Welcome to VCCA's community newsletter focused on keeping Fellows, staff, and supporters connected.

At VCCA, this month of May brings a big application deadline — a wide variety of opportunities are currently open for new and returning Fellows working across a variety of artistic disciplines, at all stages of their careers. Please check your eligibility for fully-funded fellowships, share relevant opportunities with others, and wrap up your residency applications before midnight on Sunday, May 15.

Last month, we happily welcomed cows back to Mt. San Angelo for the second year in a row (read on for video and photographic evidence!). We also hosted our first public Open Studio events of the year — both at Mt. San Angelo in Virginia and Le Moulin à Nef in France — and enjoyed the return of our virtual Fireplace Series with a wonderful event celebrating the art of creative nonfiction.

Importantly, we're looking forward to next month, when we will host our 50th Birthday Garden Gala & Art Auction! After postponing in-person celebrations of VCCA’s purchase of Mt. San Angelo in 2020 and its official 50th birthday in 2021 due to the pandemic, we are thrilled to invite sponsors and ticket holders to in-person festivities at VCCA’s beautiful home in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains on June 25.

All this plus more news about VCCA and our Fellows below. Thanks for reading.

Winter 2023 Residencies at Mt. San Angelo (available January through April of 2023) — In addition to significant financial assistance, the following fully-funded fellowships are available for this scheduling period:

🔸 50th Anniversary Fellowships for Artists of Color

🔸 Barbara Crooker Caregiving Fellowship

🔸 Harry D. Forsyth Fellowship for the Visual Arts for Sweet Briar College alumnae

🔸 Jacques and Natasha Gelman Fellowship

🔸 Goldfarb Family Fellowship for Creative Nonfiction 

🔸 Montana Fellowship

🔸 Richard S. and Julia Louise Reynolds Poetry Fellowship

2023 Wachtmeister Award for Fiction (available July 2023 through June 2025) — This prestigious award is presented every two years in rotation to a prominent writer, visual artist, or composer whose significant achievement in the arts is widely recognized.

🔸 Current Eligibility: Established fiction writers who have not previously been in residence at VCCA. International artists are eligible.

🔸 Award Includes: 30-day residency at Mt. San Angelo; $1000 honorarium, travel reimbursed up to $750.

🔸 Panel of Judges: Sadeqa Johnson, Rebecca Makkai, David Mura

🔸 Free to Apply: vcca.com/wachtmeister

Watch the video of their joyous arrival.

Tickets go on sale soon for our 50th Birthday Garden Gala & Art Auction.

A ticketed in-person Garden Gala will be held at VCCA’s beautiful home in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains on Saturday, June 25. An accompanying online Art Auction will open to all earlier that week.

Proceeds will support VCCA's 50th Anniversary Fund, a new effort to fund at least 50 first-time residencies for artists of color through 2023.

VCCA is proud to have earned a 2022 Platinum Seal of Transparency with Candid.org (formerly Foundation Center and GuideStar), demonstrating you can support our organization's work with trust and confidence. vcca.com/donate

"That's the joy of nonfiction — to be able to take these diverse, incredible nuggets of knowledge that exist in the world and turn them into a work of art." Aurvi Sharma

VCCA's first virtual Fireplace Series event of 2022 brought together three creative nonfiction writers who have attended VCCA residencies as recipients of the Goldfarb Family Fellowship. We enjoyed beautiful readings and wide ranging conversation from Jennifer Lunden, Aurvi Sharma, and Isaac Rahmim. Much gratitude to VCCA Fellow and former Board member Ronald Goldfarb for making this fellowship opportunity possible.

A recording of the event is available to enjoy on Facebook or YouTube.

"If I'm gonna be writing about something hard then I'm gonna want to give people a break with something beautiful." Jennifer Lunden

The first open studio event of the year at Le Moulin à Nef took place on April 11, with members of the Auvillar community gathering to engage with Fellows in residence.

Star Black showed painting and collage work and spoke to guests about her process. Lucy Ferriss read her short story "Concorde," which she had translated to French, to an appreciative audience.

The ground-floor studio, originally imagined as a fully-equipped ceramics studio, came to life with Lorca Morello. Working with Auvillarais Daniel Azuelos, she fired up the raku kiln for the first time in the history of Le Moulin à Nef. It made for a dramatic scene on the terrace behind La Cebo, the studio building.

Thank you to everyone who made it out to Open Studios in Virginia over the weekend! It was a wonderful afternoon to welcome visitors for a brief glimpse into what happens at our artist residency program at Mt. San Angelo!

Fellows, share your news. This is a way to tell the VCCA community about your work. We're always especially interested in stories about work created in connection to your VCCA residency.

"I have a new album: Bolsa Chica Calm. It officially released to streaming on April 29. Bolsa Chica Calm, a homage to Bolsa Chica State Beach, one of my favorite surfing spots in Huntington Beach. Bolsa Chica Calm references ambient, environmental, new age, and experimental music, from vaporwave to Wendy Carlos’ Sonic Seasonings. It was informed by my research in writing my second book, Easy Listening and Film Scoring 1948-78, with two extended, midcentury-inspired meditations with real strings, winds, piano, analog synthesizers, and field recordings."

"My novel, Dot & Ralfie, about a lesbian couple facing the physical, psychological, and relationship challenges of aging, was published in April by the University of Wisconsin Press. I wrote much of it at residencies at VCCA — actually, the novel would never have gotten written were it not for these residencies. Thank you, VCCA!"

"I am happy to share the news that I won the Juniper Prize for Fiction this past year for my short story collection Safe Places. Several stories in the collection are ones I have worked on at VCCA, so thanks again for all of your support! The book launched on April 15 and is available now."

Florilla: A Pinelands Romance is a new novel by two-time VCCA Fellow Perdita Buchan.

"Da Capo Chamber Players, a wonderful ensemble with whom I’ve collaborated for years, will perform Gregor’s Dream, for piano trio and electronics, on their Bridging Styles program on Tuesday, May 10, at 8 p.m. at Merkin Hall in NYC. And, happily it will also be live-streamed."

Browse VCCA's page on Bookshop.org to find new books written by VCCA Fellows.

VCCA Fellows: To tell VCCA about your forthcoming books, send us your news.

🧡 Stay safe, and be well.

Want to stay in touch with VCCA, just not on a monthly basis? Simply reply to this email to let us know, and we'll understandingly unsubscribe you from this particular email list.