BECAUSE CREATIVE SPACE IS A CREATIVE EDGE VCCA ANNUAL REPORT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2012 154 SAN ANGELO DRIVE • AMHERST, VIRGiNIA 24521 • 434.946.7236 • [email protected] • VCCA.COM VCCA A CREATIVE SPACE FOR WRITERS, ARTISTS AND COMPOSERS FROM ACROSS THE NATION AND AROUND THE WORLD COVER ARTIST: Odile Cariteau of Montauban, France. In 2012, Odile was selected to receive the first Prix Résidence Moulin à Nef, a fellowship granted to an artist from the Midi-Pyrénées area of France for a residency at VCCA in Virginia. Apres l’Hiver XX1X (After Winter) 120 x 120 centimeters Acrylic on canvas Snowy path to studio barn at VCCA. Photo by Fern Seiden, visual artist, Stockholm, Sweden. CONTENTS President + Executive Director Report 2 VCCA-France + International Exchange Fellows 4 VCCA + Sweet Briar College 5 Endowment Funds 6 Legacy Donations 7 Sponsored Fellowships 8 A VCCA Champion 9 Writers in Residence 10 Artists + Composers in Residence 12 Highlights of Fellow Accomplishments 13 Contributors 14 Foundation + Government + Corporate Support 22 VCCA-France Contributors 23 Photos of Fellows in Residence 24 Financial Information 25 Boards of Directors 26 Councils + Senior Staff 27 1 PRESIDENT + EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR REPORT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2012 To highlight the accomplishments of one month at VCCA, let’s look at November of 2011. Aside from the 40th anniversary gala at Mt. San Angelo, VCCA hosted two of the winning contributors to Beirut 39, a groundbreaking anthology of the finest contemporary writers in the Arab world. Their reading at Mt. San Angelo was a remarkable display of international community. Abderrahim Elkhasser read from his work in the musical language of his own country, then professors from Sweet Briar, Randolph and Lynchburg Colleges read the English translations along with several Fellows in residence. It was a magical evening. Executive Director Greg Smith and Board President Tina Walls in Auvillar, In New York, we christened our first VCCA “& Salon” with France, for VCCA’s 40th Anniversary Celebration. a reading by Jayne Anne Phillips and VCCA Fellow Alice McDermott, who read from a wonderful new work that had The first year of our fifth decade was exciting, tough and not yet been published. Many weeks later, several attendees rewarding. The $300,000 Cy Twombly Foundation gift were happily surprised to read those same excerpts freshly announced last year was awarded to VCCA this year, and we published in The New Yorker magazine. This was the first raised over $40,000 at the grand finale of our 40th anniversary in a series of VCCA “& Salons” that will be held around the galas held on the grounds of Mt. San Angelo in Amherst, country. Virginia. The VCCA poetry anthology, Entering the Real World: VCCA In fiscal year 2012, our core mission was stronger than ever. Poets on Mt. San Angelo co-edited by Andrea Carter Brown We provided creative space to a record number of national and Margaret B. Ingraham, was also officially published in and international writers, artists and composers: 415 had November 2011. It then went on the road, gaining fans in fellowships at Mt. San Angelo, 16 had residencies at the VCCA readings from the AWP conference in Chicago, Illinois, to studios in Auvillar, France, and 19 more went to international the Fringe Festival at Sweet Briar College. All this in one exchanges in Germany, Ireland, Malta and Austria. In other spectacular month! words, more art is starting at VCCA than ever before! But it was a tough year, too. As with many nonprofits, the The literature, art and music created at VCCA will continue recession continued to take a toll on individual contributions— to increase with the addition of two new fellowships. The which are the heartbeat of this organization—and they were Prix Résidence Moulin à Nef Fellowship is a residency at Mt. down for the third year in a row. The cumulative effect of San Angelo for artists living in the Midi-Pyrénées or Aquitaine these reduced donations finally caught up with us in fiscal regions of France. A second fellowship was established by year 2012, and we were forced to cut our FY 2013 operating VCCA Fellow and poet Rachel Hadas in honor of her late fund by $100,000, which will be reflected in next year’s report. husband, VCCA Fellow and composer George Edwards. The VCCA quickly prepared to face this challenge with some hard first George Edwards and Rachel Hadas Fellowship will be decisions including reductions in our small, hardworking staff, awarded in 2014. 2 tapping the reserve fund, and re-focusing on the annual fund sweltering triple-digit heat, the kitchen staff kept on cooking drives. Because VCCA has no debt and a sound financial and Fellows continued to work. Facilities Manager Mike strategy, we fully expect to be back on target next year. Patterson and Resident Artists Barbara Bernstein and David Garratt worked 24-hour shifts to help make that possible. Also in 2012, Sweet Briar College and VCCA began to actively pursue a long-term solution to the current annual You learn a lot about an organization in trying times. What lease renewals. One of our options is to purchase the Mt. we have learned about VCCA has made us incredibly proud San Angelo estate, but we are also taking the opportunity to serve as its President and Executive Director. VCCA did to pursue other leads. We are determined to make VCCA’s not simply continue its mission despite the challenges, next home its permanent home and have been pleased and it strengthened that mission. During fiscal year 2012, the honored with the interest this decision has already generated. ripple effect of the work done by VCCA Fellows continued This process will take many years, but before we go much to expand. More than ever before, we saw the fruit of their farther we would like to get your input. So this spring, we labors in museums and on our iPads, in bookstores and on will invite you to participate in an online survey. We sincerely our Kindles, in concert halls and on our CDs. It is their drive hope you will take a few moments to share your thoughts on and talent for enriching our world, and their enthusiasm for this important decision. VCCA, that inspire us. And on June 29, 2012, the next to the last day of the fiscal year, the derecho plowed through Mt. San Angelo. Straight- Tina A. Walls line winds sheared off some of our most venerable trees President, Board of Directors Gregory Allgire Smith and knocked out the electricity for ten days. Despite the July 1, 2011 - June 30, 2013 Executive Director In Auvillar, France, members of the VCCA and VCCA-Abroad Boards along members of VCCA-France, staff, Fellows and villagers celebrated the 40th anniversary of VCCA and the 17th anniversary of VCCA-France. September 17, 2012. Photo by John Alexander. 3 VCCA-FRANCE + INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE FELLOWS In Southwest France, the VCCA-FRANCE MOUlIN à NEF beautiful village of Auvillar Canyon Sam San Francisco, California continues to inspire visitors Katherine Desjardins Chicago, Illinois as the home of Moulin à Lee Hyla Chicago, Illinois Lynne Potts Boston, Massachusetts Nef, VCCA’s studio center. Isabel Manalo Washington, DC Just last year, nearly 80 Marietta Hoferer New York, New York writers, composers and visual Michael Kukla New York, New York artists came for residencies, Christina Askounis Durham, North Carolina workshops and fellowships. Clifford Garstang Staunton, Virginia Sandell Morse York, Maine Douglas Boyce, composer, Alexandria, Virginia. Photo: John Alexander. Donna Kelly Eastman Surprise, Arizona Yu-Wen Wu Wayland, Massachusetts Residencies etchings Festival Gale Jamieson New Park, Pennsylvania Sixteen of our Fellows experienced a At the end of June 2011, the Etchings Kristin Herzog Fairfax, Virginia classic VCCA residency with private Festival for Contemporary Music once Barbara Crooker Fogelsville, Pennsylvania studios and private bedrooms. They again filled the village of Auvillar with A.H. Wald Rabat, Morocco worked in the pristine milieu of a medieval music. The work of eight composers village of 900 people. As poet Barbara was workshopped by master composers AUSTRIA Crooker wrote of her time there, it was Stefano Gervasoni and VCCA Fellow Lee kofomi / lAND SAlzbURg, SAlzbURg “even better than I dreamed it would be Hyla and premiered for the public by Mu-Xuan Lin Brookline, Massachusetts … What a gorgeous setting … I did about a world-class musicians. Directed by VCCA SAlzbURg künstlERhAUS, SAlzbURg year’s worth of work in those ten days.” Fellow John Aylward and Dominique Darren McManus Lambertville, New Jersey PoetRy WoRkshoPs + Schafer, the vibrant festival showcased gERMANY SChloss PlüschOw, PlüschOw James madison UniveRsity work in the beautiful St. Catherine’s Louise Kames Dubuque, Iowa In May, master poet Marilyn Kallet’s Chapel in the Port of Auvillar. workshop introduced eleven poets ObERFälzER künstlERhAUS, schwANDORF to Auvillar for an in-depth week of VCCA 40th anniveRsaRy Anjana Appachana Tempe, Arizona work. Agnes Carbrey, professor of In September 2011, VCCA celebrated Patti Capaldi Brooklyn, New York studio art at James Madison University, its 40th anniversary with a concert in Maysey Craddock Memphis, Tennessee arrived to guide the work of her eight Auvillar, an exhibition and a celebratory Elisabeth Frost New York, New York painting students in the amazing light dinner attended by members of the Kristin Herzog Fairfax, Virginia and landscape of Southwest France. VCCA and VCCA-Abroad Boards along Tung-Hui Hu Ann Arbor, Michigan In residence at the same time, these with many members of VCCA-France. Huang Ruo New York, New York two groups shared their creative work The backdrop for the performance Becky Slemmons Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and exhibition was the beautiful ninth- over meals and in public presentations IRElAND Tyrone gUThRIE CENTRE coordinated through Les Abattoirs, a century chapel of St.