With Leigh Allen behind the tiller, that's how! The VCCA's unofficial Resident Husband (married to Communications Director Amy Allen), Leigh has been hard at work in his garden planting lettuce mixes, broccoli, potatoes, tomatoes, beans and edible flowers. A veritable supermarket of produce will follow all spring and summer--corn, peppers, okra, squash, eggplant, and much, much more--providing a bounty of freshness for the VCCA dining room. And thanks to Cora, Mike, Bruce and David, Chef Rhonda now has a kitchen herb garden right outside her window. Basil and parsley and mint. . .oh my!

Among this year's Guggenheim Fellowship recipients are three VCCA Fellows. Congratulations to filmmaker Rodney Evans , poet Forrest Gander and composer Laura Elise Schwendinger . The Guggenheim Foundation announced that in its 84th annual competition for the United States and Canada it awarded 190 Fellowships to artists, scientists, and scholars, with awards totaling $8,200,000. The successful candidates were chosen from a group of more than 2,600 applicants.

A small (okay, very small) but international contingent of VCCA Fellows attended Fellow Ann Schaumburger's opening March 26th at the Cité International des Arts in Paris, (left) where she has been at artist-in-residence. Writer Reza Daneshvar was on hand to congratulate Ann. This was a personal reunion as well for the pair as they were recently in residence together. Read more about Reza in last year's VCCA newsletter, Notes From Mt. San Angelo.

VCCA's own Dana Jones gave birth April 7, to a bouncing baby boy--5 lbs 10 oz, 18.5"--Aiden Francis. Mommy and baby are healty and happy and so are Daddy Chris and Sister Allie. Congratulations Dana!