NEWS | SPRING 2020 YADDO ARTISTS JOIN US FOR A #CHEERSATFIVE. PHOTO: RU FREEMAN • Mentors and more in Yaddo Connections • Summer Reads: 15 books on our must-read list • Introducing... the Yaddo Composer Playlist! • Virtual Reality join us in the zone In case of emergency... ART ecent events—namely the global quarantine. Books are oxygen. Films pandemic and state-mandated are queued. Poetry is blooming, closure of businesses deemed and the digital space is filled with “non-essential”—beg some impromptu interviews with artists. A Letter from Our Co-Chairs Rquestions: Is Yaddo essential? Is art It’s enough to create art for its own necessary? What happens to artists in a sake, even when doing so seems As the world struggles to get ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic, we here at Yaddo time of global crisis, and how can we help? impossible. are working to make decisions to put us on the best path going forward, one In her brilliant “In times when people are suffering, that will allow us to recover from this time and sustain our mission for decades to essay collection, a constant everywhere on the globe, come. After much thoughtful discussion on the part of the Board, we decided the Funny Weather: I question the importance of art,” soundest course of action was to close Yaddo for the remainder of the year. Art in an painter Josh Dorman told Koplin Why is this necessary? For Yaddo to reopen, we need a global all-clear. Emergency Del Rio. “But it’s also in these Epidemiologists agree that the apex of this pandemic will occur in rolling waves (forthcoming moments when I’m reminded of the and may return in the fall after a dormant period. Sadly, we must reschedule all in May), Olivia simple healing power of making those who were on the calendar for a residency. We made this decision to avoid Laing profiles things with one’s hands, and the the harmful effects of rolling cancellations, which are disruptive and disheartening several writers capability of imagination to create an and artists escape—an alternate world.” and can put artists on unsteady ground. We understand the many sacrifices (many of them artists make to come to Yaddo such as subletting housing, canceling work plans, Alternate worlds figure into Laing’s her fellow childcare/caregiving, and lost income, to name a few. Notifying now hopefully eloquent argument that emergencies Yaddo alums), brings clarity rather than making things worse by issuing late-cancellation notices. require art. “That’s the thing about diving into how they handled trying times. utopias, they keep you going,” she At the same time, Yaddo’s endowment has suffered as the global economy fell, She published the introductory essay in wrote. “Hope has a bad press with a current loss of over 17% and no clear “bottom” for the markets. We have The Guardian, positing that creative work , Josh Dorman in our cynical age, but it doesn’t canceled fundraising events at least through the first six months of this year, offers clarity, nourishment, solace, hope necessarily mean being disengaged, suffering a loss of over $600,000 in revenue. It costs about $330,000 a month to and “a restoration of faith,” she wrote. “It’s a Pollyanna blind to the state things run Yaddo, so the economic stress is real. easy to give into despair. There’s so much are in or uninterested in how they How This Will End Will This How Brick Wall, Elisabeth Condon. PHOTO: JASON MANDELLA In light of economic concerns, we acted quickly to be both fiscally prudent and to protect our staff; Yaddo will cover health insurance costs, including the employee portion should someone be furloughed—an extraordinary measure for a non-profit, but one that the Executive Committee unanimously supported. Some senior staff On community, clarity, work, are also taking pay cuts— 20% in the case of the President. and how to (keep on!) coping Nothing would please us more than to find that we have been unduly pessimistic. If so, we will reverse course and reopen. We’re doing all we can to secure emergency funding (including successfully applying for aid under the federal CARES Act) and to carefully manage resources. The plan is to come out the other EMERGENCYLuba Drozd, an installation artist who Mentioned earlier, Olivia Laing came = ART finding homes, small farms in upstate side of this with resilience, to have Yaddo remain a leader in the field, and to return came to Yaddo in February, has been in to her hard-won conclusions on art in New York are more successful and the air to “regular life” when it is safe to do so. We will stay in touch and let you know the news lately for using her 3D printer emergencies by revisiting the AIDS is cleaner. when the “return” decision is made. to make protective face shields for epidemic, among other atrocities, with Plus, we still have what matters most: We’ve appreciated hearing from many of you and know there’s a strong desire to healthcare workers. She switched from some of her Yaddo pals such as writer “People. Staying connected and staying help at this moment. Here are a few ideas for what you might do: If you’re able to engineering complex sound components and activist Sarah Schulman. Laing open. Supporting when and where it’s offer financial support, please do so as generously as you can. Join us for Virtual to making life-saving medical gear in also looked into the historical context of possible,” Elisabeth Condon told Art her Brooklyn apartment. Snap! In many works like the Klan paintings of Philip Yaddo projects. Have patience as we adjust to reduced numbers and sometimes Spiel. “When I remember to stay open it arenas, large and small, our illustrious Guston (see p. 8), who found respite inadequate home technology. combats nihilism. It also firms my resolve artists take on leadership roles that far at Yaddo in 1969 amid his shift from to paint...with a free and open perspective, We hope you and your circle of loved ones stay safe during this challenging time. Luba Drozd in her Brooklyn apartment. exceed their creative callings. abstract expressionism to exploring the to create a space in which others can PHOTO: MISHA FRIEDMAN/ GETTY IMAGES tumult of his era. Laing writes: “Guston Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and open as well.” wasn’t looking from afar. This time, he was President of PEN America Jennifer Egan that’s frightening, so much wrong. But if inside the frame. Someone, some bozo, While the physical location of Yaddo announced recently that PEN won Round this virus shows us anything, it’s that we’re was underneath the hood, peering out at is closed, our hearts are open. Let 1 in their lawsuit against President Trump interconnected… We have to keep each the world through the slits in cloth. You Yaddo be your bridge to a better JANICE Y.K. LEE for retaliating against journalists (media other afloat, even when we can’t touch. Art have to bear witness, Guston kept saying, world—we’ll see you on the other side. is considered an “essential business,” is a place where that can happen, where but he meant more than merely watching BTW). A federal court denied a motion #CheersAtFive ideas and people are made welcome. It’s a events unfold.” to dismiss the case. “[We are] profoundly The Studio, 1969, Philip Guston © The Estate of Philip Guston Resources for Artists zone of enchantment as well as resistance, JOIN US in our virtual Drinks grateful for the court’s timely decision,” As galvanizing as the work of other artists During the Covid-19 Crisis and it’s open even now.” got that way. Hope is the precursor to Room via social media at 5 Egan said in a press statement. “Though can be, most of us are not out saving change. Without it, no better world is Yaddo has compiled the following list p.m. each day for a moment In a word, yes. Yaddo is the zone! We are we filed our lawsuit more than a year ago, the world, rather we’re relishing solitude, PETER KAYAFAS possible.” of online resources for artists affected to enjoy a poem, story, piece your community. Further, Yaddo is you, the the Trump administration’s punitive stance sleep, books, maybe hoarding ice cream by the pandemic, and will continue to of music or an image of artists who have long been at the forefront toward the press has continued unabated, and watching Netflix. Oddly enough, Deep down, we suspect, most artists expand it in the coming weeks: surpassing beauty. of creating work with global impact. And with corrosive results for truth, fact, our in a time when so many are deemed believe that, as Terry Adkins (see p. 8) that’s especially true at this moment, with so democracy, and—most recently—public “non-essential” workers, artists have said, “Art can be a force for change.” In Yaddo.org/resources-for-artists-during- many of you on the front line. health.” Jenny for U.S. Prez, 2024? become the go-to source for coping with the meantime, lots of shelter dogs are the-covid-19-crisis/. 2 Yaddo News Spring 2020 3 Summer Reads, Brought to You by Yaddo Designer babies, smoking guns, Russian heroes and more in this season’s new releases by Yaddo authors NEW NOIR MINING TRAGEDY KNOCKOUT NONFICTION WRITERS TO WATCH Anne Carson’s play Designing Babies: Long Bright River, Norma Jeane Baker of How Technology is Liz Moore’s instant Troy, which premiered Changing the Ways bestseller, follows a last spring at The Shed We Create Children by in NYC, is a retelling of Robert Klitzman, MD, policewoman in search Euripides’ Helen, with takes a hard look at the of her estranged Marilyn Monroe, Arthur ethical, moral and social sister amid an opioid Miller and Truman Capote dilemmas posed by epidemic, “illuminating as characters.