A Creative Space for Writers, Artists and Composers from Across the Nation and Around the World
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VCCA A CREATIVE SPACE FOR WRITERS, ARTISTS AND COMPOSERS FROM ACROSS THE NATION AND AROUND THE WORLD Roofline of VCCA studios in a renovated 1930s dairy barn Photo by Bernard Handzel, photographer, New York, New York CONTENTS President’s Report 4 Executive Director’s Report 6 40th Anniversary Celebrations 8 VCCA-France + International 10 Sweet Briar College + VCCA 12 Fellow Stories 13 Composers-in-Residence 14 Artists-in-Residence 16 Writers-in-Residence 20 Cy Twombly and VCCA 24 Suny Monk Fund for Fellows 26 Contributors 28 Government + Foundation Support 38 Financial Information 39 Board of Directors 40 Advisory Council + Fellows Council 41 Senior Staff 43 OPPOSITE PAGE: VCCA Filmmakers Showcase at Mt. San Angelo. The showcase featured a collage of clips from 12 of our filmmaker Fellows. Shown is a frame from “The Weather Inside Us” by Karl Nussbaum Bird by Bryant Holsenbeck, Durham, North Carolina Photo by Karl Nussbaum, filmmaker, New York, New York Photo by Maysey Craddock, artist, Memphis, Tennessee President’s rePort FISCAL YEAR 2011 Fiscal year 2011 was dynamic and was manifest in the visual transformation that took place under transformative for VCCA. The her direction. As international exchanges grew and Fellow challenging economic climate capacity increased, the facilities expanded and improved, and highlighted our strengths: a committed the grounds flourished. Under her leadership, VCCA acquired network of friends, a dedicated Moulin à Nef in Auvillar, France, the jewel in our international board and staff, and a solid 40-year crown. Now in its ninth year, Moulin à Nef continues to grow foundation of serving outstanding as a connection between cultures and communities. Even as national and international artists, she retires to pursue her own art, we know that Suny’s ardent writers and composers. support for VCCA will not end. We are deeply grateful to our tireless Suny and her successor, Gregory Allgire Smith, spent several 40th Anniversary Celebration Chair months together providing a stable and seamless transition for Page Bond and her remarkable VCCA, not just for today but for tomorrow as well. committees for heading three We’d like to recognize retiring Board President Christine successful fundraising benefits in Brennan, who was a strong beacon for two challenging years Richmond, New York and Charlottesville. We are thankful that as we navigated a difficult economy. With deep appreciation Senator Mark R. Warner and Lisa D. Collis graciously served as for their transformational and caring service, we thank retiring honorary chairs for our 40th Anniversary Celebrations. And board members Sarah Smither and Ted Craddock. we’d like to thank our honorees, the amazing VCCA Advisory Council, many of whom attended these events to share their Throughout the year, Sweet Briar College continued to provide talent with our guests. We are happy to report that these three opportunities for joint educational and artistic programs with celebratory benefits netted over $200,000 to support present our Fellows. Aside from welcoming Fellows as guest speakers in and future work, and increased our donor base by 21%. classes, 2011 was the inaugural year of Sweet Briar’s Blue Ridge Summer Institute for Young Artists – BLUR – directed by VCCA Also in 2011, we enlarged the board for wider geographic Fellow Dave Griffith. The weeklong event included a tour of representation and more philanthropic opportunities, VCCA studios with several Fellows, including composer Paul introduced our new logo and branding campaign, and opened Reisler. a window to the world by launching a comprehensive new website that enables us to stay in touch with all our There is not enough room to brag about all our Fellows’ constituents in a more intimate way, while introducing VCCA to accomplishments in the past fiscal year, but we can’t resist an even broader global community. indulging in some highlights: VCCA Fellow and Advisory Council member Cy Twombly was the first American asked to create At the same time, in keeping with the spirit of VCCA, we a permanent installation in the Louvre, the ceiling of the provided creative space to 402 writers, artists and composers in prestigious Salle des Bronzes. Kelly Cherry was named Poet 2011, more than ever before. Laureate of Virginia. The Guggenheim celebrated Pulitzer Prize- But our most important news began in March of 2011 when winning David Del Tredici, a VCCA Fellow and Advisory Council Executive Director Suny Monk announced her retirement. For member, as one of America’s foremost living composers. And fourteen years, Suny has been a passionate advocate for VCCA. Martin Boykan and Advisory Council member Rita Dove were Her focus on—and understanding of—the artists’ experience elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. 4 And as we paid tribute to this landmark work by twelve of our filmmaker Fellows. Ranging from year for VCCA, we were both delighted and dreamy to documentarian, it’s made a big splash at events, including several of our 40th anniversary celebrations. humbled by the heartfelt 40th anniversary • And in an economy that is particularly hard on artists, we tributes from our Fellows: are extremely grateful to the scores of VCCA artists who • Music From Mt. San Angelo: A Celebration of the Virginia generously donated their work to our fundraising efforts. Center for the Creative Arts. Led by the indomitable Gilda In these tributes from our Fellows, we see VCCA through their Lyons, this concert took place in New York as part of The eyes—inspiring us to work even harder to ensure that VCCA will Phoenix Concerts series. It was an extraordinary evening of be here for them for the next forty years. 17 original compositions, including eight world premieres, all by VCCA Fellows. Throughout this report, you will find stories from our Fellows • Entering the Real World: VCCA Poets on Mt. San Angelo. about connections they made through VCCA. Some were life- Editors Margaret B. Ingraham and Andrea Carter Brown, changing, some were career-changing and some will simply make both members of the VCCA Fellows Council, worked on you smile. But all of them show the enthusiasm these great the production of this marvelous anthology for a year. It talents share for their work as well as their abiding affection for contains over sixty previously published poems by national Mt. San Angelo, the magic mountain of Virginia. and international Fellows, all written about or inspired by We thank you for everything you do to make it possible for their VCCA residencies. our Fellows to stride onto the international stage with award- • VCCA Filmmakers Showcase. Curated by Karl Nussbaum, winning literature, music and art from the foothills of the Blue this compilation is a diverse and compelling glimpse of Ridge Mountains. Tina A. Walls President, Board of Directors July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2013 New York composers and VCCA Fellows whose original works premiered at the Phoenix Concert, “Music From Mt. San Angelo: A Celebration of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.” Left to right: Dennis Tobenski and Ben Yarmolinsky performing their compositions at the concert; Faye-Ellen Silverman and Gilda Lyons. Gilda Lyons conceived, created and coordinated the event. 5 eXeCUtiVe direCTOR’s rePort FISCAL YEAR 2011 When my husband Joe and I moved to The gracious pastoral grounds were restored and valuable Amherst in 1997, I was closing the door collegial exchanges with Sweet Briar College were fortified. on a 26-year tenure as an educator. I Most gratifying of all was to see our work pay off in the had watched toddlers transform into burgeoning awards and recognitions that our Fellows college graduates, and hugged those received from around the world. graduates as they returned with their Like the cover of this annual report—a own children for their first day of maquette design that became a prestigious school. I had partnered with hundreds ceiling in the Louvre—I watched VCCA of board members and faculty as we move from an organization with enormous wove the threads of a family-based rural potential to an organization with tremendous initiative into an educational center that accomplishments. Photo by Jerry Ruotolo became the core of the community. I Then, suddenly, VCCA turned forty. It was 2011 and there never expected to have another such was good reason to celebrate—we had become one of the rewarding career. largest artist communities in the United States, we were one How lucky I was to be so wrong. I was about to embark on of only three artist communities in the world with facilities a fourteen-year journey to transform an organization that on two continents, our new endowment fund had garnered would, in the end, transform me. over $2,000,000, we had a significant increase in our donor When I arrived as VCCA’s executive director in 1997, the base, and we were running a colony with one of the lowest dairy farm that had been converted into an artistic haven costs per residency day. Each milestone was particularly was ready to advance to the next level. Without the poignant for me because this fortieth year, my fourteenth year, was also my last as VCCA’s director. heart—Sheila and Craig Pleasants, Dorothy and Robert Johnson, Cora and Charles Tabb—the work would have been When I announced my retirement in March, my feelings impossible. Without the phenomenal minds of the Fellows, were mixed: anticipation about returning to my own art, and we would have lacked incentive. Without the wisdom trepidation about leaving this utterly unique and inspiring of the directors, there would have been little vision. By place. Would the person who succeeded me love VCCA as working together, we secured a newly polished reputation much as I do? that drew the best composers, writers and artists to Mt.