming Awake in Another Language, was published in 2009. She had a residency at MacDowell in 2007.
Remembering
Joyce Maynard’s first residency at MacDowell has borne similar cinematic fruit. Her novel Labor Day — which she wrote entirely in MacDowell’s Kirby Studio from July through September of 2008 — is being made into a film of the same name. Written and directed by Academy Award nominee Jason Reitman, the film will star Kate Winslet, Josh Brolin, and James Van Der Beek. Filming on Labor Day — a drama about a single mother and her son, who unwittingly offer assistance to an escaped convict — began in May in Massachusetts. Says Maynard of the time she spent at MacDowell: “Although I have worked as a writer full-time for 36 years, this was virtually the only time I have ever Above: Writer Joyce Maynard, who had her first artist known in which I was residency ever at MacDowell in 2008. Left: The cover able to set aside the of Maynard’s New York Times best-selling novel, responsibilities of family Labor Day. and earning a living to freely pursue the work I had dreamed of making.”
Michael Cook
Courtesy of William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins
Richard Foreman Jr., SMPSP
Above: Matt Bondurant in Chapman Studio in 2009. Right: Actors Jason Clarke, Tom Hardy, and Shia LeBeouf in Lawless.
Writer Matt Bondurant has enjoyed enormous success with his second novel, The Wettest Country in the World (Scribner, 2008), which was named a New York Times Editor’s Pick and one of San Francisco Chronicle’s Top 50 Books of the Year. It looks like Bondurant’s success will continue as this book — which is based on real-life accounts of his family’s exploits in the bootlegging business in Virginia in the 1920s and 1930s — begins its second life as a movie named Lawless. “The basics of this story are drawn from various family stories and anecdotes, newspaper headlines, and articles and court transcripts,” says Bondurant. “My intention was to reach the truth that lies beyond the poorly recorded and understood world of actualities.” Having premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the film — which stars Tom Hardy, Shia LaBeouf, Guy Pearce, and Gary Oldman — is set to premiere in theatres across the country on August 29th. While in residence at MacDowell in 2009, Bondurant worked on his third novel, The Night Swimmer, which was published by Scribner in January. He also worked on a collection of short stories.
New Artists Join the FEC MacDowell’s Fellows Executive Committee (FEC) held elections in March to
artists who have been in residence, the FEC serves as an advisory group to the
replace three outgoing members: composer Margaret Brouwer, visual artist
Colony. With first-hand knowledge of the MacDowell experience, the FEC works
Michelle Jaffé, and photographer Rachel Sussman. Chosen by their peers, the
to build and engage the community of Colony Fellows and provides feedback
newly elected members — visual artists Deric Carner and Barbara Gallucci,
and recommendations to the Colony’s staff and board of directors. To learn
and composer Caroline Mallonée — will serve three-year terms. Existing FEC
more about the FEC, log on to www.macdowellcolony.org/artists-fec.html or
member Nicolas Dumit Estevez was also named treasurer. Comprised of
e-mail the committee at fec@macdowellcolony.org.
ArTist Awards, Grants, and Fellowships
Pulitzer for Puts
Guggenheims for 15
Composer Kevin Puts was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in Music in April for his very first opera: a World War I epic titled Silent Night. Based on the Oscar-nominated 2005 French film Joyeux Nöel, the opera was described by Pulitzer representatives Left: 2012 Guggenheim fellow and documentary filmmaker Jane Gillooly in New Hampshire Studio. Above: Benjamin Taylor, author of a book of essays and two novels, received a 2012 Guggenheim in general nonfiction.
as “a stirring opera . . . displaying versatility of style and cutting straight to the heart.” Puts — who studied under another Pulitzer Prize-winning MacDowell composer, David Lang, at Yale — currently teaches composition at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University. He had a residency in MacDowell’s Watson Studio in 2005.
2012 USA Fellows
Other Awards, Grants, and Fellowships
For the past six years, United States Artists has honored 50 of America’s best artists with fellowship awards of $50,000 each. This year’s list of USA fellows — some of the most innovative and diverse creative talents in the country — includes MacDowell Fellows Mabel Wilson (architecture); Donald Byrd and Michelle Ellsworth (dance); Nancy Keystone, Kirk Lynn, and Octavio Solis (theater arts); Annie Baker (literature); and Lorraine O’Grady (music).
Polly Apfelbaum, visual artist Joseph H. Hazen Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome Rotimi Babatunde, writer Caine Prize for Literature Edmund Campion, composer Goddard Lieberson Fellowship, American Academy Robin Hessman, filmmaker George Foster Peabody Award Jane Hirshfield, poet Chancellorship, Academy of American Poets
Maya Jasanoff, writer National Book Critics Circle Award, General Nonfiction Louis Karchin, composer Andrew Imbrie Award, American Academy Laura Kasischke, poet National Book Critics Circle Award, Poetry Young Jean Lee, playwright Doris Duke Fellowship, Doris Duke Foundation MereditH Monk, composer Doris Duke Fellowship, Doris Duke Foundation
Above, right: Choreographer Donald Byrd explores ideas for a new musical in Adams Studio. Right: Playwright Octavio Solis, who worked on an adaptation of The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha at MacDowell in 2007.
Paul Moravec, composer Arts and Letters Award in Music, American Academy Chris Rogerson, composer Charles Ives Scholarship, American Adacemy Frank Ticheli, composer Arts and Letters Award in Music, American Academy Basil Twist, interdisciplinary artist Doris Duke Fellowship, Doris Duke Foundation Xi Wang, composer Charles Ives Fellowship, American Academy Dan Welcher, composer Arts and Letters Award in Music, American Academy
Architect William O’Brien, Jr. has been awarded the 2012–2013 Founders Rome Prize in Architecture. An assistant professor in the department of architecture at MIT, O’Brien worked on two essays concerning methods of formation in contemporary architecture during his 2008 residency at MacDowell. “A residency at The MacDowell Colony is an aberration in the best way,” says O’Brien. “It is a temporary departure from one’s normal mental state that enables an otherwise impossible continuity of thought. In this context, ideas are capable of being suspended, allowing observation and considerations from all angles. To those who create, it is a gift without parallel.”
Quotable “In
addition to making significant progress on sculptures and research for my project The Stand (shown left) during my residency at MacDowell, I also began a project that I’ve been thinking about for some time, but hadn’t been able to find the time to focus on. The conversations I had and the friendships I made with the other artists, writers, and composers while in residence buoyed my spirit and enriched my life. I am filled with gratitude for the experience.” —Sculptor Lily Cox-Richard (left), who was recently awarded a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship to do additional research for her project The Stand/Possessing Powers. While at MacDowell in 2011, she worked on “California,” one of the carved plaster sculptures in this body of work. Envisioned as a contemporary Hall of Plasters, the sculptures in this project depict tree stumps, wheat sheaves, and massive quartz crystals — props that were once used structurally and allegorically in American Neo-Classical figure sculpture. Cox-Richard has also been awarded a faculty seed grant from the University of Michigan’s Institute for Research on Women and Gender in support of this project, which will be exhibited at Second Street Gallery in Charlottesville, Virginia, in March of 2013.
Courtesy of The Pulitzer Prizes
The Guggenheim Foundation has awarded 15 of its 181 Guggenheim fellowships for 2012 to MacDowell Colony Fellows. Awarded on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise and accompanied by a grant intended to allow recipients to focus freely on their work for a period of six months to a year, drama and performance art fellowships went to Brighde Mullins and J.T. Rogers, while Lisa Crafts and Jane Gillooly were named as fellows in the film-video category. Additional fellowships went to Sarah Manguso, Lia Purpura, and Benjamin Taylor in general nonfiction; Tom Cipullo, Vivian Fung, Daron Hagen, and Bobby Previte in music composition; Doug DuBois and Bill Jacobson in photography; and Elizabeth Willis and Christian Wiman in poetry.
Sharad Patel
Summer 2012 • MacDowell
4
A sampling of Nan Goldin’s iconic photographs. Left to right: “Nan and Brian in Bed” (1983); “The Hug” (1980); and “Jimmy Paulette and Taboo! in the Bathroom” (1991).
“This is one of the greatest honors I’ve ever received in my life,” said Goldin, who is best known for her provocative, blunt, and autobiographical work, which often depicts intensely personal moments and scenes. “To be named among the artists who have made the most profound marks of the past five decades is humbling.” In naming Goldin the 2012 Medalist, Luc Sante, chairman of this year’s Medalist selection committee, said, “Nan Goldin’s photographs of her life, her friends, and her family — unflinchingly honest, nakedly emotional, sometimes brutal, but most often tender — redefined the autobiographical use of photography and influenced everyone who has come after her. In addition, her use of the slideshow as a medium just about constituted a medium unto itself, halfway between still photography and cinema. Along the way, her approach to love, gender, and sexuality has forever altered the depiction of women and gay and transgender people.” Joining Sante on the Medalist selection committee were Curator and Associate Director at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College in Chicago, Karen Irvine; Independent Curator and Writer Marvin Heiferman, who is currently a Creative Consultant for the Smithsonian Photography Initiative at The Smithsonian Institute; and Curator in the Department of Photographs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Jeff Rosenheim. Born in Washington, D.C., Goldin began photographing at the age of 15. She received a BFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston in 1977; a year later, she moved to New York, where she continued to document her “extended family” via photography. These photographs — along
Courtesy Photo
Cynthia Fallows Administrative Assistant
In 2001, a second retrospective of her work, Le Feu Follet, was held at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (the show toured internationally as The Devil’s Playground). As part of the Festival d’Automne in 2004, her work Sisters, Saints, and Sibyls was displayed in Paris’s Chapelle Saint-Louis de la Salpêtrière. In 2010, Goldin spent eight months wandering the Louvre when it was closed, taking photographs of artworks for a specially commissioned slideshow, Scopophilia. Her first solo exhibition in New York since 2007, the project was shown at her gallery, Matthew Marks, last year. Goldin is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including a DAAD Artists-in-Residence Program fellowship in Berlin, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres from the French government, the Hasselblad Award in Photography, and the Englehard Award. Her work has been published extensively, and her books include The Other Side (1993); A Double Life (with David Armstrong, 1994); Tokyo Love (with Nobuyoshi Araki, 1995); I’ll Be Your Mirror (1997); Ten Years After (1997); The Devil’s Playground (2003); and The Beautiful Smile (2008). She lives in Berlin, Paris, and New York. Since the inception of the Edward MacDowell Medal, the Colony has awarded Medals to only three other photographers: Lee Friedlander (1986), Harry Callahan (1993), and Robert Frank (2002). In its 105-year history, The MacDowell Colony has provided Fellowships to almost 200 photographers, including Doug DuBois, Bill Jacobson, Rosalind Solomon, and Francesca Woodman. The Medal Day award ceremony honoring Goldin will begin at 12:15 p.m. on August 12th at the Colony, which will be open to the public for the festivities and celebration. Following the award ceremony, guests can enjoy picnic lunches on Colony grounds by pre-ordering Medal Day picnic lunch baskets at macdowellcolony.org by August 5th or by bringing their own. Open studio tours hosted by MacDowell artists-inresidence will begin at 2:00 p.m. and end at 5:00 p.m. There is no charge to attend Medal Day. The MacDowell Colony is grateful for the support of our Medal Day corporate partners, Lincoln Financial and Robert and Stephanie Olmsted, and our sponsors, The Duprey Companies, Riverstone, and Jeannie Suk.
New Board Members
Courtesy Photo
New Faces
with those taken in London, Berlin, and Provincetown, Massachusetts — became the subject of her slideshows as well as her first book, The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (1986), an enduring visual chronicle of the challenges of intimacy between friends and lovers. Her work was included in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s biennial in 1985; just a decade later, the Whitney held a major retrospective of her work, which then went on to tour museums throughout Europe.
News
MacDowell will present its 53rd Edward MacDowell Medal to photographer Nan Goldin on Sunday, August 12th. Since 1960, The MacDowell Medal has been awarded annually to an individual artist who has made an outstanding contribution to his/her field. The award is rotated among the artistic disciplines practiced at MacDowell. Goldin joins an impressive list of past Medal recipients, including Robert Frank, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Leonard Bernstein, Merce Photographer Nan Goldin Cunningham, Robert Frost, and Edward Albee. Author Michael Chabon — a MacDowell Fellow and chairman of the Colony’s board of directors — and writer and critic Luc Sante will speak at the public ceremony honoring Goldin.
As a Managing Director with the investment firm Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Peter Jachym specializes in mergers and acquisitions and raising capital for insurance companies and investment management firms. In addition to being a member of MacDowell’s board, he is Vice Chairman and Treasurer of the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Peter Jachym Yale University and a Master of Business Administration from the Amos Tuck School at Dartmouth College.
Courtesy Photo
Courtesy Photo
Photographer Nan Goldin to Receive 2012 Edward MacDowell Medal
Summer 2012 • MacDowell
5
A two-time MacDowell Fellow and poet, Vijay Seshadri is the Michele Tolela Myers Professor at Sarah Lawrence College, where his is also the director of the nonfiction writing program. He is the author of four books of poetry, as well as many essays and reviews, and his work has appeared in such places as The New Yorker, The Nation, Poetry, and the anthology Best American Poetry (1997, Vijay Seshadri 2003, and 2006). He has received numerous honors, including a Guggenheim fellowship and The Paris Review’s Bernard F. Conners Long Poem Prize. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College and a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University.
Trowbridge Receives Leadership Award
Success for the Second Century
Board member Jamie Trowbridge has been recognized by the New Hampshire Business Committee for the Arts (NHBCA) for his “long, distinguished record of promoting and investing in the New Hampshire arts community.” The NHBCA’s Leadership Award was presented to Trowbridge at a May 14th ceremony that was attended by more than 300 people from the state’s business community. Trowbridge, who has served on MacDowell’s board since 2002, is an active member the Colony’s communications committee and the New Hampshire Benefit committee. He also serves on the board of Arts Alive! in Keene.
We are thrilled to share the news about the success of The Campaign for the Second Century and the bright future for artists at the Colony. A last-dollar challenge combined with
News
timely gifts from old friends and past its goal, helping to raise a total of $13,116,149 before ending on March 31st. These funds are
already being put to good use to maintain and improve facilities and to endow more Fellowships that will provide new residency opportunities. The campaign first provided renovations for Colony Hall,
Left to right: Board member Jamie Trowbridge with Congressman Paul Hodes and Sarah Garland Hoch at MacDowell’s 2008 New Hampshire Benefit.
including new kitchen and maintenance facilities. With a new, endowed Building and Equipment Reserve Fund, the Colony’s leadership has put into place the resources to keep all of the for generations of artists to come. Groundbreaking for an expansion to the historic Savidge Library — designed by the world-renowned architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien — began in April, and rough framing is scheduled to be in place in time for Medal Day. A top priority of the campaign, the new building will house a media center, workstations, and screening rooms where artists can collaborate or focus in quiet solitude, as well as extra archival space for a growing collection of works donated by Colony Fellows. Many people contributed to making this campaign the largest and most successful in MacDowell’s history, with especially significant grants and gifts coming from the Calderwood Charitable Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Management Trust, Eleanor Briggs, and Louise Eastman. In addition, a wealth of time and energy was devoted by the Campaign Steering Committee, which included Mary Carswell, Sandy Cortesi, Edmee Firth, and John Hargraves — as well as Rick Stone, who was recognized for his leadership at the Colony’s annual chairman’s dinner in May. A full list of Campaign Michelle Aldredge
for the Second Century acknowledgments will appear in MacDowell’s upcoming 2011–2012 Annual Report.
A series of free presentations offered by MacDowell Colony artists, MacDowell Downtown takes place the first Friday of the month from March to November at the Peterborough Historical Society. Bass guitarist Jamaladeen Tacuma (shown below) kicked off the 2012 season in March with a live musical performance. April’s featured artist, photographer and filmmaker Karen Ostrom, shared some of her digital images, screened two short animated films, and discussed the process of digital assembly and alteration that is used to create her work. In May, visual artist, writer, and humorist Laura Lark took the stage to share some of her writing from her collection of interrelated short stories based on her life in the 1970s. Filmmaker Kimi Takesue screened her visually stunning 70-minute documentary film, Where Are You Taking Me? in June. Originally commissioned as part of a special series on Africa, the film immerses the viewer in contemporary Ugandan life without an itinerary or a limiting narrative structure. July’s MacDowell Downtown explored the work former actress and playwright Kathleen Tolan, who read a selection of dramatic and humorous scenes from recent work.
Outreach
MacDowell Downtown
studios, residence halls, and main buildings in prime condition
MacDowell in the Schools The Colony’s efforts to bring the excitement of the creative process — and the expertise of MacDowell artists — to students from local schools continued in January when art students from ConVal High School visited visual artist Alice Attie (shown right) in Nef Studio. Attie shared her drawings, photographs, and a collection of collages, and talked about the meditative process of making art. Visual artist Anne Gilman also interacted with ConVal students in January, when she visited the school to share images of her work and talk about the idea of artistic limitations. In March, graphic novelist Danica Novgorodoff shared her book Refresh, Refresh with several art classes at ConVal, and filmmaker Sam Zalutsky screened and talked about his short film Stefan’s Silver Bell. Composer Ivan FerrerOrozco participated in a panel review of a student composer/musician at ConVal in April, offering support and constructive criticism. Also in April, interdisciplinary artist Gabriela Monroy and filmmaker Caspar Stracke visited Franklin Pierce University to share both their individual and collaborative work with art students. Michelle Aldredge
Above: Site clearing for the expansion of Savidge Library began in late April. Multiple images captured by a Web camera are stitched together in a panoramic photo of the construction site. A time-lapse video documenting the construction process will be posted on the Colony’s Web site in the fall. Right: Foundation footings are poured nine feet below entry grade of the future building. Savidge will remain open to artists-in-residence for most of the construction period, which is expected to wrap up in April of 2013.
Courtesy Photo (2)
Summer 2012 • MacDowell
6
new donors pushed the campaign
Above, top: A conga dance sitespecific performance at the 11th International Havana Biennial. Right: Board members William Beekman (left) and John Hargraves in the home of Havana graphic artist Sandra Ramos. Below: The National Council explores Havana’s Palacio de los Capitanes Generales.
7
Summer 2012 • MacDowell
In and around Havana, the group attended a private dance session at the studios of Danza Contemporanea de Cuba; visited artist studios at the Superior School of the Arts; dined with 30 emerging artists at the Ludwig Foundation for the Arts; toured the Cuban Collection at the Museum of Fine Arts; saw a performance at Gran Teatro de la Habana; stopped in at Ernest Hemingway’s house, Finca Vigia; and met contemporary artists Juan Carlos Alom, Manuel Mendive, and Sandra Ramos in their studios. On the way to Trinidad de Cuba, the itinerary included a private choral concert by Cantantes de Cienfuegos, a tour of the Old Town Square and nearby museums, and an excursion to the UNESCO World Heritage site Valle de los Ingenios and the old Hacienda Manacas.
Events
MacDowell’s National Council ventured to Cuba for its first international trip in May, engaging in humanitarian work at a local charity and touring the 11th International Havana Biennial. The weeklong trip took council members to the studios and homes of Cuban artists, to collections at art and historical museums, and to performances in Havana and Trinidad de Cuba. Most days began with a seminar about different aspects of Cuban culture, from Colonial history and social customs to Cuban music and dance.
Elena Quevedo (3)
National Council Cuba Trip
The highlight of the trip was the 2012 Havana Biennial, which featured the work of 180 artists from 45 countries with an emphasis on the evolution of contemporary art in Cuba. Under an expanded American travel policy, Americans may travel to Cuba on programs that provide humanitarian support and foster contact with the Cuban population, and the MacDowell group delivered first-aid supplies to the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Havana. The trip closed with a lively night of music and dancing at a performance by the world-famous Buena Vista Social Club. For more information about National Council membership and upcoming activities, please contact Elena Quevedo at equevedo@macdowellcolony.org or 212-535-9690.
New Hampshire Benefit On March 31st, MacDowell hosted its annual New Hampshire Benefit to support the residency program. The sold-out event began with a cocktail reception in Savidge Library and continued in Colony Hall with a seated dinner prepared by Colony chef Scott Tyle for 120 guests and artists-in-residence. The Dean KlingLer
program included a video greeting from The Invention of Hugo Cabret author Brian Selznick and a tour-de-force performance by interdisciplinary artist Joseph Keckler. The event — which was organized by the New Hampshire Benefit committee and chaired by Robert Larsen, Mollie Miller, Lisa Neville, and Jamie Trowbridge — raised more than $30,000 for MacDowell. Painter Ian Davis (right) discusses his work at April’s Mac ’n’ Cheese in New York.
Mac ’N’ Cheese The fourth season of MacDowell’s New York-based downtown subscription series, Mac ’n’ Cheese, opened on Wednesday, April 25th with painter Ian Davis discussing his solo exhibition at Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects. On Wednesday, June 27th, author Deni Béchard and performance artist
Darrell Crawford. The Boston edition of Mac ’n’ Cheese began its season with music by composer David Rakowski and a reading by writer Elizabeth Graver at the home of Betty and Russell Gaudreau on Wednesday, May 9th.
Save the DateS 2012 National Benefit in New York City Monday, December 3rd, TheTimesCenter To purchase tickets or for more information, contact Elena Quevedo at equevedo@ macdowellcolony.org or 212-535-9690. Mac ’n’ Cheese with Rachel Sussman Wednesday, September 26th, New York City with Joan Wickersham Wednesday, October 17th, Boston For subscriptions or more information, please contact Dean Klingler at dklingler@ macdowellcolony.org or 212-535-9690.
National Benefit in New York City On December 5, 2011, MacDowell’s National Benefit in New York introduced more than 300 guests to the evolution of three different works of art that Colony Fellows had a hand in creating, adapting, or documenting: The Invention of Hugo Cabret, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, and Porgy and Bess. Hosted by Chairman Michael Chabon at TheTimesCenter in New York, the program opened with an orchestral performance by songwriter and composer Duncan Sheik from his musical adaptation of the Hans Christian Anderson tale The Nightingale. Brian Selznick introduced his book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, followed by a reading by TV and film actor Fisher Stevens and a clip from Martin Scorcese’s film adaptation of the book, Hugo. The exploration of Amy Tan’s novel The Bonesetter’s Daughter began with an introduction by composer Stewart Wallace (who turned the novel into an opera) and filmmaker David Petersen (whose film documented the making of the opera), and ended with a performance by internationally recognized opera singer Qian Yi. The Porgy and Bess portion of the evening featured performances, readings, and talks by Suzan-Lori Parks, Carmen de Lavallade, Fred Hersch, and Nikki Renee Daniels. Stephanie and Robert M. Olmsted; Elizabeth and Russell Gaudreau; Pia Alexander-Harris and Larry Harris; Barbara and Andrew Senchak; and Theresa and Charles F. Stone, III co-chaired the event. Joining Sheik and Scorcese as honorary chairs were Ann Patchett, Faith Ringgold, Oliver Sacks, and Ayelet Waldman. The event raised more than $354,000 in support of artist residencies at MacDowell. Steve Tucker
home of MacDowell patrons David McConnell and
Michael Neff
Joseph Keckler entertained subscribers at the
Above, top: Mezzo-soprano Qian Yi (left) and percussionist Theo Metz perform an excerpt from the opera The Bonesetter’s Daughter. Above: Filmmaker David Peterson (left) and composer Stewart Wallace discuss the creation and documentation of the opera.
Left to right: Playwright Jesse Bonnell, interdisciplinary artists Steph Kese and Erin Pollock, writer Sherri Fink, painter Aaron Johnson, photographer Susan Silas, and filmmaker Daniel Sousa.
From November of 2011 through April of 2012, The MacDowell Colony welcomed a total of 134 artists from 28 states and six countries. This group included 50 writers, 17 composers, 17 visual artists, 17 theatre artists, 15 film/video artists, 13 interdisciplinary artists, and five architects. Interdisciplinary Artist Los Angeles, CA
Anne Aghion, Film/Video Artist New York, NY Nawaaz Ahmed, Writer Pittsburgh, PA Alice Attie, Visual Artist New York, NY Cynthia Barton, Writer Brooklyn, NY Brian Bauman, Theatre New York, NY
Dorothy Fortenberry, Theatre Los Angeles, CA
Rebecca Lindenberg, Writer Logan, UT
Gamaliel Rodriguez, Visual Artist Bayamon, PUERTO RICO
Lisa Garrigues, Writer Ridgewood, NJ
Jody Lipes, Film/Video Artist Doylestown, PA
Jean Rohe, Composer Brooklyn, NY
Lucy Gillespie, Theatre New York, NY
Sergio Lopez-Pineiro, Architect Buffalo, NY
Ben Rosenthal, Theatre Brooklyn, NY
Anne Gilman, Visual Artist Brooklyn, NY
Bojan Louis, Writer Mesa, AZ
Andrew Roth, Writer Roanoke, VA
Elizabeth Graver, Writer Lincoln, MA
Alexander Lumans, Writer Boulder, CO
Nathalie Rozot, Architect New York, NY
Christopher Green,
Roma Maffia, Writer Los Angeles, CA
Audrey Russell, Visual Artist Richmond Hill, NY
Brooklyn, NY
Sara Marcus, Writer Brooklyn, NY
Michelangelo Sabatino, Architect Houston, TX
Sarah McCarry, Writer Brooklyn, NY
Britt Salvesen, Writer Los Angeles, CA
Marcelyn McNeil, Visual Artist Houston, TX
Mark Salzman, Writer La Canada Flintridge, CA
Justin Messina, Composer Ventura, CA
Annita Sawyer, Writer North Branford, CT
Naomi Miller,
Emily Schwend, Theatre Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn, NY
Laura Schwendinger, Composer Madison, WI
Interdisciplinary Artist
Pooja Bhatia, Writer Brooklyn, NY
Eric Green, Interdisciplinary Artist Berlin, GERMANY
Nicholas Boggs, Writer Brooklyn, NY
Sam Green, Film/Video Artist Brooklyn, NY
Jesse Bonnell, Theatre Brooklyn, NY
Kathy Grove, Visual Artist New York, NY
Katherine Bowling, Visual Artist Preston Hollow, NY
Joan Grubin, Visual Artist New York, NY
Rose Bunch, Writer Elkins, AR
Monica Haller,
Susan Burton, Writer Brooklyn, NY
Minneapolis, MN
Lisa Carey, Writer Portland, ME Jonathan Ceniceroz, Theatre Pasadena, CA Alexandra Chasin, Writer Brooklyn, NY Steven Cheslik-DeMeyer, Theatre New York, NY Susan Choi, Writer Brooklyn, NY
Interdisciplinary Artist Sarah Hammond, Theatre Brooklyn, NY Sarah Hardesty, Visual Artist Brooklyn, NY Joel Harrison, Composer New York, NY Kathryn Hathaway, Theatre Rutherford, NJ Anthony Hawley, Visual Artist Lincoln, NE Dee Hibbert-Jones,
Matthew Clark, Writer Laramie, WY
Film/Video Artist
Lily Cox-Richard, Visual Artist Ann Arbor, MI
Joel Hoffman, Composer Cincinnati, OH
Nick Criscuolo, Film/Video Artist Salem, MA
Joel Horwood, Theatre Suffolk, UNITED KINGDOM
Kara Crombie, Film/Video Artist Philadelphia, PA
Lewis Hyde, Writer Cambridge, MA
Douglas Cuomo, Composer Brooklyn, NY
Lee Hyla, Composer Chicago, IL
Grainger David, Film/Video Artist Los Angeles, CA
Jeffrey Jackson, Theatre Charlotte, NC
Ian Davis, Visual Artist Saugerties, NY
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Theatre New York, NY
Andrew Demirjian,
Ahram Jeong,
Interdisciplinary Artist
San Francisco, CA
Interdisciplinary Artist
Palisades Park, NJ
Brooklyn, NY
William di Canzio, Theatre Drexel Hill, PA
John Jesurun, Theatre New York, NY
Christopher Dickens, Writer Nashville, TN
Aaron Johnson, Visual Artist Brooklyn, NY
Emily Doolittle, Composer Seattle, WA
Kathryn Joyce, Writer Astoria, NY
Andrea Dupree, Writer Thornton, CO
Gabriel Kahane, Composer Brooklyn, NY
Anne Fadiman, Writer Whately, MA
Joseph Keckler,
Sarah Falkner, Writer Hudson, NY Jim Findlay, Theatre Brooklyn, NY Sheri Fink, Writer Washington, DC Yance Ford, Film/Video Artist Jackson Heights, NY
The MacDowell Colony is located at 100 High Street Peterborough, NH 03458 Telephone: 603-924-3886 Fax: 603-924-9142 Administrative office: 163 East 81st Street New York, NY 10028
Telephone: 212-535-9690 Fax: 212-737-3803 Web site: www.macdowellcolony.org E-mail: newsletter@macdowellcolony.org
Interdisciplinary Artist Brooklyn, NY
Steph Kese, Interdisciplinary Artist Seattle, WA Jerome Kitzke, Composer New York, NY Larry Krone, Visual Artist New York, NY Molly Laich, Writer Missoula, MT
Interdisciplinary Artist Ana Milosavljevic, Composer New York, NY Craig Mod, Writer Palo Alto, CA Kevin Moffett, Writer Claremont, CA Martha Mooke, Composer Nyack, NY Quince Mountain, Writer Mountain, WI Meaghan Mulholland, Writer Durham, NC Jan Mun, Interdisciplinary Artist Brooklyn, NY Ariana Nash, Writer Kaunakakai, HI Clare Needham, Writer Summit, NJ
Susan Silas, Visual Artist Brooklyn, NY
Caitlin Smith, Composer Ontario, CANADA Daniel Sousa, Film/Video Artist Pawtucket, RI Martha Southgate, Writer Brooklyn, NY Mathew Szymanowski,
Film/Video Artist
San Francisco, CA
Sierra Nelson, Writer Seattle, WA
Nomi Talisman, Film/Video Artist San Francisco, CA
Danica Novgorodoff, Writer Brooklyn, NY
Shaina Taub, Composer Brooklyn, NY
Keyla Orozco, Composer Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Lynne Tillman, Writer New York, NY
Karen Ostrom,
Alexander Tilney, Writer Brooklyn, NY
Brooklyn, NY
Luis Urculo, Architect Madrid, Spain
Interdisciplinary Artist Leigh-Ann Pahapill, Visual Artist Toronto, CANADA Carolyn Parkhurst, Writer Washington, DC Michael Paterniti, Writer Portland, ME Ana Pecar, Film/Video Artist Maribor, SLOVENIA Hannah Pittard, Writer Chicago, IL Erin Pollock,
Interdisciplinary Artist Anchorage, AK
Samein Priester, Film/Video Artist New York, NY Christopher Robinson, Writer Federal Way, WA
Wappen Field, conceived, created, produced, directed, and designed by Michelle Jaffé. Music composition by Ayelet Rose Gottlieb; code design and development, and sound manipulation and diffusion by David Reeder; vocalists: Ayelet Rose Gottlieb, Akim Funk Buddha, Nick Hallet, Kyoko Kitamura, Jeremiah Lockwood, Sofia Rei Koutsovitis, and Fay Victor. For more information, see page 3.
Jen Silverman, Theatre Astoria, NY
Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Composer Philadelphia, PA
Applications are available on our Web site at Chairman: Michael Chabon President: Susan Davenport Austin Executive Director: Cheryl A. Young Resident Director: David Macy
Craig Shuler, Composer Oneonta, NY
Jason Nein, Interdisciplinary Artist Middletown, OH
The MacDowell Colony awards Fellowships to artists of exceptional talent, providing time, space, and an inspiring environment in which to do creative work. The Colony was founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and pianist Marian Nevins MacDowell, his wife. Fellows receive room, board, and exclusive use of a studio. The sole criterion for acceptance is talent, as determined by a panel representing the discipline of the applicant. The MacDowell Colony was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 1997 for “nurturing and inspiring many of this century’s finest artists.” www.macdowellcolony.org.
Joshua Shenk, Writer Santa Monica, CA
On the cover…
Michael Cook
Summer 2012 • MacDowell
8
Fellowships
Tyler Adams,
Vint Virga, Writer East Greenwich, RI Anthony Viscardi, Architect Bethlehem, PA Claudia Weber, Visual Artist New York, NY Paula Whyman, Writer Bethesda, MD Joan Wickersham, Writer Cambridge, MA Rolf Yngve, Writer Coronado, CA Sam Zalutsky, Film/Video Artist New York, NY Josh Zeman, Film/Video Artist New York, NY
MacDowell is published twice a year, in summer and winter. Past Fellows may send newsworthy activities to the editor in Peterborough. Deadlines for inclusion are April 1st and October 1st. Editor: Karen Sampson Design and Production: John Hall Design Group, Beverly, MA All photographs not otherwise credited: Joanna Eldredge Morrissey Printer: Deschamps Printing, Salem, MA Mailing House: Sterling Business Print & Mail, Peterborough, NH No part of MacDowell may be reused in any way without written permission. © 2012, The MacDowell Colony The names of MacDowell Fellows are noted in bold throughout this newsletter.
The Colony is grateful for the generous support of the following organizations: