2016 Annual Report

contents MISSION STATEMENT Yaddo’s mission is to further the creative process by providing an opportunity Report from the Co-Chairs 3 President’s Report 4 for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment. Chosen on Yaddo Guests 2016 6 a competitive basis by panels of widely recognized artists, guests work in both Sponsored Residencies 10 New York City Benefit 12 traditional and nontraditional media. They include emerging and well-known Saratoga Summer Benefit 13 artists, reflecting a broad range of contemporary styles and creative perspectives. Yaddo in the Community 14 Financial Information 15 They are welcomed to Yaddo without regard for their financial circumstances. Yaddo Contributors 16 Gifts in Honor/Memory Of 22 Trask Society 23 Cover background photo taken by composer Chao-Jan Chang while in residence. Directors and Members 24 This page: True North by Jenny Snider. Staff 24 2 YADDO ANNUAL REPORT 2016 REPORT FROM THE CO-CHAIRS The five new live-work studios which have been up and running for a year are functional, beautiful, and bring Yaddo’s facilities into the 21st century. ast year we began our report The second half of 2016 saw us Yaddo’s endowment remains steady in by reminding ourselves of how retain the firm Lacey Thaler Reilly the midst of expansion and renovation, grateful we are for Yaddo and Wilson to oversee that process, from our thanks, as always, to Candace Weir, for the inspiration, creativity, documentation to scope of work and who oversees our finance committee. and refuge that it provides to bidding negotiations. Construction artists of high caliber at all will begin this year and should be Of course, Yaddo could not run without stages of their careers. completed in 2018. the dedication and hard work of our wonderful staff. Thanks to Elaina LThis year, as we consider the potential As we approach a celebratory moment Richardson, our president, who has threat to federal arts funding and in achieving these goals, the board been working non-stop on our behalf, its widespread actual and symbolic and membership must continue overseeing all aspects of development, effects, maintaining the support and to chart a course for Yaddo, post- membership, and the Yaddo day-to- sanctuary that Yaddo offers any and restoration. The capital campaign, day operations. She is also our best all artists who meet our high criteria of which has made this important work advocate, spreading the word about admissions is even more crucial. possible thus far, will continue to be Yaddo in the world at large. just as is crucial as we move forward. Thanks to the persistence, vision, The campaign continues to grow in We firmly believe that Yaddo ought and generosity of our board and our strength and creativity, reaching out to be maintained for generations to membership, we continue to make to a wider community of donors. To come, and that our work right now great strides in implementing Yaddo’s date we have raised over 6.2 million, is essential in achieving that goal. strategic plan. After almost 8 years of putting us a year ahead of our initial As always, we look forward to your preparation and strategic long-range timetable and allowing us to deepen our feedback and new ideas. thinking, completion of the major goals preservation goals. of our first phase is in sight. The five new live-work studios which have Keeping with our mandate of building been up and running for a year are and invigorating our membership, we functional, beautiful, and bring Yaddo’s are delighted to welcome four exciting facilities into the 21st century. In new members, Tamara Jenkins, A.M. Homes and Susan Unterberg, addition, these facilities increase our Joseph Keckler, Tarik O’Regan, and Co-Chairs capacity for residents. Huberta von-Voss Wittig. Sadly, our membership lost two dedicated and We are almost ready to begin work longstanding members, Michael on the stabilization of the Mansion. Harper and Aileen Ward. 3 PRESIDENT’S REPORT key element of Yaddo’s mission the Yaddo story since the beginning. The has always been the provision great cache of letters and files known as of a buffer between artists and the Yaddo Records, housed at the New the demands of regular life. York Public Library, is filled with vivid Here on the forty acres that reminders of this. For instance, there’s Ahouse our studios and living quarters, James T. Farrell noting in September of the dominant sounds are birds chirping, 1938 that “The war situation has gotten leaves crunching underfoot, and nearly every one every where hanging on the (admittedly less bucolic!) steady the ropes … . Anyway, it was a nice old murmur of traffic on the Northway. world while it lasted. There was injustice, No television, the protective shade of and some got more than others, and it ancient trees, and respect for quiet was inequitable, but it was not so bad hours all help to provide a cocoon-like sometimes, and anyway, it was neither state, leaving the 200 artists we serve as bad nor as good as it had been each year freer than usual to invent, cracked up to be, and it’s all going think, create. But, of course, the world down the creek now.” And Carson has a way of knocking loudly enough McCullers, writing in May of 1944, even on Yaddo’s secluded door that it “I am in the same anxious boat as the has to be heard. Artists have told me rest of us – waiting for the invasion. I one thing over and over again of late: have nightmares about it almost every it’s harder than ever to maintain focus night and wake up to rush for the radio and fall into the imaginative space the first thing in the morning.” More required to produce extraordinary work. recently, Adam Haslett addressed the Poets, novelists, nonfiction writers, intricate balance between community composers, filmmakers, visual artists and retreat: “One of the paradoxes of and performance artists alike say that writing is that in order to fulfill the urge now, more than ever, the sanctuary of to communicate something to others, Yaddo is essential to them. And yet, as you end up spending huge amounts of the distinguished poet, Nancy Sullivan, time on your own … . The irony being once put it, “Yaddo is not an island unto that one of the reasons many writers itself, nor should it be.” have the urge to communicate to begin with is that they’ve experienced This constant calibration between retreat loneliness earlier in life and writing and engagement has been a hallmark of seems like a means to overcome it, to 4 YADDO ANNUAL REPORT 2016 The power of art and literature to help us make sense of the world has never been more evident or more urgently in need of support and so I’m especially pleased to report that on the program side Yaddo shone brightly in 2016. connect to others. A solitude imposed in guests over the decades, we are still, Head Chef, Michael Blake – both youth becomes a condition of work … as our founders Spencer and Katrina bring immense talent and creativity you remove yourself from the world in Trask mandated, “few in number,” of their own to Yaddo. Our Co-chairs, order to be closer to it.” and the Yaddo magic continues to A.M. Homes and Susan Unterberg, have a transforming impact, as was and Vice-Chair, Jaime Wolf, worked evident from the large number of tirelessly and with great enthusiasm on The power of art and literature to artists who last year testified in letters, Yaddo’s behalf. As we move steadily help us make sense of the world has dedications, and interviews to the into this new era for Yaddo, it’s fitting never been more evident or more staggering impact time at Yaddo had to take a moment to acknowledge the urgently in need of support and so I’m on their output and creativity. strong base we build upon, and so I especially pleased to report that on thank the dedicated Members and the program side Yaddo shone brightly Our capital campaign’s first phase Directors of the Corporation and our in 2016. We welcomed 225 guest continued apace, with the successful generous community of supporters artists. They came to Yaddo from 42 opening of our 5 new live/work for proving once more that belief in states and the District of Columbia, in studios and planning for the initial the Trasks’ initial idea – that support addition to several foreign countries, restoration of our historic mansion. for individual artists is the cornerstone including Canada, England, Germany, As always, we did all that we could to of a vibrant and engaged culture – is India, Ireland, and Spain. We received minimize interruptions resulting from stronger than ever. over fifteen hundred applications the renovation and to ensure that we from choreographers, composers, accepted the same number of artists filmmakers, painters, performance on an annual basis. The campaign has artists, photographers, printmakers, been galvanizing and its early success sculptors, video artists, and writers, (we have raised over $6.2 million) working both alone and collaboratively is reason for optimism – however, in teams of up to three. Nearly half both the construction work itself and Elaina Richardson, were guests at Yaddo for the first the events and travel required to President time and the artists ranged in age support this essential fund-raising, from early-20s to late-80s. Our five inevitably has put additional burdens Admissions Panels once again did an on all departments. I thank all of outstanding job reviewing applicants, my colleagues for their assistance and I am indebted to the Chair of each throughout the year.

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