Living Room , a poem by Fellow Andrea Hollander Budy , currently in residence, is the poem of the week on the NewsHour website . To listen to Andrea read the poem, click "Listen," which appears before the body of the poem. A segment featuring Andrea discussing her new anthology, When She Named Fire: An Anthology of Contemporary American Women , will also appear on the site. The anthology, published  this year by Autumn House Press, includes poems by 27 other VCCA Fellows, including Claudia Emerson, the current Poet Laureate of Virginia. Andrea is the author of three volumes of poetry and the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and two NEA grants. She is Writer-in-Residence at Lyon College, in Batesville Arkansas. Above: photo courtesy Andrea Hollander Budy

VCCA Fellows Mary Page Evans and Buffy Morgan have returned to our French outpost to teach another plein air workshop at our studio center, Moulin à Nef, in the village of Auvillar. "En Plein Air: Writing and Painting in France" is a combination workshop that gives participants the opportunity to work with a palette of words and colors and is designed to meet the needs of professional artists and writers as well as those with general interest and ability. This year's workshop is poised to replicate last year's success and has nine writers and artists from around the country participating between July 21 and 27. To quote a 2008 participant: " It was the most meaningful week I have ever spent with artists. I savor those memories . . .my thoughts float back to Auvillar and the marvelous [people] I met there." Links: VCCA ,  2009 Workshop Schedule , Auvillar , VCCA Programs in France , VCCA France . Photo: A 2008 participant.

The Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University in Roanoke , Virginia, will originate the first major site-specific exhibition in the region by VCCA Resident Artist Barbara Bernstein.  Things are not what they seem, nor are they otherwise  opens July 16, 2009, with an artist lecture at 6 p.m. at the Richard Wetherill Visual Arts Center Auditorium, followed by a reception.  The exhibition, which runs through August 22, 2009, encompasses the largest space of the museum, incorporating architectural references culled from Hollins University's historic campus. Familiar elements of columns, streams, benches and walkways will be interpreted in two and three dimensions. Barbara creates her site-specific works with simple, manufactured, predominately black and white materials such as electrical tape, contact paper, construction paper and foam core. The viewer is invited to see and experience a familiar environment in unfamiliar, surprising ways.   Barbara has taught at Yale Unive...