Yaddo - Saratoga Springs, NY
Yadda Yadda - YADDO!
by Susan Myers
(published in Artist Trust's Journal, Spring 2003)
Yaddo, situated on 400 acres in Saratoga Springs, NY, is an artists' community established in 1900 by Spencer and Katrina Trask. Yaddo's mission is to provide artists with uninterrupted time to work, good working conditions and a supportive environment. The estate includes a 55 - room mansion, studio buildings, an administration building and other houses on the property, as well as four small lakes and a restored formal Italianate rose garden.
Yaddo serves artists working at the professional level in the literary, visual, performing and media art fields. Artists who are working in small collaborative groups may also apply to attend. Like the majority of residency opportunities across the United States, artists applying to Yaddo are judged on the quality of their work and their professional promise. Members of the discipline specific admissions committees charged with evaluating applications are meritorious artists themselves and membership in these committees rotates regularly.
Yaddo provides each resident artist with meals and a private bedroom and studio. The visual art studios are set up for painting and drawing, printmaking, sculpture and welding as well as photography. Composers' studios are equipped with a piano, and choreographers can request portable mirrors and barres as well as marley to cover studio floors. Yaddo does not provide residents with supplies, computers or other equipment. In addition, accepted artists are responsible for covering their travel costs to and from Yaddo, although the program does administer a small amount of financial assistance to help defray these costs for artists who might otherwise not be able to attend. In keeping with their mission, the program does not require resident artists to participate in workshops, readings, recitals, performances, exhibitions or critique groups. There are also established quiet hours during the day to allow artists to work without interruption.
Yaddo is proud to support creative artists from all nations and backgrounds and to champion work that reflects contemporary sensibilities, styles and forms. Many past residents have gone on to receive numerous awards and honors for their artistic work. It should be no surprise that many current and past resident artists of Washington State have attended Yaddo. Writers who have had the benefit of a residency include: Sharon Cumberland, David Shields, Irene Wanner, Charles Burgess, Chris Forhan, Lesley Hazleton and Duane Niatum, all of Seattle, and Judy Doenges of Tacoma, Brenda L. Miller of Bellingham, Joan Swift of Edmonds, and Mary Ann Waters of Spokane. Both Dorothy Klotzman of Edmonds and Ron Fein of Seattle are composers who have visited. Visual resident artists have included: the late Jacob Lawrence, Ann Borwick and Roger Feldman, all from Seattle, Jan Cook Mack of Wenatchee, and Robert Gilmore and Lanny DeVuono, both from Spokane.
Writer Sharon Cumberland, an Associate Professor at Seattle University, has been a Yaddo guest several times and has served as a "Special Assistant to the President." This position is filled by an artist who is asked to return to serve as a liaison between the artist guests and the Yaddo staff. She was responsible for showing newly arriving artists to their studios, answering questions and giving first time visitors a tour of Yaddo.
Although residencies vary in length from a minimum of two weeks to a maximum of two months, the average stay is five weeks. For residencies starting mid-May through February, the annual deadline is January 15. For residencies starting from late October through May the annual deadline is August 1. In addition to the basic application form, artists are asked to provide recent work samples complete with a self addressed stamped return envelope for their return, a résumé, two letters of support sent under separate cover and a $20 application fee.
http://yaddo.org/yaddo/home.asp
