The MacDowell Colony ANNUAL REPORT 2003 – 2004 CONTENTS 1 The Mission 3 Message from the Chairman 4 Report from the President and Executive Director 6 Artists-in-Residence 17 Colony Fellows Executive Committee 18 MacDowell in the Community 20 Events 22 The Edward MacDowell Medal and Medal Day 23 Gifts for Residencies and Studios 27 The MacDowell Circle Contributors 31 Message from the Treasurer 32 Board and Staff 33 A Gift to MacDowell (clockwise from top left) Composer Andrew Lee, Interdisciplinary artist Denise Marika, and Architects Lorella Di Cinto and Jonsara Ruth front cover (clockwise from top right) Fiction writer John Dalton, Composer Amelia Kaplan, Filmmaker Kevin Everson, and Painter Katharine Kuharic THE MISSION The MacDowell Colony nurtures the arts by offering creative individuals of the highest talent an inspiring environment in which they can produce enduring works of imagination. More than 240 creative artists come to In 1907, the Colony was founded the Colony each year from all parts of by American composer Edward the United States and abroad. Anyone MacDowell and Marian MacDowell, may apply. The sole criterion for his wife. Since its inception, more than acceptance is talent as judged by a 5,500 women and men of exceptional juried committee in the applicant’s ability have come to the Colony in discipline. A residency lasts from two Peterborough, New Hampshire. weeks to two months. Accepted artists Situated on 450 acres of woodlands are given a private studio in which to and fields, the Colony has 32 studios. work, as well as room and all meals. It is listed in the National Register of There are no residency fees. The Historic Places and is a National Colony encourages artists from all Historic Landmark. backgrounds to apply and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, Works of art conceived, developed, handicap, sex, religion, marital status, and completed during residencies at or national origin. MacDowell have added immeasurably to our country’s cultural life. In 1997, To continue to provide an ideal working The MacDowell Colony was awarded place for gifted artists, The MacDowell the National Medal of Arts for “nurtur- Colony depends upon public interest ing and inspiring many of this century’s and generosity and is very grateful to finest artists.” the many friends who have given their support. (clockwise from top left) Fiction writer Frances Hwang, Composer Yaron Gottfried, Visual artist Georgia Metz, and Interdisciplinary artist Adam Frelin MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN As someone who toiled in the vineyards of television for many years, I find myself increasingly dismayed by the tabloidizing of our principal national medium. What are the marks of the tabloid? They are: ridiculous magnification of the trite, sensationalism, mawkish sentimentality, and competitive patriotism—all for marketing purposes, of course, but some with an undergarment of political intent. This summer more than ever I feel the need for a corrective to weigh our values in more accurate scales; to uncheapen the currency of national feelings; to throw out the counterfeit currency of false emotion and distorted emphasis. More than ever we need minds uninfected by the marketplace, to put ideas back into some sane hierarchies of importance. More than ever we need our artists for minds free of cant, free of slogans. So, more than ever, we need places that nurture artists and such a place — pre-eminently, we think—is MacDowell. Robert MacNeil Chairman 3 REPORT FROM THE PRESIDENT AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR After working together through many seasons, the MacDowell staff and board have found a rhythm and momentum that propels us smoothly through the crests of activity and the calm of windless days. The many activities that filled the past twelve months are described in the following pages. The lulls, mis- leadingly named, may not be visible in these pages but deserve mention, as the thinking done during them drives the activities we undertake. While conducting our business as usual — providing residencies to more than 250 artists, managing budgets, processing applications, convening panels, con- ducting outreach, communicating with our supporters, refurbishing the plant, and raising funds—this year we engaged in a series of planning sessions in preparation for exciting things to come. Small groups met throughout the year to discuss long-range plans for the residency program, and to forecast the funding needed to carry out our vision. After myriad discussions with artists, consultants, and supporters, we landed on our feet with a single overriding goal: quality. This is nothing new in the context of a program that has been driven by that goal since its inception. However, it was refreshing to focus once again on why we value it and how we achieve it. We begin by sharing two insights gleaned from dialogue with MacDowell artists that provide context for MacDowell and its role. Early in the year we welcomed a journalist from The Christian Science Monitor who wanted to talk with artists-in-residence about why they come to MacDowell and whether they felt things were better or worse for artists in 2004 than they had been in the past. We quickly realized that times were never easy for artists; MacDowell’s very existence was born out of need and the growth in the field of residency programs ever since the Colony’s inception underscores this perennial truth. One might think it would dampen the motivations of even the most committed artists, but during a roundtable discussion, poet Gail Taylor suggested that the inability of artists to survive on the profit of their work is not a total loss because they will bring their creative way of thinking to the general workplace; they will infiltrate society from within. MacDowell provides the window of time to be an artist. As our year ended, we gained insight from another discussion. Playwright Mac Wellman, participating in a MacDowell Salon event, lamented the fact that dialogue about art is isolated to places like MacDowell. Aside from occasions in academia, and those are often restricted to a single department, there is little opportunity in the arts community for cross-disciplinary dialogue, the value of which was Edward MacDowell’s most firmly held belief. The Colony provides a chance for these cultural conversations to take place. Often the site of such dialogue, MacDowell’s Eugene Coleman Savidge Library has been undergoing a transformation. Over the past several years, we have catalogued the collection of works by Colony Fellows totaling 9,020 items and growing. Martha Moore began her tenure as our first permanent part-time librarian. Her main task is to continue to improve the library and to catalog new work as it is donated. As a result of this attention, we are creating a system for accessing visual artists’ slides for resident artists to browse, and an Internet workstation is now in place for research purposes. Owing to the productivity and generosity of Colony Fellows, who are increasingly donating examples of their work, we now know that the shelf space will be entirely filled in a year and a half. Our library expansion plans are underway. The centennial steering committee headed by Tom Putnam has recruited a virtual army of leaders who met throughout the year to propose celebratory activities in 2007 and discuss the broader value of such a celebration. With a national centennial celebration, we seek to raise awareness of the value of creative artists and the arts nationally through our events and communications. To that end, we welcomed Anne Stark this April as our centennial coordinator. 4 Mary Carswell led an invigorating meeting with new board members in November to explore long-range planning. Gerry Gartner gathered together the financial team for its second annual retreat to analyze and forecast our financial position. We welcomed development consultant, Victoria Jones Neill, to the conversation and began the first phase of planning for a campaign that will address capital and endowment needs. With quality ever in mind, we expanded our formal assessment of the residency program. Are we reaching the most talented artists from around the country? Are we keeping up with and anticipating the changing needs of artists? In the fall, Dan Hurlin, chairman of the Admissions Committee convened a joint meeting of advisors in all disciplines to consider how MacDowell is perceived and what its challenges are for the future. Later in the year, we held the first in an on-going series of discipline-specific meetings. Amid statistics and anecdotes, the conclusion emerged that, while the peer- panel system is functioning well, there are opportunities for improvement. We would like to attract more applicants in playwriting and architecture, reach a broader geographic base, and encourage more applications from interdisciplinary artists and those taking risks with new forms. Finally, we gratefully acknowledge resident director David Macy for his careful attention to the day-to-day operation of MacDowell and we commend all the MacDowell staff for their dedication. Our communication and fundraising offices have performed outstandingly well this year. In April, Brendan Tapley was promoted to communications director and began the challenging task of connecting the thousands of Fellows to create an ener- gized community in support of our common goals. In addition to including more artists’ voices in the newsletter, the web site has been upgraded to include a calendar, links to Colony Fellow home pages, and a Colony Fellows Executive Committee section. A new listserv and e-news service has been launched. The development team led by Wendy Belser has done an outstanding job of expanding and energizing our support base. In addition to organizing the annual New York benefit, which honored Wynn Kramarsky and yielded unprecedented revenue to support artists’ fellowships, development staff collaborated with a newly formed committee in New Hampshire to produce a wonderfully successful benefit last September featuring board member Ken Burns.