Wednesday Cider
March 3, 2021
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Greetings from a sunny Mt. San Angelo on this nearly-spring day. In today's newsletter, we share a few recent photos of renovation projects around the grounds and facilities as we prepare to begin welcoming Fellows back through our gates in July 2021.
We recently opened applications for another round of residencies and fellowships at Mt. San Angelo. More on those opportunities below.
Our March 2021 composer playlist is now live on our website, featuring five more musical pieces by VCCA Fellows. Submissions for future playlists are accepted on a rolling basis.
Today’s Fellows messages include a response to a piece from last month’s composer playlist, some new book announcements, exhibition news, and a new web project. Thank you all for continuing to listen, read, and share in this community’s work.
See you in April with a return to Wednesday Lemonade in honor of springtime.
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Work continues at Mt. San Angelo where we're preparing to reopen our residency program in July. We're deeply grateful to the capital donors who have made purchasing and renovating the property possible over the course of our closure, and to our facilities staff, volunteers, and local contractors who have been making wonderful progress.
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Thanks to our neighbor Willie Casey, local iron worker extraordinaire, for repairing our gate! |
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Bedrooms in the Fellows Residence are getting new, private bathrooms. |
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With new HVAC upgrades, Fellows will be able to independently control temperatures in their studios and bedrooms. |
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now accepting applications |
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Seven-Month Scheduling Period
Writers, visual artists, and composers are invited to apply to Fall-Winter residencies at Mt. San Angelo in Virginia. Residencies will be scheduled between October 1, 2021, and April 30, 2022. The deadline to apply is May 15, 2021. vcca.com/apply
Looking ahead: This expanded, seven-month scheduling period will lead us to a new residency calendar of four-month periods that will better align with academic schedules and fit within the calendar year.
Seven Fully-Funded Fellowships
The current application includes seven fully-funded fellowship opportunities open to African American and Latinx visual artists; writers of creative nonfiction; poets; U.S. military veterans; Sweet Briar College alumnae working in the visual arts; and residents of Delaware, Maryland, New York, West Virginia, and Montana.
In addition to fellowships, significant financial aid is available. Through the support of our funders, all eligible applicants demonstrating financial need are considered for financial aid funding to help cover the cost of their residency.
One Application
Applicants will be considered for a VCCA residency and as many fully-funded fellowships for which they are eligible; only one application with a single $50 application fee is required by the May 15 deadline.
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This Month: In Kyoung Chun and Valerie Miner |
Join us this month for the 20th event in our Fireplace Series. On Thursday, March 18, at 7:30 p.m. ET, we welcome visual artist In Kyoung Chun and author Valerie Miner with our host Lex Williford.
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In Kyoung Chun will discuss recent installation works at Atlanta Contemporary and her current solo show at Blue Heron Nature Preserve.
Her recent social sculpture “Flowered Two Circles” was originally installed in her front yard on Mother’s Day weekend 2020 as a dedication to the front-line workers and mothers/women supporting their families and communities. “In the current back-drop of social distancing, I hoped my work would connect people who were otherwise separated by distance and space,” says Chun.
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Valerie Miner will read from her newest story collection, Bread and Salt, published by Whitepoint Press in September 2020.
Her fourth collection of stories, Bread and Salt is about forgiveness, reunion, rescue, repair, return, and restoration. The characters live in/travel in Tunisia, India, Indonesia, Italy, Turkey, France, and the United States, considering individual agency in local as well as global contexts. “Many thanks to VCCA where all of these stories were written or revised (more than once!),” says Miner.
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Watch Again: Moira Linehan and Helina Metaferia |
Thank you to poet Moira Linehan and interdisciplinary artist Helina Metaferia for sharing their work with us in last month’s Fireplace Series event. Linehan read poems from her latest collection, & Company. Metaferia discussed her video artwork (Middle) Passage for Dreams and shared an excerpt that was filmed at VCCA. You can relive the evening on VCCA's Facebook page or YouTube channel.
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Next Month: Katherine Fahey and Maggie Smith |
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We're pleased to feature five more Fellows in our March 2021 composer playlist:
- Evan Williams | Dead White Man Music, II. Flow (My Tears)
- Jeremy Rapaport-Stein | Rose Traces
- Garrett Byrnes | Concerto for Piano & Chamber Orchestra
- Erik Gustafson | A Place at the Table: A Hymn
- Jack Curtis Dubowsky | Moth
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Fellows, please submit a message. This is a way to tell the VCCA community about how you're navigating these times as an artist and human and to spread the word about work affected by or created during the pandemic.
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In response to VCCA’s February 2021 composer playlist:
“Thank you for Larry Bell's preludes and fugues. Rising to art I find difficult when continually thrown back onto my heels into survival mode. I suppose it is not an accident that we're having this existential political crisis simultaneously with our existential pandemic crisis. The music reminded me of higher states of being. Thanks, again.”
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“This is just to let everyone know about a new Website I posted, We Who Create. Check it out, and if you like it, spread the word. I'm also always looking for any news items or features pertaining to the creative world.”
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"My most ambitious installation to date is Refugium, with 24 cocoons that took three years to create. Intended as an immersive installation, it is now mostly virtual —occupying a 1,600-sf gallery in Appalachian State University's Turchin Center for the Visual Arts in Boone, NC — through May 1, 2021. When I was in residence at VCCA, my focus was on the lily pad, subsequently site-specifically exhibited in SC."
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"I spent the past year in relative isolation preparing Book Marks: An Artist's Card Catalog for publication. At the heart of the book are hundreds of richly illustrated artworks created on obsolete library checkout cards. Part of an ongoing project, each card represents a book that has made an impression on me. These “book marks” are filed chronologically in a two-drawer library case, according to the year when I read the book. Reproducing these tokens of my reading history in a book with vignettes describing some events in my life makes them accessible to everyone."
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“My novel Dearth, a noir literary thriller, is out, published by New Meridian Arts Press. It's my first novel after having published five books of short fiction. Because of the pandemic, there will be no book parties, and no readings — at least for a while. Dearth can be purchased on Amazon. A Kindle version is in the works.”
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From the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures (NALAC) |
NALAC's has launched Actos de Confianza, a new relief effort to support Latinx art and culture makers. $2,500 artist grants and $5,000 organization grants aim to provide relief to those facing critical financial emergencies due to the impact of COVID-19. The application is open now for Latinx artists and organizations in the Eastern U.S. and Puerto Rico.
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Look to this comprehensive list of ways to stay virtually engaged with our creative community during VCCA's temporary closure.
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🧡 Stay safe, and be well.
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