Vol. 35, No.2 Winter 2006

In this Issue News 2 The MacDowell Centennial 4 2006 Medal Day 8 Spotlight 12 Open Studio 14 Remembering 15 Fellowships 16 giving artists freedom to create

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

SINCE 1907

Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage 100 High Street Peterborough, NH 03458-2485 PAID Permit No. 11 Peterborough, NH The MacDowell Colony  On Message Executive Director Cheryl A.Young attend Medal Day renew their appreciation for what does art for each of us in our daily lives. Centennial celebration.G mission asseenthrough thesepagesofthenewsletter. rt isnotdistant,itwithinence andwhilewalkingthegrounds. reach. Themessageis:Art open theColony’s studiostothepublic. on the occasion of Medal Day. LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR FROM THE LETTER I think Mrs. MacDowell would be very pleased to see the vitality and ongoing resonance of the Colony’s In speechesgiven thisissueyou willalsofindthewonderful by News at www.macdowellcolony.org. MacDowell newsyou’llwanttoknowabout.Alloftheseservicesare stay intouchwithusbysubscribingtooure-Newsservice,whichsends amonthlybulletin about Blackboard, aforumtoexchangeinformationonhousing,itemsfor apartment orfindanapartment?NeedaridetoPeterborough?Add scheduled, anopening,oraconcertpremiere?Addittoouronline MacDowell hasmorethanonewaytoaddresstheneedsofartistspost-residency. Have areading S upcoming Centennial. relations planningfortheColony’s been advisingoneventandpublic its inceptionin2003,Manninghasalso Hampshire benefitcommitteesince volunteer ontheColony’sNew Mailer, andMarkBowden.Anactive including P.J.O’Rourke,Norman number ofitsmajorauthors, Atlantic Publishersonbehalfofa handling publicityeffortsforGrove/ year. Since1995,hehasbeen efforts onmorethan250booksper Manning oversawpublicrelations publicity atWilliamMorrow&Company, Bush. Asvicepresidentanddirectorof Society, andformerfirstladyBarbara National MultipleSclerosis Family Circle Waldenbooks, AvonBooks, Houghton Mifflin,enryolt, high-profile clients,including has workedwithavarietyof planning experience,Manning public relationsandevent Bringing 25-plusyearsof Colony’s boardofdirectors. named amemberofthe Scott Manninghasbeen Manning tay Connected! magazine,the et ready toputonyour dancingshoes. J oins A s part of this annual tradition, MacDowell anditsartists-in-residence

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Events collaborative met at MacDowell last year. residence and the local community artist first Friday of each month from September to May. The following programs are from September, October, and November. his video work exploring the impact of technol composer 11.3.06 Writer Book Award-nominated novel, MacDowell Downtown MacDowell For the fifth year in a row, the Colony continues to 9.1.06 Film/video artist 10.6.06 Experimental filmmaker present excerpts of their work ogy on human life and interaction. ew H in the Colony’s home state, the 2007 N Centennial celebration winter. at the Colony last who embarked upon just such a collaboration work of two Colony Fellows GRAMMY-nominated composer and pianist at Mount Holyoke College. from their collaborative Hersch and Salter will present an exciting program, including selections work, and sometimes another’s who come together, learn from one artists of many disciplines collaborate play, more than two dozen jazz artists in the world today. He has recorded and has appeared as a bandleader, has co-led another 20 sessions, work released 2006, Palmetto Records on some 80 additional recordings. In February, e-mail development members. To request an invitation for the 2007 New Hampshire benefit, Heard Mary Jo Salter and Fred Hersch at work on their collaboration. Anthology of Poetry, Norton Hersch Fred S January 27, 2007 Saturday, and Music Heard Fresh: Words Benefit for The MacDowell Colony The New Hampshire Silent Auction 6:00 p.m. Cocktails and Program 7:00 p.m. Dinner and A Painting Amsterdam: Live at the Bimhius, Mary Jo Salter entire week solo. history of the Village Vanguard to play an

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lease make a gift today to ensure that the magic magic the that ensure to today gift a make lease s writer writer s P happening every day at MacDowell will continue into the Colony’s second century. our Web site at www.macdowellcolony.org to contact or online, donation secure a make M collaborative work, and the new art forms of the to gift a making By future. you can help support the creative work of more than 250 exceptionally talented artists who will be awarded Fellowships in 2007. A gift envelope is enclosed in this newsletter. You may also visit of countless people. As MacDowell celebrates its Centennial during the coming year with a nationwide program of events honoring the vision of its founders, its forward looking also are we artists, its and mission, to the Colony’s second century by strengthening MacDowell’s support for individual artists, have made an extraordinary collective contribu tion to our culture, creating an enduring legacy of works that has been published, performed, lives the touching world, the around exhibited and Sculptor Miggy Buck in Heinz Studio. A leave behind them something more nourishing which than a hill of sand and gravel, something will survive in the world.” The 6,000 artists who at worked have where creative artists of all disciplines could work work could disciplines all of artists creative where stimulating company of in an ideal place in the their peers. olony was founded in MacDowell Colony was When The Edward MacDowell 1907 by American composer an and his wife, Marian, a pianist, it was A has noted, “the Colony is truly designed for the labor of art. Because of it, artists past and for decades to come on their property in in property their on experiment without precedent in America. The experiment without M Jason Ng Assistant to the Executive Director

Cheryl Carlson Housekeeper New Faces The MacDowell Colony  Baskets ontheGreen centennial — core, sotooitbecomesthecoreofourCentennialcelebration. varied astheartistswhocometoworkatColony.Ascreativefreedomistheir exhibitions, andspecialeventsthatwillmake2007 somemorable.Theyareas Day weekendinAugust. tive installationpieceandbirthdaycelebrationinconnectionwiththe2007Medal original arttoMacDowell’shometownthroughouttheyear,andaspecialinterac an excitingseriesofcommissionscalledPeterboroughrojectsthatwillbring Centennial Gala;andsomuchmore!SpecialcelebrationsinPeterboroughinclude Symphony pace;afirst-everColonyFellowsreunionpicnicinCentralPark; ence; anexhibitionattheLibraryofCongress;afour-dayMacDowellMarathon whose distinctivecreativeapproachesofferspecialinsightsintotheresidencyexperi storied pastanddynamicpresent;anoriginalfilmbyfourMacDowellartists, and friends,oldnew.Theyincludeabeautifulbook,repletewiththeColony’s intended tobeasthoughtfultheyarejoyfulforMacDowellFellows,supporters, interns, andvolunteers ensure asuccessfulsecondcentury. tremendous opportunitytoadvanceunderstandingoftheColony’smissionand A Centennialiscertainlyamilestonetocelebrate.ButforMacDowell,it’salso MacDowell • Acknowledge MacDowellinyourwork celebrate MacDowell’s100thyear: the picnic,thereareotherwaystohelp your calendar andplantojoinus! work ispresented. Please mark the date on cities andtowns beyond itwhere that innovationartistic takesplaceandthe woodlandwhereColony: therural the P fair, country painting, part theCentral Fellows reunion picnic.P friends areinvitedtothefirst-everColony MacDowell Fellows,theirfamilies,and together in2007.OnSeptember29th,all with aspecialwayforitsartiststocome way todothis.TheColonyhascomeup to makeitahugesuccessistheperfect in theCentennialcelebrationandhelping for thegiftofMacDowell.Participating ever expresstheirgratitudeandaffection Fellows oftenwonder ark picnicfusesthetwosettingsof logos.html. www.macdowellcolony.org/centennial/ can bedownloadedfromtheWebsiteat words. Logosandsuggestedlanguage promotional materials,orsimplyin by includingtheCentenniallogoin We inviteyoutoreadthefollowingcontributionsaboutperformances, To accomplishthis,alargeteamofpeople Of course,ifyoucan’tmakeitto Anne StarkistheprojectmanagerforTheMacDowellColonyCentennial. Shecanbereachedat @ macdowellcolony.org. about howtheycan art S art — eurat The have createdayearlongseriesofactivitiesandevents

S Colony Fellow. Steering Committee,andathree-time •  solo Museum ofModernArt,andhashada been includedintheProjectSeriesat Design andPrincetonUniversity.Shehas teaches attheRhodeIslandSchoolof • the Centennialperfectexpressionof different disciplinestogether.Let’smake ment thathasbroughtsomanyartistsof MacDowell forthevisionandcommit are sogratefultoEdwardandMarian dazzling year.IknowalloftheFellows — for eachofus. people whomakeMacDowellwhatitis our thankstothesefoundersandthe prings. consider comingtooneorallofthem. various programstakingplacenextyear, with oneanother.Asyoureadaboutthe is theperfectopportunitytotouchbase working attheColony.TheCentennial Fellowship is getting to know other artists things aboutexperiencingaMacDowell S Let MacDowellknowyourplansfor related toMacDowellartists. just howmanyculturalactivitiesare online calendar 2007 byenteringthemonMacDowell’s Julia Jacquette The Centennialisshapinguptobea how up!

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, with support from The Rockefeller, George Griffin Elisabeth Subrin My Centennial film is a collage consist My project was inspired by both personal I wrote and directed I wrote and

effect of both sharpening the mind’s eye and stirring up an edgy turbulence that comes with the vagaries of nature, new surroundings, strangers (who turned out to be just as weird as I), and all that splendid, scary solitude. ing of drawings, photos, and video all made meadow, the in studio, my (in Colony the at by the pond). There is a scratchy drawn figure of an artist and video evidence of various hands at work: painting, sculpting, folding, sketching. An imagined dialogue between two artists is heard between music. These ingredients are all cooked by creative strategies of layering and sequencing to compose a synthetic documentary.” — studied at Dartmouth, and started making animated films in New York in 1969. His work addition, the intense dedication of the staff addition, the intense dedication of the staff at MacDowell, most of whom are artists themselves, is such a central part of our experience there. We are so dependent on them, and their warmth and understand ing is an enormous part of why we thrive at the Colony.” — Up Guggenheim, and teaching at Yale University School “MacDowell was a pivotal experience 30 years ago when I began to shift from animated cartoons to films that focused on the processes of art: I learned to write with drawings in time. Being exiled to a white box in a forest had the paradoxical deconstructed anti-cartoons, as well as personal narratives. in three days! Cleo, played by unraveling of a writer, begins a residency, Cara Seymour, as she of former writers haunted by the legacy of her urban, who worked there. Stripped Cleo finds herself success-driven trappings, the world around unable to connect with her. A chance encounter with a former understanding Cleo’s challenges housekeeper of the interdependencies between art making, caretaking, and love. MacDowell at residence in while experiences with interviews and research archival by and MacDowell residents and staff last fall. Creating art in a studio amidst plaques listing decades of legendary former artists is a powerful and often daunting experience, putting one in the past and future simultaneously returned many times in my work. In “ shot on location at MacDowell short film in classic New Hampshire last March sleet, hail, bright weather: rain, light snow, snow sun, clouds, drizzle, heavy films have screened widely in the U.S. and overseas. She is currently working with of Art.

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he The selection was made by former and present panelists of Above and beyond this project, however, the Colony also T rt is delighted to participate in the celebration of MacDowell’s MacDowell’s of celebration the in participate to delighted is rt Michael Almereyda Elisabeth Subrin premiere at MoM cations and a jurist for several international film festivals. the MacDowell admissions committee celebration. —Jytte Jensen is a curator in the department of film and media at generated a quartet of outstanding work executive produced by Michael Sullivan of ( ideas, their represented best felt they genre or format whatever in their “season,” and the MacDowell spirit. The project has the various fields of animation ( ( to make a single film each by creating 20 minutes originating from their own script based on a particular season. The producers selected artists known for creative innovations in that could contain and express the artistic impulses of a MacDowell Fellowship. The MacDowell board passionately supported the idea of commissioning four MacDowell Fellows adventurous programming venues. wanted to create something original, representative, and lasting before a planned national tour of arts organizations and but enthusiastic and knowledgeable members of the profes sional film community whose aim was to represent MacDowell format. and form, genre, to respect in possible as widely as artists The public presentations will start in April, 2007 at MoMA the opportunities to flourish. intention was to demonstrate the breadth and variety of art that has roots at MacDowell, and also to illuminate how the Colony not only attracts innovative artists but also gives them originality first, but Fellows were also encouraged to submit works that reflected their MacDowell experience. MoMA’s international and national surveys of film and other media in a variety of genres and themes, and presents retrospectives of individual filmmakers, both experimental and mainstream. She is also a contributor of essays and critical writing to film publi call for submissions to MacDowell Fellows since 1970, when artists working in moving images were first invited to apply for Fellowships. The selection criteria consisted of excellence and Centennial by helping to create a touring film and new media Centennial by helping to create a touring from a general series. The film and video works were selected Up Gets Its Close- The Colony The department of film and media lisabeth Subrin (center) during a day of shooting her Centennial film at the Colony. Elisabeth Subrin (center) during a day of shooting A The MacDowell Colony  especially urban which wasstruckbyThomasPutnam, University PressofNewEngland,is ways tomarktheoccasion.Among MacDowell’s supportersbegantodiscuss pioneering institutionapproached, creativity thatEdwardknewsowell. of artiststofollowtheperilouspath provided thetimeandspaceforthousands woods ofNewHampshirethathas as TheMacDowellColony,aplaceinthe own art.Theresultiswhatwenowknow same circumstancesthathadadvancedhis strongest wish:toprovideothersthe was determinedtofulfillherhusband’s at theColonytothisday.) would launch a tradition that ishonored not tointrudeonhiswork.(This gesture in abasketontheporchofhiscabinsoas She evenwentsofarastoleavehislunch essential contenders in the creative process. frustrations grapple withthemuses built acabininwhichEdwardcould need fortimeandspaceofhisown.She Marian eagerlysupportedherhusband’s Edward asastudentofhisinGermany, An accomplishedpianistwhohadmet Columbia University’smusicdepartment. City, whereEdwardwasthefirstheadof refuge fromthehurly-burlyofNewYork New Hampshire.Thefarmprovedtobea 1896 in the bucolic town of he andhiswife,Marian,boughtafarmin pressures anddistractionsofnormal by immersioninnature,apartfromthe A States, Edwardindulgedanespecially to betakenseriouslyoutsidetheUnited woods. Asthefirstnative-borncomposer serious workdone,hewentintothe When EdwardMacDowell Paging MacDowell the Colonyinparticular,andcreativity in current chairman,laidouttherole that journalist RobertMacNeil,MacDowell’s turbulent, history.Andthenoted the institution’scolorful,andoccasionally Library ofCongress,agreedtochronicle context. RobinRausch,ascholaratthe essay thatwouldsettheColonyinalarger former chairmanofMacDowell,foran Vartan Gregorian,theeducatorand fulfill thosegoals,theColonyturnedto within theconfinesofaformerfarm.To stimulated somuchartisticinnovation and theinteractionamongthemthathas ence thatincludesnature,fellowcreators, ness” oftheplace,inimitableexperi board membercalledthe“being-there- intended toconveyasenseofwhatone evolution ofMacDowell.Butitisalso extent explain—therelentlesslycreative meant todocument—andsome Colony, 1907–2007 put somethingbetweenhardcovers.” birthday andwonderwhywehadnot wake uponthemorningafterour 1992–1998, whosaid:“Weshouldnot president oftheboarddirectorsfrom proposals wasabook,thesparkfor merican impulse: to seek creative strength As the100thanniversaryofthis After Edwarddiedin1908,Marian He wasabletodothislargelybecause A PlacefortheArts:TheMacDowell — that havealwaysbeen — life. , dueinJanuaryfrom — as wellthe needed toget P eterborough,

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image on cover by victoria sambunaris April 30,1928: these Sundayevenings to destroytheNewJerseyStudio! telltale colophon:Peterborough,NewHampshire. nity toshowcaseavarietyofitsincomparablecollections.Asidefrom at MacDowell. of score to of SanLuisRey nently amongtheLibrary’streasures.Theyincludefineprintsby the MacDowellcollections,worksofColonyFellowsfigurepromi all myadmirationandaffection,ThorntonWilder last over,Iwanttobearealsoldierforyouinmorepracticalfields.With kitchen. IamaPeterborovianforgood,andwhenmyteachingroutineis at stopped crying.Theantsonpage143weretheverythattrying write apageandthengooutwalkaroundinthesunlightuntilIhad one ofyourloyalistandmostindebtedboys…. Dear Mrs.MacDowell:Itmakesmeveryhappyjusttohearfromyou.Iam to theirwork,asinthefollowingletterfrom affection that Fellows had for her and get a sense of the Colony’s importanceMacDowell fromearlyColonyFellows.Onecanglimpsethewarm for researchersinterestedintheColony’shistoryanddevelopment. were giventotheLibraryofCongress,makingitprimaryresource its contents.In1969,theofficialrecordsofTheMacDowellColony the EdwardandMarianMacDowellCollectiontoreflectbreadth of earliest recordsofTheMacDowellColony.collectionwasnamed had amassedquiteanimpressivearchiveofherown,includingthe papers weretransferredtotheLibraryofCongress,MarianMacDowell took placeduetoMrs.MacDowell’sillhealth.When the Library’sCoolidgeauditoriuminAprilof1927,aconcertthatnever MacDowell, andinvitedhertogiveoneoffamouslecturerecitals in successor, CarlEngel,continuedtheLibrary’sassociationwithMarian unparalleled archiveofpreeminentAmericancomposers.Sonneck’s and establishedanacquisitionspolicythathasresultedinthedivision’s collect thecelebratedcomposer’smusicmanuscriptsandfirsteditions, of his Oscar Sonneck.In1903,MacDowellgavetheLibrarymanuscript grew outofEdwardMacDowell’sfriendshipwithmusicdivisionchief its influenceontheartsinAmerica. archives thatchroniclethedevelopmentofTheMacDowellColonyand first editions,photographs,andhistoricaldocumentsfromtheColony’s MacDowell exhibitwillincludefineprints,holographicmusicscores, within the from theLibrary’srichanddiversecollections.Aspecialpresentation featuring worksbydistinguishedMacDowellColonyartistsselected In Februaryof2007 Below: curator oftheMacDowellexhibition. — Robin Rauschisamusic specialist attheLibraryofCongressand for newsofthesefutureMacDowellColonyCentennialprograms. Scribner. ChecktheLibraryofCongressWebsiteatwww.loc.gov/today choral worksbyMacDowellcomposersdirectedmaestroNorman Library’s MaryPickfordtheater,andinthefallof2007,aconcert opment andincludepoetryreadings,authortalks,afilmseriesinthe other eventstocommemoratetheMacDowellCentennialareindevel signed byitscreators, shape, writtenwhilehewasatMacDowell;thescriptof John vonWicht Benny Andrews Opening theMacDowell Archive The Colony’sCentennialofferstheLibraryofCongressopportu The MacDowellColonyarchivecontainshundredsofletterstoMrs. The MacDowellColony’srelationshipwiththeLibraryofCongress In addition to the exhibition, which will run through the summer, Edwin ArlingtonRobinson ThecolophonfromAaronCopland’sscore Zweite (indianische)Suite,op.48 Aaron Copland American Treasures werewritteninthevalleybelowEmil’sgarden.Iwould , ; RobertCottingham LeonardBernstein , theLibraryofCongresswillpresentanexhibition — Dubose you willagainbetryingtoshoomeoutofthe ’s ballet LibraryofCongressexhibition,the and ’s epic … Billy theKid I hopeitwillnotbelongbefore Dorothy Heyward ’s notesshowinghis Tristram , JanetFish . ThegiftinspiredSonneckto Long sectionsof , aswellthemanuscript Thornton Wilder , bothofwhichbearthe Billy theKid , FaithRinggold ; andtheoriginal Porgy andBess , workedon Mass The Bridge taking dated —

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, a 2006 MacArthur Fellow, is and the century to come.” — and part mystery (What might a Centennial — A stage production will be the opening event A stage production will be the opening event the From the stage, a transition will be made onto Part play, part public performance, part installa Anna Schuleit a visual artist whose large-scale installations revolve around the archaeology and remem — large. Planning for the celebration, which will large. Planning for the celebration, which will unfold over August 11th and 12th, has been all the underway for months now. So as not to spoil here, surprises in store, I won’t give away too much but a few details are in order. of the Medal Day celebration, featuring children artists in from Peterborough paired with MacDowell These performances. collaborative 10 of string a as collaborations will use the decades of MacDowell a theme and incorporate the telephone signature device of communication and connection in the 20th century, which is also the only forbidden object in MacDowell’s studios. grounds of the Colony, turning the audience into participants within a site-specific installation that extends along miles of roads and walkways. Scattered around MacDowell’s 450 woodland acres, tele phones attached to trees, illuminated in the dark by cones of colored light, will ring and be available to anyone at any time to pick up. Voices from around the world will provide a moving evocation of the Colony’s story. As voice is paramount to the artist, so voice becomes paramount in our celebration. It becomes the method of connection and the means of sharing a moment in time. In the spirit of public art and with the use of telephones as a tool for exchange and dialogue, the public is invited to interact with the life of the Colony, its network of artists, and the wealth of past creations. envision will enable links between audience and By future. the and artist, space and time, history trademark privacy in a MacDowell’s ‘violating’ loving way, we will bridge the inside to the outside and perhaps be able to lift boundaries between those within the walls of the Colony and those beyond them. It is only then that we can really understand the spirit and significance of MacDowell over the past century brance of public sites and modern ruins. She was recently given a fellowship by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants by such institutions as the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health and the Elizabeth Greenshield Foundation. In addition to the MacDowell Centennial celebration, she is currently working on an installation for an uninhabited island in Boston Harbor for the Institute of Contemporary Art’s Vita Brevis 2007 exhibition. tion birthday cake look like?) -

nna, nna, A ­ Peterborough, of New York of and the place that of its community at resident — right where that freedom is Anna Schuleit and — Our Celebration own, member board As an artist asked to create a visual memory for Then there’s the capstone to the local celebra When you read about Anna’s plans, we’re sure

David Baum, Ph.D., is a consultant specializing in change through creative conversation. His clients include Fortune 50 companies, governments, and Nobel Prize-winning nonprofits. —A been have I MacDowell, to been have I time “Each Colony: the of contradiction curious the by struck public a finds that art the comes privacy such of Out movie halls, concert galleries, art In audience. work the everywhere, bookshelves on and theaters, Peter of setting protected cloistered, the in done world. outside the on impact major a had has borough MacDowell on the occasion of its Centennial, I considered this dual nature. I asked myself how one might pay tribute to its artistry but also unite it with MacDowell’s other face be on those projects that maximize community be on those projects that maximize community participation, can be seen by the general public, are and are temporary in nature. The possibilities as endless as the creative ideas of our artists, but what we know for sure is that this will be an exciting intersection between MacDowell and Peterborough’s citizens that will create a one-of-a- kind, truly unforgettable art experience. tion, which will take place over the annual Medal Day weekend on August 11th and 12th. We have commissioned artist City to create a sensational installation that will engage numerous townspeople and children in a of unique performance piece. In the words “We want below, read can you which of more something that people will be talking about till the next Centennial! It will be something that no one will want to miss.” you’ll want to be there! nna Schuleit, who has been commissioned to create a “visual memory” on the been commissioned to create a “visual memory” Visual artist Anna Schuleit, who has Medal Day 2007. occasion of the Colony’s Centennial. The work of art will premiere at Our T As the place MacDowell began where MacDowell contributes so much, Peterborough will be an even bigger cultural the destination in 2007 when the Colony salutes freedom to create most expressed. First, MacDowell will award the residencies to artists whose work will engage or local community in an event, happening, conceptual work. The goal of these special collaborations, called Peterborough Projects, will in the be to partner artists with volunteer citizens making of memorable works. Specific focus will

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A play And eabody eabody America at a P a 20-year nightly nightly 20-year a Breaking News. , and to keep that freedom and that The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour which takes place each December of giving artists freedom to create Wendy ork benefit, we believe that the gala is gala the that believe we benefit, York — Public Policy in on Arts and celebrated jazz, women of imagination, Sure, we love a good party. is always a delightful and exciting evening. Good friends, a lovely room, wonderful food, and most of all first- rate entertainment by artists we feel privileged to experience. Over the years, these benefit evenings have MacDowell’s annual New York benefit — — r. The Colony Colony The r. eil himself has received two two received has himself eil New The Voyage J , N The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, MacNeil/Lehrer The Mac

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chlesinger, chlesinger, S wards ecuring the Colony’s place in the future as it has been these these been has it as future the in place Colony’s the ecuring S A , poet Maya Angelou, and Burden of Desire , rthur rthur , MacNeil has been a force in both the artistic and political A usiness usiness B He is also the author of seven books, including the best-sellers best-sellers the including books, seven of author the also is He In the past, those who have addressed In the past, those who The Centennial Gala is scheduled for December 3, 2007. Mark your In saluting the freedom to create, we also call on our friends our on call also we create, to freedom the saluting In s the co-chairmen of the of co-chairmen the As As we look toward the 2007 Centennial Gala, it seems only appropri “Nancy Hanks has often been credited with marshalling people on all Neil was executive Until his retirement in October of 1995, Mac

Broadway musicals, Pulitzer Prize winners, and many of our most Washington Goes to MacNeil Mr. ancy established to honor the memory of N Washington, D.C., was the of the National Endowment forArts from Hanks, chairwoman artists, the public, people like you alive. dream uth Feder and Helen Tucker are board members and have served as — R the gala co-chairs for the past 16 years. a celebration of the freedom to create you won’t want to miss! which does so much for our culture and our arts. Each year the benefit raises funds for Fellowships for more than 250 artists. calendars and watch MacDowell’s Web site for details. We promise you past 100 years is the best way we can express our support for MacDowell, MacDowell, for support our express can we way best the is years 100 past performances that nourish our collective imaginations. ate that we celebrate Edward and Marian MacDowell’s vision, which defines the Colony. Their dream inspires the paintings, symphonies, films, novels, plays, sculptures, and an important opportunity for all of us to demonstrate that creativity mat creativity that demonstrate to us of all for opportunity important an ters and that we must actively foster it to make sure it thrives. cherished artistic talents. Gala co-chairs Helen Tucker (left) and Ruth Feder. Ringing in 100 Years tradition. His passion for the arts and deep appreciation for the role artists play in the wider world do justice to Nancy’s spirit and legacy.” communities, making him an ideal choice for this year’s lecture. sides of the political aisle around the value of the arts,” says Executive Director Cheryl Young. “We couldn’t be more pleased that Robin has been invited by Americans for the Arts to become a part of their annual Wordstruck Crossroads to the numerous awards won by the career, he has covered such major events as the construction of the career, he has covered such major events as Movement, the Berlin Wall, the Cuban missile crisis, the Civil Rights White House. In addition Kennedy assassination, Watergate, and The editor and co-anchor of of co-anchor and editor 2007, the chosen speaker will be noted broadcast journalist, author, and MacDowell Chairman Robert MacNeil. is proud to announce that on March 12, proud is actor and filmmaker Robert Redford, Redford, Robert actor and filmmaker Fellow MacDowell and playwright Wasserstein historian this distinguished assembly of cultural this distinguished assembly have included leaders and public officials 1969–1977. It is intended to provide an opportunity for public to provide an opportunity for public 1969–1977. It is intended culture to level on the importance of the arts and discourse at the highest our nation’s well-being. Nancy Hanks Lecture The annual Journalism Review’s Best in including two Emmys and two American the and has been inducted into the Television Academy’s Hall of Fame. and has been inducted into the Television partnership with Jim Lehrer on PBS. During his 40-year journalism wright, a filmmaker, and the host of the new PBS series tucker steve The MacDowell Colony  to readherstoriesontheCBradio,andpublish courage in 1976 and sent a letter to them in Shadow.” hortlyafterwards,Robert Weaver began she publishedherfirststory,“The Dimensionsofa didn’t needanyhelp.WhenAlicewas18yearsold published, shemightwellhavethoughtso,that amount andqualityofherworkthathadalreadybeen didn’t believesheneededanagent.Lookingatthe replied, thankingmeformyoffer,butsayingthatshe wrote I had to write her. This was a new concept, thatyou knowing that how much I admired Phoebe Larmore,MargaretAtwood’sagent.Knowing who befriendedmewhenIbecamealiteraryagentwas What apleasuretobehere.Oneofthefirstpeople Virginia Barber 2006 Medal Day Virginia “Ginger”Barber(left)andAliceMunro. somebodylikethis,butIfinallyscrewed up my The TamarackReview A lice Munro had no agent Alice Munro’s writing . Othersupportersalso special MedalDaynextyearunderthe(Centennial)tent! Colony provided immediate anduncannyinspiration.Finally,markyourcalendarsnowforavery also wantto be sure to read what the Medalist herself said, as even her very short experience at the talk aboutAliceMunro’sworkgivenbyherlongtimefriendandliteraryagent,VirginiaBarber. You’ll MacDowell Centennial,fullydescribedintheprecedingpagesofthisissue. words deliveredbythespeakersandAliceMunro.ndallweretreatedtofirstglimpseof exciting workintheopenstudiosofourartists-in-residence,nottomentionthoughtprovoking Literature onSunday,August13th.pproximately1,500visitorstookinthecrispair,clearskies, and A recordcrowdgatheredtowatchwriterliceMunroreceivetheEdwardMacDowellMedalin A W lice Munro. Alice e invite you to share, or relive, the Medal Day experience in these pages by reading the illuminating

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walked inandfoundanenormouspileofslush Vancouver, asawifeandmother.Shewasalsobusy published onlyafewstories.Shewasbusyathomein discovered Alice,eventhoughshehadwrittenand letter andrealizedshe’dheardthat storyreadonthe States letters inmagazines could identifytheauthor.Noonecould.Hepublished started askingaroundhisCanadiancontactsifanyone was noauthor’sname,date,address.Sohe Shades.” Hewaseagertopublishthisstory,butthere he rejectedeveryoneexcept“DanceoftheHappy him, butdiligentlyhereadthem manuscripts. This was a pile of short stories that daunted is thegracioustermbusinessusesforunsolicited magazine, thelittlemagazine children wereinbed. learning hercraft,tryingtowriteatnightwhenthe In 1960,whenaneweditortookoverthesmall — and eventuallyapoetinVancouversawthe — both inCanadaandtheUnited The Montrealer — every one , he — — and this name andnodate.AssoonasIhadreadthesestories Alice’s stories eventually arrived in my office to gainherabiggeraudienceintheUnitedStates. to sayRosellenBrownisherewithustoday.Alice editor CharlesMcGrath(knownas“Chip”)tolunch. stories byAliceMunroin1973,butnothinghad recently published,andoneIrecommendtoyou. in RobertThacker’sbiographyofAliceMunro,abook lunch andtheybecamefriends.Thistaleisrecounted The Montrealer make certainthathereadthese storiesbyAliceMunro he didn’tknowwhat.The“what” Iwantedwasto Chip saidlaterthatheknewIwanted something,but another agentandIinvitedtheyoung appeared eitherbeforethatorafter,andIwaseager Eisenheimer at asked hertosendmesomeunpublishedstories.Lisel to workwith. represented writinglikethatwassomebodyshewanted read Rosellen’sbook,andrepliedthatanagentwho sented, The AutobiographyofMyMother this timesendingalongawonderfulfirstnovelcalled that awedmeandcompelledtowriteAliceagain, appeared in1974.Theseweretheextraordinarybooks in 1971; published in1968; CBC, andshegotintouchwithAliceMunro.When A Once IhadAlice’spermissiontorepresenther, lice’s first collection, Rosellen Brown Something I’veBeenMeaningtoTellYou boughtthestory,Alicetookpoetto McCall’s Lives ofGirlsandWomen magazinehadpublishedtwo . Itgivesmealotofpleasure Dance of the Happy Shades byawriterIrepre New Yorker — appeared with no

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Publishing, Inc. ankee .C.; Bookshops; Y oadstool surely two of her most outstanding characters, surely two of her most outstanding characters, lthough this story may begin with hints of Eudora Although this story may begin with hints of “Material” deals with another of Alice’s key themes: Now, 20 years later, here in her hands is a story by elty, especially in our amusement at Et’s early sallies, Welty, especially in our amusement at Et’s early it ends more in the stonier realms of Flannery O’Connor. O’Connor. Flannery of realms stonier the in more ends it But it is, of course, very much Alice Munro: her countryside, her people, her themes. We find spirits most kindred to Et and Char in other stories, and particularly in “The Beggar Maid” with Flo and Rose — creations. We should note that whatever criticisms her own Alice’s fiction levels at her country’s values, and attachment to these places and people remains continues to inspire her. work the issue of the relationship between a writer’s narrator had and his real life. The female, first-person whose 20 years ago been married to Hugo, a writer marriage, reputation has slowly grown. During their Hugo wrote and his wife did all the rest: cooking, cleaning, caring for their daughter, maintaining a in attending to Dotty, an unhappy woman who lives in the basement of the house. In thinking of her life with Hugo, she remembers a year when the rainy season set in and the old basement water pump began to run, continuously thumping, wrecking Hugo’s sleep and his writing. One day Hugo shuts off the pump, causing a flood in Dotty’s apartment, ruining most of her belongings. But he’s too busy to think about it, much less to accept any responsibility. Hugo. She begins to read and realizes it’s about Dotty. To her shock, it’s a good story. This is a quote: “How honest this is, and how lovely, I had to say as I read, Picnickers on the lawn at Medal Day. quiet place for Hugo’s work. She also tried to be kind -

ay Business Sponsors… Business ay real, if long ago. — Inn; James Thomas Salon; Nichols Agency, Inc.; Jack Daniels Motor Bellows- and Events; ables Foundation Financial Group Lincoln . LLC Resources, Stone River MARKEM Corporation; Melanson Heath & Company, P Inc.; Citizens Bank; eters, . P aper Mills, Inc.; The Segal Company. T Aesop’s edal D Our 2006 Medal ou to A. W The Keene Sentinel; Kingsbury Corporation; Macy of Boughs of Holly; Holly Benefits Group; CGI Employee The course of the story moves down darker paths, Friends: Print & Mail. Business Sterling RiverMead; & Middleton; Raulerson McLane, Graf, Books. and Vintage A. Knopf Publishers Alfred Special thanks to although Et never labels her knowledge as potentially destructive. Instead, as she looks at the picture of Char still on Arthur’s dresser after all these years, she thinks he shouldn’t die without knowing. As Alice writes, “He shouldn’t be allowed.” He shouldn’t be allowed, I think it means, his innocent ignorance or his happiness and his memories of Char, or his unaltered love for her. And so, it’s often on the tip of Et’s tongue to say, “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” Thank Y Partner: Corporate Lead Contributors: Patrons: names have been cut down to size: Et and Char) who names have been cut down to size: Et and or discerning never misses finding a flaw in somebody, zingers with a weakness. Her gift for casually firing off a fond the innocence of a baby has given her both comforting reputation as the town’s local terror and a sense of her own power. Et has grown up to be an old maid and a seamstress, content to live the constricted life of this town, content not to stand out, other than for her zingers, not to ask for grander adventures. It is Et who embodies the town’s values and mores; Char is smothered by them. and when Et spontaneously invents a fiction and presents it as truth, its cruelty may well have killed her sister. Was Char’s death a suicide or a heart attack? but through Et’s eyes, still manages to reveal Et’s unacknowledged jealousy and resentment of Char. Through that ill will alone, she’s implicated in her sister’s demise. Et eventually moves in with Char’s husband, something she always wanted. She’s comfort able with him and with her life, but also comfortable in knowing that one day she might tell Arthur the truth about Char’s real love life Monadnock P Supporters: Inc.; Press, Sim’s Hampshire; of New Philharmonic; Public Service Hampshire Sunapee Bank fsb; The New Lake Builder; The T Timothy Groesbeck Design & Communications; Sterling Books by Alice Munro displayed at Medal Day. We understand that truth could destroy Arthur, We can’t say, yet this story, told in the third person

The The New Doug and , began its The Atlantic Atlantic The lice Munro Munro lice The New — A they can bite. — Redbook published one each. The New Yorker magazine (now defunct) , and these two editors Viva Ploughshares , and through Michael Curtis at at Curtis Michael through and , quickly offered us a first-read contract for quickly offered us a first-read contract , and lso in 1978, we drew a contract with Doug . Also in 1978, we drew a contract with Doug . In 1978 Ms. have been with Alice ever since. , but getting rejections. — The Beggar Maid If you want to follow a character whose casual Chip did read them, and “Who do you think you are?” and “What do you As many of you know, Alice’s stories take place in a It is Et, the older sister of Char (and look how their phrase moves from preceding a statement of mild and amusing insult to being preface to a poisonous power. meaning to tell you” was once innocuous, suggesting only that the speaker was forgetful, but it isn’t so simply used in this story. As the tale progresses, the indifference to her own emotional brutality will shock you, just look at Et in “Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You.” Perhaps the phrase “something I’ve been denials of those mores. There’s nothing modest, or shy, or weak, or sweet, about these stories made stories that exist as affirmations drawn from of acquiring knowledge for its own sake, with no immediate practical purpose, seemed suspect and wasn’t encouraged after you left school. But instead doing all of this just to avoid real work? Or, if you wanted to study something or ask questions about a place or an event or a person, the response was likely were better than others, to be too nosy about people’s lives and behavior. Besides, weren’t writers mostly particularly admired in the Huron County of this time. To be a writer was to put on airs, to act as if you want to know for?” are well-known phrases that are used as titles of Alice’s stories. These phrases connote themes that often appear in her stories, and they carry personal meaning for this author. Writers weren’t landscape and of small-town life. From her stories, we know this life well. settings were most in her mind’s eye at this time, and these early stories have much description of the as Gibson, then at MacMillan and now with his own imprint at McClelland and Stewart in Canada, for Alice’s fourth book, and with Ann Close at Alfred A. Knopf. The book was published in the United States Grand Street Grand Monthly New Yorker Redbook Yorker wide array of magazines, and in 1977 another story wide array of magazines, and in 1977 another Smith at appeared, this time through Ann Mulligan Maid” in 1977. I continued to submit the stories to a Maid” in 1977. I continued to submit the Yorker I was going to hand him, and didn’t put them on the I was going to hand him, and didn’t put them slush pile. She had been sending stories to fictionalized Wingham, the town in Huron County where she grew up. Others are set in Vancouver, where she lived when she was married to Jim Munro, and where she still has an apartment. But the Ontario Ann lice, and thereafter we had fewer stories free to offer Alice, and thereafter we had fewer stories free elsewhere. But when we did we got them published published two stories by Alice, and now long and admirable relationship with with relationship admirable and long now Beggar by publishing both “Royal Beatings” and “The in wonderful magazines such as Ben Sonnenberg’s to be: “What do you want to know for?” The concept of abiding by the mores of her time and place, Alice 10 The MacDowell Colony a writer!)ShedecidestowriteHugoacknowledge think think it’sbecause,asshesaid,I’mneverquitesatisfied,andsomehow I’malwaysretreating alittlebitbecauseI signing thestories,butshe’sperfectlyright Thank yousoverymuch.Iguesscanseehowmuchdidn’tneed Ginger!I’dforgotten allthatstuffaboutnot Alice Munro and ahousekeeper,find reality. Howdoesawomanwho isawife,mother, beating heartofthehome wife there’ssomethingmissing:It’sthatpump it is,butisn’t.Youaremistaken,Hugo.’”Forthe never planned.‘Thisisnotenough,Hugo.Youthink I begantowriteshort,jabbingsentencesthathad front ofmetowritemyletterandhandjumped. his achievement.“Ifoundapenandgotthepaperin a fineandluckybenevolence.”(Whatpassage;what might say,ofaspecial,unsparing,unsentimentallove, magic; thereisnogettingaroundit.Itanact,you spent allhislifelearninghowtomake.Itisanactof suspended inthemarvelousclearjellythatHugohas there isDotty,liftedoutoflifeandheldinlight, generation been menwhobelievedthatawomandoingreallyseriouswork,not and DeborahTreisman that there’ssuchathingasnormallife,andIamgoingtofind itsomeday. wonderful time,andIwishcouldstay.Thankyou. thank mentioned someofthem want tothankyousomuchforthisMedal,andImany peoplewho’vebeenhelpfultome.Ginger Canada. to do.AndsoIgotbusythissummerreadingbooksfortheGillerPrize, whichisavery importantliteraryprizein Canada, that Iwantedtowrite,andneglectedmyduty.justlaythere It’s true,thisisabsolutelytrue to readsomemoreofthisbook,andsuchistheeffectplace The questionsremainforAlice.Firstisthepractical When So Icanseewhathappenstopeoplehere,anddothinkitisremarkable. 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woman settingoffonavacation.Butshe’shopingto in the first story, get upandassemblethisexpressioneveryday.With a burden;ithastobejustifiedeveryday.So,he them all together in one issue rhythms, andwhencalledfor,theevocationofbeauty a readerfindsthepreciselyselectedword,compelling There arethreeofthem,and emotional charge. managed precisely detailed,economicallyandrhythmicallywell never simple;theybecomepsychologicallycomplex, simple openingsentences,weenterstoriesthatare cal insights.Thinkingveryhighlyofyourselfcanbe buoying himup.”That’soneofherwitty,psychologi load ofself-esteemthatweighedhimdowninstead something hardandheavyhadsettledinsidehim carefully good-naturedexpression,buthelookedasif fell inthemiddleofaparagraph:“Lawrencewore furniture.” into therailwaystationandinquiredaboutshipping freckled foreheadandafrizzofreddishhaircame on somanyofthebranchlines,awomanwithhigh, same.” “Yearsago,beforethetrainsstoppedrunning in thedreamvariedsurpriseitwasalways to dreamaboutmymother,andthoughthedetails in theturkeybarnforChristmasseason.”“Iused going tostayovernight.”“WhenIwas14,gotajob the southerncoastofNewBrunswick,whereshewas end ofthesummer,Lydiatookaboattoanislandoff opening sentences,four,selectedatrandom:“Atthe fairly plainlanguageinabriskpace.Herearesome or apowerfulemotion.Thestoriesoftenbeginwith girls andwomen,friends,lovers, husbandsandwives happen forJuliet. ship willbeformedthroughtheyears. Thatdoesn’t lucky, as either a daughter or a mother, a new relation a certainage,thedaughtermustseparate.Ifyou’re important peopleintheworldtooneanotheruntil,at of mothersanddaughters,whocanbecomethemost She simplygoesonliving,andreplaystheoldpatterns Juliet doesn’treachacrossthegap;shesaysnothing. all right.Ithink,soon it getssobadI she burstsout:“Whenitgetsreallybadforme,when and weak,Sarahregistersherdaughter’sirritation, loves her, and how much they used to share. she’s veryhappy. isn’t marriedbutliveswithherchild’sfatherandthat tells oneandall,eveniftheyhaven’tasked,thatshe (she doesn’tbelievethereisaGod,shesays).Shealso superiority by insulting her mother’s friend, the minister Juliet doesn’tspareher.Shedisplaysherassumed Sarah, themother,hasanincurableheartdisease,but freer, cleverer,moresophisticatedthanhermother. She stillperceivesherselfassomethingofahippie living withherloverbutnowvisitingownparents. (and shedoes).Inthesecondstoryshe’samother, find amanshemetontrainsometimepreviously now collectedin One thatgotmeoccursinthestoriesaboutJuliet. Relationships among people We’ve seenearlierinthestoryhowmuchSarahstill Then Iopened — stories thatoftencarryaswift,powerful, … YouknowwhatIthinkthen? J Runaway uliet is a risk-taking, confident young Selected Stories … soon,I’llseeJuliet.”But . Youmayrememberthat

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­ - 11 The MacDowell Colony Tours tudio S An important part of every Medal Day comes when the public is invited to wander through the studios and interact with artists-in-residence. These photos represent just some of what can be observed among the 32 studios where great art first emerges.

,

would be her her be would in 2004, she said Runaway … this is much of the stuff The View from Castle Rock lice Munro to other great writers. writers. great other to Munro lice . In her ability to capture the is visibly publishing. And so A The View from Castle Rock Castle from View The Willa Cather The New Yorker material she’s been interested in since we met. But all of whom live in particular places with particular all of whom live in particular places with I’ve also learned that nearly every time Alice I’ve been blessed to travel with Alice Munro such a Also included in this volume are some stories she others to insides of romance and marriage, she’s been compared to Henry James. Some say her stories bring characters in a region as powerfully alive as James Joyce’s Dublin or William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, and her women stand equal to John Updike’s men. She’s our Chekhov, she’s our Flaubert. Yes, she’s all of this, but most and best of all she’s our Alice Munro. volume to alert all us readers to. These reviewers have compared consistently which I hope in a year or two reviewers will have a 12th Some point to similarities with Eudora Welty, and Munro say that that say Munro last book. I think some of the headlines read: “Munro Quits Writing.” But this time we have an excellent riposte for Alice: We already have some new stories, stories pay more attention to the truth of a life than fiction usually does, but not enough to swear on.” had withheld from collections as being somewhat different from her usual fiction. As Alice writes in the foreword to this volume: “You could say that such so pages in her new book, in spite of the extraordinary number of letters, diaries, journals, and printed material reaching back to the 1700s in Scotland, nonfiction wasn’t satisfying. How could she fill the historical gaps? But even more, what did they look like? What did they say to one another? What were they feeling? So, we quickly agreed: Turn the same sort of thing, and this time I suggested she write a nonfiction book about her Laidlaw ancestors — completes a book she opines that it will be her last. She’s used up all of her material; she has nothing to say. After the publication of to give another dinner party.” nervous about that than I am about these three stories nervous about that than I am about these I’m working on. So I threw them in the mail to you a today.” Ever after, if I’ve gone too long without batch of stories, I call Alice and say, “Alice, it’s time demands on herself. Once she called me and said, demands on herself. Once she called me and more “I’m giving a dinner party tonight, and I’m long way. We’ve become friends who understand one why Alice another’s ways. For example, I’ve learned used to send out unsigned stories: She’s rarely satisfied with her work. She’s not quite ready to claim it yet. social rules and regulations of Alice’s work. And to me, in her hands, the stuff of a magical alchemy. — which will be out in November. We look forward to the November publication of this volume. Just recently there was a new book, her 11th brouhaha in Canada because a reporter heard Alice it into stories. And that material is the first hundred or It needs to be a little bit better. She makes hard James Lapine to Stage King Lear Called America’s premiere Shakespearean actor, Kevin Kline will return to New York’s Public Theater this spring as King Lear in a performance directed by Colony Fellow James Lapine. Lapine, who has earned numer- ous awards for such shows as Sunday in the Park with George, The Diary of Anne Frank, and Into the Woods, worked on the staging 12 potlight for Lear during his May residency at the Colony. Lapine has had S four residencies at MacDowell, having been encouraged to apply Tony-winner James Lapine in Sprague- by his good friend and Colony Smith Studio. Fellow, the late Wendy Wasserstein. “Privacy,” he says “makes for productivity.”

Eve Sussman, recently lauded by Time magazine, in Shop Studio. T he MacDowell C olony Time for an Innovator Eve Sussman, a MacDowell Fellow in 2001, was recently named one of Time New and Notable magazine’s “Innovators and Storytellers.” Below is a selection of some works by Fellows created in whole or in part at the Colony that were recently donated Citing her video work — which presents to MacDowell’s Savidge Library. imagined narratives behind iconic works of art — the magazine called her pieces Books DVDs “poignant reflections on time itself.” 89 Michael Chabon The Final Solution, fiction Roberto Doati Un Avatar del Diavolo Seconds at Alcazar, which caused a stir at Christina Davis Forth a Raven, poetry Jem Cohen Chain the 2004 Whitney Biennial, revealed the Akuo Ehoh The Last Traditional Burial, fiction minutes before participants took their Music Catherine Ingraham Architecture, Animal, Human: places for the famed Velazques painting Gregory Hutter Still Life, CD and musical score The Asymmetrical Condition, Las Meninas. Sussman’s new video, nonfiction Paul Moravec Tempest Fantasy, musical score which Time’s Richard Lacayo called a Anna Monardo Falling in Love with Natassia, Tarik O’Regan Heart of Darkness, musical score “meditation on loneliness, longing, and fiction the failure of Modernist utopian Visual Art Mireille Marokvia Sins of the Innocent, nonfiction schemes,” goes behind the scenes of Raquel Ortiz The Silk Purse, nonfiction John Bisbee Ten Tons, book Jacques Louis-David’s painting The Rape Neil Shepard This Far from the Source, poetry James Huang Male of the Species, photograph of the Sabine Women. The work recently received a preview at the Nasher Susan Steinberg Hydroplane, fiction Christa Parravani Untitled, photograph Museum of Art at Duke University with Rachel Wetzsteon Sakura Park, poetry Nikki Smith Untitled, painting future viewings at other venues to come.

A Trio of Operas The new production of David Lang’s chamber opera The Difficulty of Crossing a Field premiered at the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University in New Jersey on September 14th. Based on a story by Ambrose Bierce about the mysterious disappearance of a slave owner in pre-Civil War Alabama, the opera was first performed by the Kronos Quartet in San Francisco in 2002. Staged C ourtesy photo by Ridge Theater, the Montclair produc- tion featured a libretto by Mac Wellman, projections by Laurie Olinder, and films by Bill Morrison. Doug Dorst Competes on Jeopardy! A new libretto by Michael Korie will be unveiled at the world premiere of The A few months after departing from his Grapes of Wrath, an epic new American second residency at MacDowell in January opera composed by Ricky Ian Gordon. of 2006, writer Doug Dorst enjoyed a run Set to premiere in February at the L aurie O lin d er as a contestant on the television game Clockwise from top: A scene from The Difficulty show Jeopardy!. After his first victory on Minnesota Opera in Minneapolis, the of Crossing a Field, by four Colony Fellows; three-act opera will be produced in the the program for the opera version of The April 20th, Dorst — a creative writing Grapes of Wrath, by Michael Korie. spring at Utah Opera, and in 2008 at teacher at St. Edwards University in Austin, Houston Grand Opera and Pittsburgh Texas — went on to win two additional Opera. Says Korie about adapting games and walk away with winnings that persuaded the Wilder estate to allow Steinbeck’s literary masterpiece: “The totaled nearly $67,000. Qualified as one Rorem’s adaptation. The opera traveled book told the truth of its own time. It of the highest winners of the season, Dorst to Lake George Opera and the Aspen endures because essential truths make was invited to return to the show in May Music Festival and School — two of its it also of our time.” for the Tournament of Champions. co-commissioners — in July, and will Ned Rorem’s operatic adaptation of be staged at the remaining three co- Thornton Wilder’s iconic play Our Town commissioners next year. Productions has received rave reviews since its will take place at the North Carolina premiere at Indiana University’s Opera School for the Arts in February, and at Theater in February. Co-commissioned Festival Opera in California and Opera by five other organizations, the opera Boston next summer. features a libretto by J.D. McClatchy, who Artist Awards, Grants, Quotables “The most important aspect of my stay at MacDowell was the and Fellowships uninterrupted span of time in beautiful Natalia Almada Electronic Media and Film Grant for Distribution, Al Otro Lado ~ New York State Council on the Arts and quiet surroundings. This environ- ment enabled me to concentrate with Katherine Arnoldi Juniper Prize in Fiction ~ University of Massachusetts Press clear focus and take significant risks Emily Brown American Academy Purchase Award within the parameters of each piece I C ourtesy photo Chris Burawa Literature in Translation Fellowship ~ National Endowment for the Arts confronted. This experience has already made it clear to me that its impact on my E.L. Doctorow PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, The March work has been significant and will continue to bear fruit for a long time to come. Douglas Gauthier Wilkinson Award ~ Royal Australian Institute of Architects I uncovered a new freedom of expression in both music composition and sound Rinne Groff Emerging Playwright Grant ~ Village Voice Obie Awards design that I sensed was just beneath the surface of ways I had been approaching Ann Harleman Literature Fellowship ~ Rhode Island State Council on the Arts 13 this work — ways that would well to the surface if only I had the time to go Morton Kaish Benjamin West Clinedinst Memorial Medal ~ Artists’ Fellowship Inc. T he MacDowell C olony digging. My stay at MacDowell gave me the time I needed to break through.” David Kamp Honor Award in General Design ~ American Society of Landscape Architects —Interdisciplinary artist Ken Steen talking about the work he did during his joint residency earlier this John Kelly Gilmore D. Clarke/Michael Rapuano Rome Prize, year with composer Gene Gort on their multimedia piece, Reliquary of Labor. The work was commissioned Inhabiting the Skin of Caravaggio by the Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation and the American Composers Forum Continental Barbara Klein The Space Program Grant Harmony Encore Project to celebrate the opening of the newly renovated New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut. Scored for electronic cello, percussion duo, sampled sound/noise, multichannel video, Michele Kong Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and Web site (www.reliquaryoflabor.org), the multimedia performance piece premiered at the museum on Dale Maharidge Investigative Journalism Grant ~ Open Society Institute November 26th. An extract is pictured above. Jo McDougall Arkansas Writers Hall of Fame Inductee

Sarah McEneaney American Academy Purchase Award

Toni Mirosevich Mid-List Press First Series Award for Creative Nonfiction, The Whole Story MacArthur Names Jena Osman Pew Fellowship in Poetry Two Fellows Bob Perelman Pew Fellowship in Poetry One is a writer who is “forging a new Damon Rich Loeb Fellowship ~ Harvard University Design School form of literary journalism with an eye Martha Ronk National Poetry Series Winner, Vertigo for detail and a passion for depth to Karen ShermaN McKnight Artist Fellowship for Choreographers ~ illuminate worlds little known and less The McKnight Foundation understood.” The other is a visual artist Elizabeth Thompson Creative Work Fund Grant, A Bird Flies Like Birds whose work “explores the structures and Jennifer Tseng PEN Beyond Margins Literary Award, The Man With My Face settings of the past, their architecture, Carol Wax American Academy Purchase Award and their stories, paying tribute to

Chuck Webster The Space Program Grant forgotten lives and reminding us of our courtesy o f the national en d ow m ent or arts common humanity.” Both Adrian Nicole Andrew Hudgins encourages the creativity of Natasha Wimmer Literature in Translation Fellowship ~ soldiers through Operation Homecoming. National Endowment for the Arts LeBlanc and Anna Schuleit are also now MacArthur Fellows. LeBlanc was Tamara Zahaykevich The Space Program Grant Fellows Take Part in specifically cited for her 2003 book Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble and Coming Operation Homecoming of Age in the Bronx, which she worked on Andrew Hudgins and Erin McGraw were at MacDowell. Schuleit was commissioned two of 24 distinguished writers selected this year to assist in the MacDowell to run writing workshops at 25 domestic Centennial celebration over Medal Day and overseas military installations as Quotables “Since my stay in August of ’97 I’ve only 2007 weekend. The MacArthur Foundation, part of the National Endowment for the missed Medal Day twice. It was great to walk through which annually names between 20 and Arts initiative Operation Homecoming. the woods, see the lovely cabins, and visit a fellow writer 25 fellows, spans a wide gamut of fields, Aimed at encouraging and inspiring U.S. in Star Studio (where I stayed); to meet emerging artists, including the arts. Award winners are marines, soldiers, sailors, and airmen touch the chairs in the dining room for good luck, and given $500,000 over five years with no (and their families) to share their personal sit at the table outside Colony Hall and stare out at the strings attached. wartime stories and experiences in writing,

courtesy photo the workshops — held between April, fields; and to sit in the gazebo to quietly meditate before I 2004 and July, 2005 — resulted in more departed. It is so comforting to reconnect with a time when I was both resting and than 10,000 pages of submissions. An yet focused on my work, a safe place to work on a dream. That is what I hope to anthology consisting of some of these, get each time I attend Medal Day — to reconnect, refocus, and gain clarity about Operation Homecoming: Iraq, Afghanistan, my next book.” and the Home Front in the Words of U.S. Troops and Their Families, was released —Writer Raquel Ortiz, talking about her visit to the Colony for Medal Day 2006. by Random House in September; the remainder will be preserved in a federal government archive. A documentary about the Operation Homecoming program Paying Tribute to A Play a Day will air on PBS in 2007. Spalding Gray Suzan-Lori Parks’s grassroots national theatre festival 365 Days/365 Plays kicked Colleagues, friends, and admirers of the off on November 13th. Conceived of by late Spalding Gray took the stage at New Parks and Bonnie Metzgar, the idea for Disney Developing York’s P.S. 122 from May 31st–June 4th the festival — to simultaneously stage to honor the memory of the renowned Jules Feiffer Book a different play every day of the year at writer and monologuist. The program, The Man in the Ceiling, a book written and various venues across the country — titled “Leftover Stories to Tell,” was illustrated by Jules Feiffer, is currently originated in 2002 when Parks decided created and co-directed by Gray’s widow, being developed as a musical stage play she would write a new play every day for Kathleen Russo, and producer Lucy by Disney Theatrical Productions. The 365 days. Aiming to “map the rich diversity Sexton. Readings and performances of story about a boy who dreams about of the American theatrical landscape in Gray’s monologues juxtaposed with being a cartoonist will be brought to life new and surprising ways,” the festival journal entries and poems — as well as with music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa features presentations of a selection of some of Gray’s previously unpublished (The Wild Party, A Little Princess) and Parks’s 365 plays in differing formats writing — were given by such notables as MacArthur winners Adrian Nicole LeBlanc libretto by Feiffer, who has said: “Writing at selected venues across the country. author Jonathan Ames and actors (top) and Anna Schuleit. the book for a musical has been an Spearheaded by The Public, the New Olympia Dukakis, David Strathairn, Aidan ambition of mine for years, and working York component of the festival will Quinn, and Debra Winger. with Andrew and the Disney organization feature a variety of independent artists, on this very personal story of childhood, producing and presenting organizations, creativity, family, and failure is a dream and theatre companies that will each come true.” produce one week (seven plays) of the full cycle. The festival will run through November 12, 2007. 14 The MacDowell Colony Open Studio Sir ThomasMore’s16th-centurybook mapping thedimensionsofparadiseasdescribedin painting andblueprinting,Fernandezisliterally A could anyonelivethere?Thisispartofarchitect What wouldthemapforUtopialooklike,and Alexander Fernandez A Fernandez isaleaddesigneratGenslerinBoston. In 2002,hereceivedtheprestigiousGabrielPrize.Currently, Education (JAE) near Pisahavebeenpublishedinthe research andanalyticaldrawingsofaCarthusianmonastery master’s inarchitecturefromSyracuseUniversity.Hisformal —Alexander Fernandezreceivedabachelor’sdegreeandhis is thebestkindofperspective. in utopianarchitecture.Andthat,Fernandezargues, bigger questions the individualtotranscendhimself its properantidote.Byembracingsettingsthatask to thearchitect.Infact,hefeelssuchalifemaybe blueprint for modern life does not seem contradictory utterly onremovalfromtheworld,couldbe day solutionsthroughlecturesandperhapsabook. Fernandez hopestoenvisionandpresentmodern- line plans.”Byincorporatingbothsidesofhisbrain, charcoal oneday;thenextI’llbemakingcrisp,hard- Following More’swords,heuses“watercolorsand wants tounearththesetruthsbydepictingthem. And, likeaspiritualIndianaJones,thearchitectnow had experiencedinthemonasterytosecularliving. features: quiet,aprevalenceofnature,andsolitude. dental spaces,suchascemeteries,offersimilar them. Fernandeznotesthatmostofourtranscen are groundedinidealizedsettings.”Orthebasisfor notion thatthearchitectureofritualandmemory Fernandez. “Thesecommunitiesarelinkedbythe is partofabroaderinterestincommunities,”says Utopia in hisbookforwhatconstitutedtheidealcity.In the Carthusianorder,Moreofferedrichdescriptions

rchitect lexander Fernandez’s curious new project. The factthatmonasticlife,whichdependsso Fernandez believesthatMoreappliedwhathe Inspired bymonasticlifeandhavingbelongedto Alexander Fernandez , the city is called and exhibitedatseveralU.S.universities. — modernity maymeetitsmatch A mourot. “Mapping Journal ofArchitectural — to consider Utopia. B lending U topia

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work, however,issomethingtobehold.Vividasa cally evokesomethingtobehold.LindaGanjian’s is her most spontaneous art form, but what’s striking would seemtobetheoppositeofwhatGanjiansays than ayeartoassemble.Suchpainstakingwork then gluespiecebypiece,eachcarpetcantakemore from polymerclaythatshefiresinhertoasteroven infinity ofpattern she says.“There’sanabundanceofornament, time andinsistentlymodern. Ganjian’s “carpets”areboththrowbackstoanother candy storeandtexturedlikeanactuallandscape, connotation ofwhatwewalkondoesn’tautomati weavings centuriesago.Butintoday’sworld,the when one considers the tapestries and Middle Eastern Imagining carpetsasartobjectsbecomesle Linda Ganjian VISUAL Pollock-Krasner Foundationgrantin2005. She hasbeentherecipientofnumerousawards,includinga and ArchitectureinNewYorkEyewash has beenexhibitedmostrecentlyattheStorefrontforArt —Linda GanjianisaQueens-basedsculptorwhosework such traditions alive but exalts them at the same vessel ofcontinuity.Theworkthisartistkeeps these worksofartwerethesymbolhome, increases one’ssenseoftopography. so theycanbeviewed“aerially,”agod’s-eyeperch ecstatic color.Andbecausetheartistpresentsthem exert aspiritualitybasedonrepeatedpatternsand traditions ofherMiddleEasternforebears,theydo with smokestacks. motif, exchangingthedragonsofAsianiconography take thegentrificationofherneighborhoodasa These structures capture memory disavows it.Drawingfrommemory about eachpieceisthewayitimpliesdetailand of lifeandwhereGanjian’sheritageoriginates —

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- and theSteppingStoneTheater. Theater, EnsembleStudioTheatre/Alfred P.SloanFoundation, others. Herworkhasbeencommissioned byTheGuthrie Angeles TheaterCenter,andtheStella AdlerTheater,among with theMarkTaperForum,TheGoodman Theater,theLos —Christina Ham’splayshavebeenproducedanddeveloped them? For Ham, thisistherealtheatreofwar. privileged atbirth shape the world that surrounds necessary? Andhowdoestheconscienceofthose enlist these children and foodonthetable or aresultofchoices?Canthepromiseprotection examination ofconscienceitself.Ismoralityinnate rejects thatautomatically,shefeels. a 10-year-old?Itisthepositionofprivilegethat 24-year-old maysomedaybecomea14-year-oldor observes, whydon’twethinkit’spossiblethata cautions. Withourmilitaryspreadsothin,she “The childsoldierisn’tsoremovedfromus,”she social problems any gooddramatist,sheisnotcontenttoletbig interested increatingaplaythatpreaches.Butlike find useventually. for long disengagement, shesays,doesn’tpromisetowork repression,” shesays.“Itreliesonisolation.”Such “Security hereseemstomeanignoranceand to theviolentrecruitmentofchildrenforwarfare. in otherpartsoftheworld;suchdeprivationleads America remainingasuperpowercreatesdeprivation implications. Hambelievesthatthesecurityof in anygivenperiod,butthisisanalarmingtrend.” about this. There’s only so much we’re willing to digest Tutsi. I recognize that hack hissister’schildrentodeathbecausetheywere one Rwandanchild,age10,whowasorderedto to beinvolvedinconflictsassoldiers.“Ireadabout Breath needs tobeshed?” the lineandsaysthisisperverse?Howmuchblood Christina Ham,“butIkeepwonderingwhodraws “I’m Christina Ham P lay Ham’s politicizationisnotpolemical.She An alarmingtrendthateverydayhaswider Baby’s Breath Ham istalkingabouthernewestwork, not one to write about politics,” says playwright w , a drama about the 300,000 children estimated right — Ham believesthesedeprivedworldswill is a conscientious effort incited by an — global tragedies

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Ted Berkman_Author, screenwriter, and writing teacher Ted Berkman passed away on May 12th in Santa Barbara, California, at the age of 92. During his long and expansive career he worked as a reporter for the The New York Daily Mirror, as a writer for United Artists and London Films, as a correspondent for the ABC radio network, and as the Middle East chief of the Foreign Broadcast Intelligence Service — the precursor to the CIA. Best known for his book Cast a Giant Shadow, he was the author of seven books. His screenplay credits, which also total seven, include the 1951 film

Dani e l R i tz Bedtime for Bonzo starring Ronald Reagan, and Fear Strikes Out (1957) starring Anthony Perkins and Karl Malden. A freelance theatre reviewer, columnist, and essayist, he also taught writing courses at local colleges and at the nationally esteemed Writers’ Conference. Berkman left a generous bequest to MacDowell in his will.

Patricia Goedicke_Poet and former University of Montana professor Patricia Goedicke died on July 14th in Missoula, Montana. Known for poetry that the Washington 15

Post called “rich in emotion, memorable rhythms, and human relations,” she was a T he MacDowell C olony student of W.H. Auden and Robert Frost. She wrote a total of 12 books of verse, including The Tongues We Speak (1990) — a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and her most recent The Earth Begins to End, which was named one of the top 10 poetry books of 2000 by the American Library Association. In addition to these honors, she was the recipient of fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. She met her husband, the late writer and former Esquire fiction editor Leonard Wallace Robinson, at the Colony. She was 75. Remembering Stanley Kunitz_On May 14th, one of the most acclaimed poets of the last century passed away at the age of 100. Stanely Kunitz had an extraordinary career that spanned nearly 80 years. During that time, he wrote nine volumes of poetry and amassed a vast array of honors, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1959 for Selected Poems: 1928–1958, a book composed of poems he wrote at the Colony. He was also the recipient of a Bollingen Prize in 1987, a National Book Award in 1995 for Passing Through: The Later Poems, and a National Medal of Arts in 1997. In 2000, at the age of 95, he was named the poet laureate of the United States. A founder of the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts (where he summered for almost 50 PLAYWRIGHT years), and Poets House in New York, he is widely credited for having a profound Daniel Reitz influence on a new generation of poets. He wrote and taught at a number of schools including Bennington College, Vassar, Brandeis, Rutgers, and Columbia, and was a Can love coexist with power and the pursuit of judge for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Competition. A free memorial tribute in his status, particularly in the cutthroat world of art? honor was held in New York on September 20th at the 92nd Street Y, where poets Given a choice between the two, does the rarity of including Galway Kinnell and Marie Howe read from his work. About his passion for poetry, he has been quoted as saying: “The poem comes in the form of a blessing — artistic success trump the rarity of true love? These ‘like rapture breaking on the mind,’ as I tried to phrase it in my youth. Through the are but two of the questions playwright Daniel Reitz years I have found this gift of poetry to be life sustaining, life enhancing, and abso- asks in his new work, Self-Portrait in a Blue Room. lutely unpredictable. Does one live, therefore, for the sake of poetry? No, the reverse Following the relationships between five men — is true: Poetry is for the sake of the life.” including a renowned and dying painter who acts as the patriarch and nexus for the other men — Reitz Dika Newlin_Composer, musicologist, and teacher Dika Newlin passed away also explores class, ambition, and the modern on July 22nd in Richmond, Virginia. Unusual predilections in music were bookends on Iditarod of fame as the secular compensation for the life of this five-time MacDowell Fellow, who composed her first symphony, Cradle Song, at the age of 11 and became an avid fan of punk rock in her 70s. After graduat- lost faith. ing from high school at the age of 12 and Michigan State University at 16, she studied The play begins with Julian, the painter, winning with the composer Arnold Schoenberg at the University of California in Los Angeles. the National Medal of Arts from a president whose Later in life, as one of Schoenberg’s last surviving students, she would write the politics he doesn’t support. The vanity and indignity Encyclopedia Britannica entry for him. She is also the author of Schoenberg of the prize, along with his impending death, weigh Remembered: Diaries and Recollections 1938–76, a nonfiction account of her experiences on Julian and provoke the jockeying that follows as his student. Her work as a composer includes three operas, a chamber symphony, a piano concerto, and numerous chamber, mixed-media, and vocal works. Over the between the men who orbit him. Once into Julian’s past couple of decades, she became known for her experiments with alternative world, we are privy to the bonds between them. Like popular music and her acting in cult films, including the 1995 Dika: Murder City. In Russian nesting dolls, the men resemble each other, 2004, she retired from her teaching position at Virginia Commonwealth University in only in increasingly diminutive positions of power. Richmond, which she had held since 1978. She was 82. All want to mentor and be mentored, all are in relationships with those who can help them, but all Howard Shanet_Composer, conductor, and professor Howard Shanet passed possess second lovers, all of whom are younger. away on June 19th in Manhattan. A former student of Aaron Copland and former conducting assistant to Leonard Bernstein, he appeared as a conductor with several The dearth of women in the play suggests a parti- major American orchestras during his career, including the New York Philharmonic cularly masculine strain of love, which is competitive and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His work as a composer included pieces for and sublimated by mentorship. In each relation- orchestra, string quartet, and band. He was the author of a 1956 music textbook Learn ship, one man increases status for the other but is to Read Music, as well as Philharmonic: A History of New York’s Orchestra, a 1975 unsatisfied in that role. The dissatisfaction arises nonfiction book about the New York Philharmonic. A professor of music and orchestra from an absence of authentic emotion, the thing the conductor at Columbia University for more than 20 years, he was chairman of Columbia’s music department from 1972–1978. He was 87. characters seem to thirst for and resist. In this drama, the paradox of the male psyche Prolific poet, professor, and historian Peter Viereck died on May seems to be the way in which such emotion — such Peter Viereck_ 13th at his home in Hadley, Massachusetts. Recognized as one of the early leaders of love — may offer fulfillment, though more often the American conservative movement of the 1940s and 1950s, he was a professor of it is viewed as a choice that circumscribes power. history at Mount Holyoke College for nearly 50 years. The author of 13 poetry collec- The fact that legacy and money are involved is no tions — including Terror and Decorum, for which he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1949 — he surprise. This contemporary “self-portrait” suggests was the recipient of Guggenheim fellowships in both poetry and history. He was also that there are two lines to the American heart: one the author of Conservatism Revisited: The Revolt Against Revolt, 1815–1949, a book that espoused his middle-of-the-road brand of conservatism. At the time of his death, he drawing the fantasy of true connection and the other was working on two books that will be released by Transaction Publishers within the sketching the fear that such connections are not year: Strict Wilderness: Discoveries in Poetry and History, and Transplantings, a book of enough to deliver us into the manor born. translations and criticisms of German poetry. He was 89.

—Daniel Reitz is a playwright and screenwriter. His plays have been developed and produced at the Mark Taper Forum, the Public Theatre, Naked Angels, Ensemble Studio Theatre, and Manhattan Class Company. Urbania, his film adaptation of his play Urban Folk Tales, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was released by Lions Gate Films. 16 The MacDowell Colony New York,NY Lynchburg, VA Eugene, OR Urbana, IL Bronx, NY Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn, NY New York,NY New York,NY Stonybrook, NY Stanford, CA San Francisco,CA Brooklyn, NY New York,NY Jackson Heights,NY Austin, TX included Brooklyn, NY New York,NY Marie Carter, Miggy Buck, Malden, MA Louise Borqe, Betsy onner, Christopher Bolin, Anna Boden, Jen Bervi, Sarasota, FL Barbara ernstein, interdisciplinary artist Jonatha Berger, Brooklyn, NY David Baskin, Madison, WI Amy QuanBarr, Mississippi State,M Jason Bahr, Portland, ME Jessica Anthony, New York,NY filmmaker Michael Almereyda, From John Felstier, Rodney Evans, Julie Evans, interdisciplinary artist Nicolas Estevez, Stephen Elliott, Mike Dolan, Uday Dhar, Thomas Devaney, Monica delTorre, Lisa SelinDav, Sebastian Currier, Nathan Currier, playwright Jorge IgnacioCortis, Eduardo Corral, Cathleen Corett, Tom Cole, Suzanne Cleary, Che n, interdisciplinary artist Adam Chapman, New York,NY Philadelphia, PA New York,NY St. Cloud,MN Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn, NY Peekskill, NY Brooklyn, NY

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