The MacDowell Colony newsletter, summer 2010

Vol. 39, No.2 Winter 2010

In this Issue

New & Notable Medal Day 2010: A Celebration of Jazz Campaign for the Second Century New Fellowships

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architects | composers | filmmakers | interdisciplinary artists | theatre | visual artists | writers

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

A New Era When reflecting back on the history of MacDowell, distinct eras become apparent. The

Cheryl A. Young Executive Director

New & Notable

Architect Jennifer Siegal’s Office of Mobile Design has been selected to design the new Monterey History and Maritime Museum exhibition spaces, which will open in the spring of 2011.

Integrating sound, sight, taste, and touch, Siegal’s design features four suspended baskets that represent Monterey, California’s historical ties to the sea, the whaling industry, and its Japanese and Chinese communities.

Dubbed the “Great American Novelist” when featured on the cover of TIME Magazine in August, Jonathan Franzen released his highly anticipated fourth novel, Freedom, in September.

A view of Mount Monadnock from the Colony.

Music for the Mountain This past summer, MacDowell collaborated with Monadnock Music, a Peterborough-based organization that aims to “make exceptional music accessible to all in intimate and informal settings in the Monadnock region,” on a special project that aimed to pay tribute to the environs surrounding Mt. Monadnock and the landscape of the area.

Six composers — including MacDowell Fellow Nathan Currier — wrote music to accompany poems written by MacDowell Colony Fellows Chana Bloch, Suzanne Cleary, Marcia Falk, Bertha Rogers, Neil Shepard, and Elizabeth Willis. In July and August, composers and poets were on hand to bring the words and music to life in a series of free public concerts that took place in towns around the region.

The commissioned site-specific painting Just a Rumor by visual artist Anna Schuleit is a three-story-high, upside-down portrait of a face. Painted on the facade of the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, the image and its reflection — when viewed on the surface of the adjacent campus pond — produce a double portrait. Just a Rumor was displayed from September 10th through November 14th.

Elisabeth Tova Bailey The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating, nonfiction Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck It’s Kind of a Funny Story, feature film Elizabeth Boults and Chip Sullivan Illustrated History of Landscape Design, nonfiction Rinne Groff Compulsion, play Cynthia Hogue Or Consequence, poetry Nick Jones The Coward, play Lisa Kereszi Lisa Kereszi: Photographs, visual art exhibition Bart McLean Soundworlds, CD

Annette Rusin Road Work, visual art exhibition Rosalind Solomon The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today, visual art exhibition

ATM or this is [not] new york, the latest project from interdisciplinary artist Kevin Doyle and his company Sponsored by Nobody, had its world premiere at the Monty Arts Center in Belgium in November. A play that investigates New Yorkers’ interactions with their city’s homeless population, the installation simulates the automated teller sections of banks — places where the city’s homeless have long masqueraded as “doormen” in return for change. Participants in the project include poet Hannah Poston, whom Doyle met during his residency at MacDowell in 2008. ATM is scheduled to have its New York premiere in January of 2011.

Quotable “I

Theo Rigby

More New & Notable Projects

Laura Poitras O’ Say Can You See?, video installation

Monique Truong Bitter in the Mouth, fiction Courtesy Photo (4)

The MacDowell Colony

Artists

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first “third” (1907–1937) of the Colony’s existence saw Marian MacDowell tirelessly working to raise funds to build the studios.

The middle years (1938–1977) were focused on rebuilding after the hurricane of ’38, rebounding from the scarcity of the war years, and modernization. The latest period (1978–2010) has brought programmatic maturity and the hard-won struggle for financial stability. As we share with you this issue of the MacDowell newsletter, we are witnessing the unfolding of a new era marked by the upcoming retirement of Chairman of the Board, Robert MacNeil, who has served brilliantly in this capacity for 18 years. To commemorate his leadership, we have collected his remarks about the arts in a book titled Why Is This Important?

We invite you to contemplate your own answer to this question.

More infor­mation about this book can be found in our Medal Day feature on page 4, which also celebrates the life and work of our 2010 Edward MacDowell Medalist, jazz great Sonny Rollins. Our recently announced Campaign for the Second Century — with a new, contemporary media center as its focus — reflects the Colony’s resolve to continually evolve and progress, as do the recent accomplishments of some of our artists featured on the next few pages. What you’ll read about in this issue is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of what’s happening at MacDowell. MacDowell artists and support­ers are determined to be in a world electrified by creative thought. We hope you will join us as we carry forward our vision.

Kim Uchiyama Archaeo, visual art exhibition Ruth Wolff Notable Women and a Few Equally Notable Men, collection of plays

spent several years putting this film together, and during that time I worked on it while in residence at MacDowell three different times. In many ways, my time at MacDowell was central to the creative process I went through with this project. Each time I was in Peterborough, I was able to focus huge amounts of time and concentration on writing and editing, and each time, I experienced wonderful creative bursts that allowed me to take giant steps forward. As anyone who has done a residency at MacDowell knows, being freed up from the day-to-day business of ‘normal life’ leaves one with huge amounts of time and energy. Being at MacDowell makes it possible for an artist to focus completely, and having the time and space to work in this unencumbered manner is invaluable.”

—Filmmaker Sam Green Sam Green’s new film, Utopia in Four Movements, screened at the San Francisco Film Festival in May (above) after premiering at Sundance in January. A “live documentary” that Green cues and narrates in person while the Brooklyn-based band The Quavers performs the sound track, the film is a meditation on the battered state of the utopian impulse at the dawn of the 21st century. Utopia in Four Movements will screen at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis on February 12, 2011.

Quotable “This residency provided us with an amazing opportunity to work together

as artists on both our choreographic works and our visual arts projects. We were able to create several photographs and videos expanding our work as visual artists, and these will inform our evening-length dance works. We also had the fortune to be with some open and engaging artists while in residence, and struck up several collaborations with composers, filmmakers, and other visual artists. The connections we made will be something we will cherish for the rest of our lives.”

—Interdisciplinary artists Zoe Scofield and Juniper Shuey

Bringing Back the WPA

BEN COLLIER

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Above: Interdisciplinary artist Zoe Scofield dances to the music of fellow artist-in-residence and composer Dave Eggar. Right: A photo created at MacDowell by Scofield and her collaborator Juniper Shuey (pictured far right with Scofield in New Hampshire Studio) as part of their performance piece A Crack in Everything. Scofield and Shuey plan to present this work as a gallery piece, an installation, and a performance piece at various venues next year, beginning with the Stella Adler Studio in New York, where it will be shown as a work-in-progress on January 20–22, 2011.

The MacDowell Colony

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Artist Awards, Grants, and Fellowships Peter Aaron/Esto Photographics, Courtesy of JSA

Deciding to literally be the change he wants to see in the world, interdisciplinary artist Christopher Robbins has been working to bring back the Work Projects Administration (WPA), a government agency that employed millions of people through creative projects across the country during the Great Depression. Hijacking the government’s historic brand, Robbins has opened two WPA offices in New York — one in the rural hamlet of Christopher Robbins Wassaic, and the other in the urban center of Jamaica, Queens — through which he has hired unemployed people as WPA workers to complete small-scale public work projects designed by their own communities.

Projects completed or in progress include such things as basketball court repairs, bus shelter construction, mural installations at construction sites, and micro-credit programs in mom and pop shops. Robbins hopes the model programs he’s started will persuade the government to follow suit.

For more information and photos, go to www.WorkProjectsAdministration.org.

The House on Mt. Merino (above) by architect Joel Sanders (above, right) received the 2010 AIA New York State Award of Excellence in the Residential category. Embedded in a hillside in Hudson, New York, the house — which also won the AIA New York Architecture Merit Award in 2009 — functions like a movie camera viewfinder and is designed to take advantage of breathtaking views of the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains.

Four MacDowell composers received commissions in June through Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Program.

More than $170,000 was awarded to nine ensembles and composers, including Eric Chasalow, Sebastian Currier (left), Shih-Hui Chen, and Jason Eckardt.

Commissioned compositions will be written for small ensembles across a diverse musical spectrum, including contemporary art music, world music, and works that include electronics.

More Awards, Grants, and Fellowships David Adjmi, playwright Whiting Writers’ Award SARAH BRAUNSTEIN, writer National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” Honoree Marilyn Hacker, writer PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry Kathryn Hagy, visual aritist Fulbright Scholar Award Cath Le Couteur, filmmaker Sundance/Alfred P. Sloan Commissioning Grant Jackie Gendel, visual artist The Space Program Grant Grace Krilanovich, writer National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” Honoree Luke Lamborn, visual artist The Space Program Grant Sharon Mesmer, writer Fulbright Specialists Award

Visual artist Ellen Lesperance (right) received the 2010 Betty Bowen Award from the Seattle Art Museum in September. In conjunction with the award (which came with a $15,000 cash prize), a selection of Lesperance’s work — including Horehound­, pictured below (gouache on paper, 22 x 29.5", 2010), which she created in its entirety at MacDowell this summer — will be on view at the museum through October of 2011.

Playwright Lauren Yee is one of eight MacDowell artists to have been awarded a 2010 MAP Fund grant for innovative and cross-cultural exploration in theatre, dance, and music. Composers David Lang and Vivian Fung; interdisciplinary artists Dan Hurlin, Chris Doyle, and Peter Flaherty; and playwrights Erin Courtney and Holly Hughes also received support from the MAP Fund for their current performance-based projects.

Correction: In the summer 2010 issue, we incorrectly reported that the play A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick was written

by MacDowell Fellow Kara Lee Corthron. The play was written by Kara’s sister, Kia Corthron. We apologize for the error.

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Kirk Stoller, visual artist The Space Program Grant

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Jazz

Celebration The MacDowell Colony

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t is, as ever, a privilege to be an indigent bohemian at MacDowell — for which I have two additional metaphors: First, I think of it as the Magic Kingdom, and second as the womb because everyone here is so kind and supportive to all artists. There is nothing like MacDowell. And there is no one like Sonny Rollins.

I’ll begin by saying something about his names, because he’s had a few, and names in jazz are different than in other art forms. I’m reminded of a story Miles Davis liked to tell about when he first came to New York from St. Louis to study at Juilliard. After he got there, he started following and trying to learn from Charlie Parker — who was known as “Bird” — and Dizzy Gillespie. He decided to drop out of Juilliard to work with them. So he told a friend he had to fly home to St. Louis to explain this to his father, and the friend said, “Why can’t you just call?” And Miles said, “What am I gonna say? That I’m leaving school to work with a couple of guys named Bird and Dizzy?”

Gary

Giddins Presentation Speaker Sonny Rollins is perfectly named; his birth name was Theodore Walter Rollins.

But I’m reminded of Homer and the way he refers to the great heroes by their patro­ nymics — it’s always Odysseus, son of Laertes. And Sonny is really the “son” of jazz to a degree that I think one would say of few musicians. Barely 19 when he started recording, he seemed to have assimilated the richness of the jazz past, and was clearly on the way to forging his thoroughly original style. It is certainly true today that there is no saxophonist in the world who isn’t af­fected

by Sonny Rollins’s playing. It is simply not possible to play anything on the tenor sax­ ophone that he hasn’t already played. He

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Acclaimed jazz tenor saxophonist Sonny Rollins accepts the 2010 Edward MacDowell Medal.

On August 15th, more than 1,500 visitors came to the Colony to

­partake in the offerings of Medal Day, our annual event that combines the rural beauty of New Hampshire with the contemporary art scene that emanates from MacDowell’s studios. This year’s Medal Day was one of firsts and lasts: The discipline of jazz was honored for the very first time as the 51st Edward MacDowell Medal was presented to jazz great Sonny Rollins, while MacDowell’s longtime Chairman, Robert MacNeil — who will retire from his leadership post this year — delivered his final Medal Day address. Picnic lunches, open studios hosted by artists-in-residence, an art show by local students, and a live jazz concert rounded out the day’s festivities. Special thanks to Lincoln Financial Foundation and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation for their generous support in helping to offer Medal Day visitors an enriching experience and a unique and uncommon blend of community and creativity. owns that ­instrument as few instrumental virtuosi have ever owned their instruments.

In 1955, Sonny made his first longplaying album under his own name — a ­record called­ Work Time, from which I recently played an excerpt for Sonny. He said that listening to it was excruciating, but this is one instance when I would advise you not to believe him. A year later, he made a second album, and the label called it Saxophone Colossus. Now, that is a hell of a name to hang on a 26-year-old, however great. And had it been just a marketing ploy, it would have been forgotten. But he has remained a saxophone colossus and he is almost invariably referred to by that phrase whenever anybody writes about him.

I can tell you that, as much as he seems patriarchal now, he seemed that way when I first heard him at the Vanguard in the 1960s. It’s difficult for me to believe that he was only 30-something at the time, ­because even then he was the most dy­namic soloist­ one could ever hope to see. One of the things that makes him stand out for all of Jazz critic Gary Giddins worked on the second volume of his Bing Crosby biography while in residence at MacDowell earlier this year.

us who follow him, who love music, who love jazz, is that — and this is amazing to me — he has been on this adventure for more than six decades. And during all that time, he has never been predictable. You never go to a Rollins concert knowing in

of melody and rhythm. He has played the lowest notes on the tenor saxophone and the highest notes. He has innovated so many techniques and rhythms. He’s the first jazz musician to make calypso an important part of jazz. He has done more

“ [T]here is no saxophonist in the world who isn’t affected by Sonny Rollins’s playing. . . . He owns that instrument as few instrumental virtuosi have ever owned their instruments.” advance what you will hear. There is always a quality of suspense: What is Sonny going to do this time?

To maintain that kind of excitement is part of the incredible honesty that makes his music so extraordinary. There are a few technical points I would stress. One is that most musicians — no matter their instrument, but especially wind players — tend to focus on the middle register and use high notes and low notes for expressive moments. Sonny’s playing isn’t like that; he creates music with the entire range of the instrument, producing great parabolas­

with the cadenza, the unaccompanied improvisation, than anybody else has ever done in jazz. He has opened up the repertoire in a way that no one else had dared.

No matter how free he got — no matter how much a participant in what we used to call the avant-garde or the New Music — he never forsook the great standards, nor ceased to enlarge it with new ones from movies, operetta, and other sources.

He’s the only jazz musician I’m aware of who recorded, and made as a significant part of his repertoire, a piece by Edward MacDowell — “To a Wild Rose” — which

“ He’s legendary for a kind of stream-ofconsciousness approach to improvisation where he dispatches . . . all kinds of melodies and makes them fit into whatever he is playing.” in the company of Ira Gitler, a great jazz critic­­who’s known Sonny forever. After the set, Ira said, “Come, I’ll introduce you to Sonny,” which was, you know, “I’ll intro­ duce you to the Queen of England.” It was a moment. And Ira said, “This is Gary, he’s just started writing for The Village Voice,” and Sonny said he was very upset about a piece that had ap­peared about him in the Voice a couple of weeks earlier. I had read that piece, and it was extremely favorable.

And I said, “What did you object to? It was very favorable.” And he said, “Yes, but we played very poorly. If you can’t trust them when they say you’re playing well, how can you trust them when they say . . .”

So I thought, man, is this common­place?

Are all jazz musicians that candid and ­honest? No. But Sonny Rollins is.

There’s another story that I heard second­hand, and if it’s not true, Sonny,

source. He’s legendary for a kind of streamof-consciousness approach to improvisation where he dispatches quotations and references to all kinds of melodies and makes them fit into whatever he is playing. And so, I was thinking that Sonny would know that “Prisoner of Love” was initially recorded

by Russ Columbo. Some of you may have ­heard of Columbo, a largely forgotten ballad singer in the 1920s who was put forth as a competitor to Bing Crosby, and I had just agreed to write a book about Crosby. So we went to say hello to Sonny afterwards, and he said, “Did you notice I played ‘Prisoner of Love’ by Bing’s great rival?”

One of the press releases that went out about today’s event refers to him as a composer. And he is a composer — he’s a wonderful composer. He wrote “The Freedom Suite,” which was, I think, the first jazz work of social conscience specific­ially rela-

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Back row, left to right: Resident Director David Macy, Gary Giddins, Chairman Robert MacNeil. Front row, left to right: President Susan Austin, Sonny Rollins, and Executive Director Cheryl Young.

ted to the Civil Rights movement. It was written in the late ’50s, and it’s a magnificent piece of music. He has also written several tunes that have become jazz standards, going all the way back to the ­early ’50s: pieces like “Airegin” and “Oleo” and “Doxy,” and “Valse Hot,” which was the first modern jazz waltz. He’s written a lot of great tunes in more recent years,­ including “Here’s to the People,” “Harlem Boys,” “G-Man,” “Silver City,” and “Global Warming” — which he has described as his “Freedom Suite” of 1998 — that should be standards.

But in jazz, it’s not the tunes that make a great composer. It’s the ability to impro­ vise; to create composition in the moment; to make each performance a distinct experi­ ence. Many jazz musicians have resisted that in favor of recording, because record­ ings live forever — just the way many ­actors have left the stage for cinema, because­ it’s documented and, let’s face it, easier. But Sonny once said when we were doing a staged interview at the CUNY Graduate Center, “You can’t improvise and think at the same time.” Imagine the kind of musicianship necessary to function that way.

With Sonny Rollins, the reason you ­never know what you will hear is because­ you ­never know what mood he’ll be in when he attains the stage. The band members don’t know either. I’ve never known musicians in any ensemble to rave about just-­completed performances the way Sonny’s do. And I’m talking about ­musicians like Bob Cranshaw, who’s been playing with him for almost

half a century, who will shake his head in incredulity. A few weeks ago, I saw Sonny in Perugia. He played two hours and 20 minutes without a break. When I told him how great I thought it was, he said, “No, the next one will be better.” And earlier today, he told me that the next one — in Norway — was, in fact, better.

In that respect, let me make two suggestions. First, if you’re going to be in New York on September 10th, Sonny will celebrate his 80th birthday at the Beacon Theater with a concert that includes Jim Hall, and it will be historic. If you can’t be there, many of his records are on sale here today, but I want to call your ­attention in particular to one called Road Shows, Vol. 1, his first album consisting of performances drawn from relatively recent concerts — the kind of performances that those who go to see Sonny rave about, but which those who know only his studio sessions can hardly imagine. This record has had a tremendous impact on Sonny Rollins ­criticism in the last couple of years.

Because suddenly, people who doubted the sanity of those of us who insisted that he was now playing better than he ever had, could hear the truth for themselves.

I am so honored to be here to tell you a little bit about Sonny Rollins. He is an idol of mine, always has been. He is also one of the nicest people you could hope to meet in your life, and one of the most brilliant, self-critical, and ardent artists I’ve ever known. If you phone him and he happens to be home, he will almost certainly have the saxophone in his lap. He still practices all the time so that he can continue to give everything, every time.

Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Gary, I’ll never for-

give you for that. It’s really great to be with people who appreciate the arts. I’ve been an artist all my life — it’s just a natural thing to me. I began doing watercolors, and I have a little talent in painting.

And music was the other love. I’m not qualified to do anything else, so I’m glad that the arts exist.

Every time people tell me that I help make their lives a little better, why then I realize that I’ve come full circle. I love it for myself, but if I can give something to somebody else, then that’s perfect.

Sonny

Rollins Medalist

I really appreciate the honor. I am a big fan of [Edward] MacDowell; I heard his music a long time ago, and as was said, I did play it in my repertoire. It’s also great to be in the presence of the people here. Everybody seems to love art. If only the whole world could be like you guys.

Anyway, what can I say? Thank you very, very much.

Sonny Rollins signs an autograph for a fan at Medal Day.

The MacDowell Colony

is not why he’s here, trust me. In fact, we had forgotten that, and I should tell you that I was asked to chair the committee by Carman Moore, a great composer and fellow Colonist, who is here; and Cheryl. The other jurors were Valerie Capers, the pianist and educator; and Dan Morgenstern, educator, critic, and curator. The idea was, we would discuss various candidates for the Medal, tossing out different names and debating pros and cons. But after about 20 minutes of chitchat, Cheryl looked a bit startled, to say the least, when I opened the discussion by asking, “Well, does anybody have an objection to Sonny Rollins?” And that was that.

In six seconds, the Medalist was chosen.

Let me tell a couple of stories to give you some idea of the kind of man he is.

I’ll begin with the first time I was intro­ duced to him, at the Half Note in midtown Manhattan in 1973. I had just started ­writing for The Village Voice a couple of months — maybe weeks — earlier. I was

I don’t want to hear about it because I’m not giving up on this story. Shortly after I met my wife, we went to hear Sonny at Town Hall, and his guest that evening was Wynton Marsalis, who was young and ­fairly new on the scene. Sonny got ill, and it was very dramatic; he fell over on the stage backward after a couple of numbers.

The audience gasped; we were all frozen, our breaths taken. And I heard afterwards that, while Sonny lay there, Wynton walk­ ed over and said, “Are you alright?” And Sonny opened his eyes and said, “Don’t worry. It wasn’t anything you played.”

Another indication of the way his mind works: I went to hear him one night at Tramps, and he played “Prisoner of Love.”

I was sitting next to a critic, who mumbled the name of Billy Eckstine, the jazz singer who recorded it. But I thought, no. Sonny knows the American songbook better than almost anybody. He remembers songs he heard when he grew up; tunes fly through his improvisations so swiftly and judiciously that I suspect he doesn’t always know the

Me da l Day 2010

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Robert

MACNEIL CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD Second, today we publicly announce our campaign to raise funds to make what is already the most successful artists’ ­colony anywhere better still for our second century. We began this campaign in our centennial year in 2007, but — as is usual with such efforts — we kept it to our­selves while we reached out to private donors and every member of our board. Today, I can announce that that effort has raised more than $10 million dollars, the largest fundraising effort in MacDowell’s history.

At first, we set our sights on a final goal of twice that amount, but like every other arts organization, we’ve had to face the recession. So, we’ve trimmed our sails and reset the campaign goal at a realistic $13 million.

That means as we go public today, we have only $3 million still to raise, and we hope many of you MacDowell loyalists will feel like helping us, in amounts small or large.

What is this money for? Some of it has been spent renovating Colony Hall, the

main hall and the kitchen — the heart and hearth of the Colony. Some goes to pay for Fellowships, the cost of which in­cludes selecting, housing, and feeding each of the 250 artists who come each year. Some goes to a new program: small stipends for ­needy artists who couldn’t otherwise ­afford to come. And some will go to maintain the endowment, which is our storm anchor in troubled times.

But the biggest item is announcement number three. We have adopted a brilliant design to renovate, extend, and bring into the digital age our much loved but outgrown Savidge Library. You can examine a model of the design by the internationally renowned architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, which is on display in Colony Hall.

Now, some personal — and personnel — news: I am retiring as chairman this year. This is my 18th Medal Day in that capac­ity, and I am particularly glad that this is the year the Colony, founded by a great musician, is honoring an outstanding ­musician in the idiom that has long been a glory of American culture and an expression of the American spirit around the world.

I like the conceit that an understanding of freedom is instinctive. A Hindu poet ­wrote that “even in his sleeping hours, a man cannot be content with subjugation.” But obviously, freedom is apprehended most vividly by people who are most ­blatantly denied it. And among no people was that truer than the African slaves and their American descendants who created jazz, or among the subjugated citizens of the Soviet Union who adored jazz in clandestine radio broadcasts during the Cold War. In this, I feel there is something shared with the English language; that is, a resis­ t­ance to arbitrary authority. That is why English sloughed off the inflections and case endings of its Germanic origins and abandoned the arbitrary assignment of gender to nouns, and why English has resisted ­efforts to set up bodies such as the Académie Française to enforce language rules.

Some experts believe that resistance argues a dawning sense of political freedom among the English-speaking peoples, with the American Declaration of Independence its most seminal expression.

And if the analogy is not too far-fetched, jazz is, in itself, such a declaration. And

with extensive experience on Wall Street, including a vice presidency at Goldman, Sachs — Susan has been widely honored as a lead­ ing figure in the communications industry.

She is senior vice president and CEO of Sheridan Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), which has radio stations in many cities, and

“ Today, we publicly announce our campaign to raise funds to make what is already the most successful artists’ colony anywhere better still for our second century.”

I am personally delighted that this happens on my last opportunity to confer the Edward MacDowell Medal.

So, the old order changeth, yielding its place to the new, and MacDowell fulfills itself in many ways, including the presi­dency.

After 11 years of creative and congenial ­leadership, the architectural scholar Carter Wiseman has stepped down as our president to pursue his own career as a ­teacher and author. Carter is with us, and I ask him to stand so that we can applaud his years of devotion to MacDowell and its artists.

So today, we introduce our new president, Susan Davenport Austin. Susan, a member of the MacDowell board, has impressed us all with her clear mind, her organiza­tional skills, and her devotion to the Colony.

Educated at Harvard and Stanford — and

president of Sheridan Gospel Network, which operates a 24-hour gospel network with some 40 affiliate stations. SBC is also majority owner and manager of American Urban Radio Networks, the only AfricanAmerican owned national radio network with more than 300 affiliates.

Susan is a busy and accomplished ex­ ecutive, and we are delighted to have her as our new president.

For more information about Why Is This Important?, our compilation of Robert MacNeil’s Medal Day speeches from the past 18 years, please contact us at info@ macdowellcolony.org.

Envisioning a Bright Future for MacDowell The Campaign for the Second Century is a commitment to the re-

complex and added Fellowship endowment are our priorities for the final stage, the

sources that MacDowell provides artists every day. An unprecedented initiative for the

centerpiece being the revitalization of Savidge Library. Responding to the evolving

Colony, this campaign will invest $13 million in Fellowships, stipends, and facilities, truly

needs of artists and their collaborations, the historic library will be updated to include

enhancing the residency experience for generations to come. As of this publication, more

a new media center. The $2.5 million project will result in a versatile multidisciplinary

than $10.5 million has been committed to these crucial projects. But we still have a

center for contemporary arts collection, creation, and presentation. (For more details

considerable challenge ahead: MacDowell must complete fund-raising by March of 2012,

on the library design, please see page 14 in MacDowell’s summer 2010 newsletter.)

which gives us a little more than a year to raise the remaining $2.5 million.

By adding $5.5 million for Fellowship endowment, the campaign will permanently

So far, the campaign has renovated Colony Hall, expanded MacDowell’s stipend

secure Fellowships for 55 artists each year. Fellowships offer artists time and space

program, and endowed a number of new Fellowships. The completion of a new library

to pursue creative work by covering the costs of a private studio plus room and board Tod Williams Billie Tsein Architects

The MacDowell Colony

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ood afternoon and welcome to MacDowell Medal Day 2010, our annual picnic under the ­pines and a chance to visit the usually clois­tered studios of the artists-in-residence after we bestow the Edward MacDowell Medal — this year to a gloriously talented musician. I’m Robert MacNeil, chairman of the MacDowell board of directors, and this is the MacNeil report for 2010, with several items of news important to the MacDowell community.

First and most important this year, the MacDowell Medal selectors have chosen to honor for the first time a jazz musician — in fact, one of the greatest jazz musicians of our time. And I’ll come back to that.

for up to two months. Already, 25 of these Fellowships are in place.

Thanks to several early grants totaling more than $800,000, stipends are already helping artists by replacing lost income and covering travel, rent, and other continuing expenses.

Stipends give artists with demonstrated need the peace of mind to work experimentally and productively while at the Colony.

As a whole, the campaign will ensure the excellence of MacDowell’s residency program as the Colony embarks on its second century of supporting artists in their creative pursuits. An envelope is included in this newsletter, and we hope you will join us in support of the campaign. For more information about any of these projects, please contact Tim Anderson, MacDowell’s campaign officer, at 212-535-9690 or tanderson@ macdowellcolony.org.

The rejuvenated Savidge Library (shown at left in its current state) and new Fellows Media Center will encourage artists-in-residence to share their work, offer dedicated space for individual research, and provide a home for a comprehensive collection of Fellows’ work.

Fellowships Open New Directions for MacDowell

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New BOARD MEMBERS

Arts Administrator/ Curator

Hilary Sample Architect

MacDowell Downtown

MICHELLE ALDREDGE

A series of free presentations offered by MacDowell Colony artists, MacDowell Downtown takes place the first Friday of each month from April to November at the Peterborough Historical Society. Artists who have recently shared their work at this community outreach program include composer Larry Polansky (May), writers Heidi Julavits and Ruth Konigsberg (June), interdisciplinary artist Hasan Elahi (July), filmmaker Laura Poitras (September), interdisciplinary artist George Higgs (October), and visual artist Anna Schuleit (November).

Anthony Schneider

Alex Shapiro

Writer

Composer

Elizabeth Taylor Editor

Sixto Wagan

Arts Administrator/ Curator

Left to right: Executive Director Cheryl Young, Stephen B. Nguyen, President Susan Austin, board members Rick Stone and Eleanor Briggs, and Wade Kavanaugh pictured in front of White Stag — an installation by Kavanaugh and Nguyen on display at MASS MoCA.

The National Council Goes to the Berkshires National Council patrons gathered in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts September 10–12 for MacDowell’s third annual National Trip. Participants toured MASS MoCA, the Clark Art Institute, and the homes of contemporary art collectors in the region. Colony Fellows joined the group for a reunion brunch, followed by a tour of MASS MoCA’s exhibition Material World: Sculpture to Environment, which featured the collaborative work of MacDowell Fellows Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen B. Nguyen. For information about the 2011 National Trip or National Council membership, contact Britton Matthews at 212-535-9690 or bmatthews@macdowellcolony.org.

Composer Larry Polansky performing at MacDowell Downtown.

MacDowell in the Schools

Events

Stuart Horodner

Courtesy Photo

Lawyer

Outreach

William Beekman

MacDowell artists bring the excitement of the creative process to local classrooms on a regular basis through our MacDowell in the Schools program. In April, painter Gwenessa Lam, filmmaker Jesse Epstein, and playwright Christine Farrell visited ConVal High School in Peterborough, where they shared their work and talked with students. Writer Darcy Frey spent time with students in a writing class at ConVal in June.

Courtesy Photo

Short Films Delight at New Hampshire Benefit This year’s New Hampshire Benefit, which took place at the Peterborough Town House on October 9th, featured a selection of short films by Colony Fellows Joanna Priestley and Karen Aqua, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Jesse Epstein, Laura Heit, L.M. Kit Carson, George Griffin, Meredith Holch, and Jessica Yu. Filmmaker and board member George Griffin helped to select the films. More than 200 guests attended the event and voted Yu’s Sour Death Balls their favorite film of the evening. The film screening was followed by a convivial dinner at Colony Hall for 90 supporters, guests, and artists-in-residence.

Courtesy Photo

Make Art: The Colors of Jazz, a special Medal Day outreach program sponsored by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, featured a jazz concert tribute to Medalist Sonny Rollins by The Fred Hersch Trio (jazz pianist Fred Hersch is pictured at left), and a school-based program that utilized the sounds of jazz to inspire students to create works of art.

Pictured below is a Make Art watercolor created by Dublin Consolidated School student Clara Martorano.

Laura Heit

Medal Day

Top: A still from Laura Heit’s animated short, Look for Me, which screened at the New Hampshire Benefit. Above: President Susan Austin and board members Tom Putnam and Eleanor Briggs enjoy the benefit dinner at Colony Hall.

7 The MacDowell Colony

Architect Jennifer Harmon was named the first recipient of MacDowell’s Graham Foundation Fellowship in October.

News

Karen Sampson

New Fellowships are helping to expand MacDowell’s geographic reach and its support of architecture and documentary filmmaking — two of the Colony’s fastest-growing art forms. A 2010 grant from The Fledgling Fund established the Colony’s first-ever Fellowship for documentary filmmakers working on exploring critical social issues. The Graham Foundation Fellowship for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts is providing a new residency opportunity at MacDowell for an architect whose work explores the intersections between art and architecture. Earlier in 2010, The Heinz Endowments established two Fellowships for artists of all disciplines from the Pittsburgh area, a region with a rich cultural heritage and a thriving arts scene. These Fellowships, which cover all costs of a residency for up to two months, are awarded to artists who are accepted to MacDowell through the Colony’s standard application process.

BEN COLLIER

100 High Street Peterborough, NH 03458-2485

Left to right: Interdisciplinary artist Heidi Kumao, writer ZZ Packer, composer Gordon Beeferman, architect John Lee, and visual artist Mimi Kato.

Mia Feuer, Visual Artist Washington, DC

Colleen Kinder, Writer Brooklyn , NY

Julie Salamon, Writer New York, NY

Anthony Alofsin, Architect Austin, TX

Stephen Fiehn, Interdisciplinary Artist Chicago, IL

Nicholas Kramer, Visual Artist Los Angeles, CA

Janine Salinas, Theatre Artist Los Angeles, CA

Evan Antonellis, Composer New York, NY

Cristian Flores Garcia, Writer Hemet, CA

Heidi Kumao, Interdisciplinary Artist Ann Arbor, MI

Tanu Sankalia, Architect Berkeley, CA

Chloe Aridjis, Writer London, UNITED KINGDOM

Tonya Foster, Writer New York, NY

Gwenessa Lam, Visual Artist Vancouver BC, CANADA

Adam Schoenberg, Composer New York, NY

Lee Arnold, Film/Video Artist Brooklyn, NY

John Fox, Writer Belmont, MA

Cath LeCouteur, Film/Video Artist London, UNITED KINGDOM

Zoe Scofield, Interdisciplinary Artist Seattle, WA

James Arthur, Writer University City, MO

Darcy Frey, Writer Cambridge, MA

Eun Young Lee, Composer Chicago, IL

Bob Seng, Visual Artist Brooklyn, NY

Shimon Attie, Interdisciplinary Artist Brooklyn, NY

Gabriel Fried, Writer Columbia, MO

John Lee, Architect New York, NY

Brenda Shaughnessy, Writer Brooklyn, NY

Jesse Ayers, Composer Canton, OH

Gary Giddins, Writer New York, NY

Young Jean Lee, Theatre Artist Brooklyn, NY

Justin Sherin, Theatre Artist Mt. Laurel, NJ

Kim Beck, Visual Artist Pittsburgh, PA

Andrew Gillis, Film/Video Artist Fayetteville, NC

Dan LeFranc, Theatre Artist Brooklyn, NY

Karen Sherman, Interdisciplinary Artist Minneapolis, MN

John Beckmann, Architect New York, NY

Eugene Gloria, Writer Greencastle, IN

Ellen Lesperance, Visual Artist Portland, OR

Juniper Shuey, Interdisciplinary Artist Seattle, WA

Gordon Beeferman, Composer New York, NY

Maximilian Goldfarb, Visual Artist Hudson, NY

Gaspar Libedinsky, Architect Buenos Aires, ARGENTINA

Jaspreet Singh, Writer Toronto, CANADA

Lorna Bieber, Visual Artist New York, NY

Fritz Haeg, Architect Los Angeles, CA

Samuel Lipsyte, Writer New York, NY

Hasanthika Sirisena, Writer Rocky Mount, NC

Hayes Biggs, Composer Bronxville, NY

James Hannaham, Writer Brooklyn, NY

Ricardo Lorenz, Composer East Lansing, MI

Gretchen Skogerson, Visual Artist New York, NY

Malachi Black, Writer Provincetown, MA

Jean Harper, Writer Richmond, IN

Kelly Luce, Writer Ben Lomond, CA

Karina Skvirsky, Interdisciplinary Artist Jersey City, NJ

Tia Blassingame, Architect New Haven, CT

Richard Hayes, Architect Staten Island, NY

Fiona Maazel, Writer Brooklyn, NY

Deborah Smith, Theatre Artist Providence, RI

Jonathan Blunk, Writer Crompond, NY

Lisa Hein, Visual Artist Brooklyn, NY

Katy McAulay, Writer Glasgow, SCOTLAND

Polly Sparrow, Visual Artist Austin, TX

Nataliya Bregel, Visual Artist Somerville, MA

Fred Hersch, Composer New York, NY

Anna McDonald, Writer New York, NY

Peggy Stafford, Theatre Artist Brooklyn, NY

Marshall Brown, Architect Chicago, IL

George Higgs, Interdisciplinary Artist Dublin, IRELAND

Maureen McLane, Writer New York, NY

Stacey Steers, Film/Video Artist Boulder, CO

Eric Carroll, Visual Artist Brooklyn, NY

James Hong, Film/Video Artist Seal Beach, CA

Terrence McNally, Theatre Artist New York, NY

Susan Steinberg, Writer San Francisco, CA

Michael Chabon, Writer Berkeley, CA

Chloe Honum, Writer Fayetteville, AR

Jiha Moon, Visual Artist Atlanta, GA

Deborah Stratman, Film/Video Artist Chicago, IL

Paul Charlton, Theatre Artist Durham, UNITED KINGDOM

Ching-chu Hu, Composer Newark, OH

Nami Mun, Writer Chicago, IL

Youngsuk Suh, Visual Artist Davis, CA

Leland Cheuk, Writer San Francisco, CA

Lee Hyla, Composer Chicago, IL

Tyler Myers, Interdisciplinary Artist Chicago, IL

Luis Tentindo, Interdisciplinary Artist Brooklyn, NY

Harriet Clark, Writer San Francisco, CA

Bill Jacobson, Visual Artist Brooklyn, NY

Susan Orlean, Writer Pine Plains, NY

Cori Thomas, Theatre Artist New York, NY

Angela Co, Architect Lexington, KY

Sherril Jaffe, Writer San Francisco, CA

Sylvan Oswald, Theatre Artist Brooklyn, NY

Hui Y. Tsai, Interdisciplinary Artist San Francisco, CA

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Writer New York, NY

Lars Jan, Interdisciplinary Artist Los Angeles, CA

ZZ Packer, Writer Austin, TX

Deborah Voigt, Theatre Artist New York, NY

Tom Cole, Theatre Artist New York, NY

Chelsey Johnson, Writer Oberlin, OH

Elena Passarello, Writer Grand Rapids, MI

Jen Wang, Composer Richmond, CA

Lisa Crafts, Film/Video Artist New York, NY

Jeff Jones, Writer Moscow, ID

Laura Poitras, Film/Video Artist New York, NY

Ellen Watson, Writer Conway, MA

Douglas Cuomo, Composer Brooklyn, NY

Heidi Julavits, Writer New York, NY

Larry Polansky, Composer Hanover, NH

Josh Weil, Writer Stonington, CT

Sebastian Currier, Composer New York, NY

Farrah Karapetian, Visual Artist Los Angeles, CA

Anzhelina Polonskaya, Writer Moscow, RUSSIA

Mac Wellman, Theatre Artist Brooklyn, NY

Ruth Davis Konigsberg, Writer Pelham, NY

Larry Karush, Composer Los Angeles, CA

Michael Pounds, Composer Muncie, IN

Megan Williams, Writer Rome, ITALY

Caitlin Doyle, Writer East Hampton, NY

Mimi Kato, Visual Artist St. Louis, MO

Ruth Reichl, Writer New York, NY

Mabel Wilson, Architect New York, NY

Richard Dubugnon, Composer Paris, FRANCE

Kirsten Kearse, Film/Video Artist Brooklyn, NY

Erin Riley, Visual Artist Philadelphia, PA

Catherine Wing, Writer Carlisle, PA

Dave Eggar, Composer New York, NY

Tricia Keightley, Visual Artist Brooklyn, NY

Elisabeth Robinson, Writer New York, NY

Bess Wohl, Theatre Artist Los Angeles, CA

Hasan Elahi, Interdisciplinary Artist College Park, MD

Lisa Kereszi, Visual Artist New Haven, CT

Neil Rolnick, Composer New York, NY

Pinar Yoldas, Interdisciplinary Artist Los Angeles, CA

Barbara Ess, Visual Artist Elizaville, NY

Eugenia Kim, Writer Washington, DC

Robin Romm, Writer Eugene, OR

Francesca Zambello, Theatre Artist New York, NY

Melissa Febos, Writer Brooklyn, NY

Joseph Kim, Writer San Francisco, CA

Mary Ruefle, Writer Bennington, VT

Interdisciplinary Artist

Hali Felt, Writer Portland, OR

Suki Kim, Writer New York, NY

Huang Ruo, Composer New York, 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

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 Marian 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.”

Applications are available on our Web site: www.macdowellcolony.org.

Chairman: Robert MacNeil President: Susan Davenport Austin Executive Director: Cheryl A. Young Resident Director: David Macy

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 11 Peterborough, NH

Michael Almereyda, Film/Video Artist New York, NY

On the cover…

Rodrigue Glombard

The MacDowell Colony

8

Fellowships

From May through October of 2010, The MacDowell Colony welcomed a total of 147 artists from 25 states and eight countries.

This group included 54 writers, 22 visual artists, 20 composers, 15 theatre artists, 15 interdisciplinary artists, 11 architects, and 10 film/video artists.

Visual artist Patricia Villalobos Echeverría puts the finishing touches on Salpullido @ 18°28’13.46” N, 69°54’36.84” W (EPS foam, wall intervention, 2010), on view at the International Caribbean Triennial at the Museo de Arte Moderno in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Marina Zurkow,

MacDowell is published twice a year, in June and December. Past Fellows may send newsworthy activities to the editor in Peterborough. Deadlines for inclusion are April 1st and October 1st.

Brooklyn, NY

Editor: Karen Sampson

Design and Production: John Hall Design Group, Beverly, MA

The Colony is grateful for the generous support of the following organizations:

All photographs not otherwise credited: Joanna Eldredge Morrissey Printer: Shawmut Printing, Danvers, MA Mailing House: Sterling Business Print & Mail, Peterborough, NH No part of MacDowell may be reused in any way without written permission. © 2010, The MacDowell Colony The names of MacDowell Fellows are noted in bold throughout this newsletter.