Photo by Bradley Wester, visual artist, Brooklyn, New York If you're in the Charlottesville area on Thursday, September 13 — swing by CitySpace at noon and get the inside scoop on VCCA and other artists' communities from our staff and Fellows. (Advance registration is required.) Piedmont Council for the Arts and WriterHouse are teaming up to present An Insider's Guide to Artist Colonies & Residencies , a panel discussion where you can learn: What it's like to create work at a colony or in a residency How to find one that’s right for you What scholarships and stipends are available What to do when the residency is over These and other topics will be covered — and if you have a question, stay for the audience Q&A.  The panel will include four VCCA Fellows: Megan Marlatt , Sharon Shapiro , Rachel Unkefer and Wendy Gavin Porter — as well as VCCA Artistic Director Craig Pleasants and Director of Artists' Services Sheila Pleasants. ADVA...

TO PURCHASE A COPY OF ENTERING THE REAL WORLD — CLICK HERE

The essay by Alexander Chee , Go Away , got so many hits when we put it on Twitter and was re-tweeted so often, that we decided it should be on all our sites. So if you want to know why artist colonies are so important to writers, visual artists and composers—or if you're nostalgic for VCCA—read this lovely, atmospheric description by Alexander Chee in The Morning News . Go Away by Alexander Chee

Silvia Tennenbaum at the screening of "Die Frau des Rabbiners", a film about her life, during the "Frankfurt Leist ein Buch" literature festival For two weeks in April, Silvia Tennenbaum and her book, Yesterday's Streets , were the centerpiece of the Frankfurt Liest ein Buch ( Frankfurt Is Reading a Book ) literature festival. Silvia was honored in over seventy events, including readings of her work by German writers and leading representatives of Frankfurt's cultural scene.       One of the highlights of the festival was when Silvia was awarded the Goethe Medal, the highest award of the Ministry for the Arts (Ministeriums für Kunst).  "We thank a great writer for her life's work," said Ingmar Jung, State Secretary in the Hesse Ministry of Science and Art, as he awarded author Silvia Tennenbaum the Goethe-Plakette des Landes Hessen Originally published in 1981, Yesterday's Streets , is a sweeping epic that takes a Jewish...

Composer and saxophonist Martin Hundley (New York) plays for Sandy Hausman Sandy Hausman, WVTF's Charlottesville Bureau Chief, visited our beautiful Mt. San Angelo this spring. She spent Monday, May 7, exploring the grounds, interviewing staff and Fellows—then enjoyed a lively dinner in a dining room full of our artists, writers and composers. Sandy's back in the real world now, but the wonderful audio story she put together about VCCA is running today and tomorrow on WVTF, Virginia Public Radio. DIAL POSITIONS FOR WVTF Roanoke — 89.1 Charlottesville — 89.3 and 88.5 Marion, Wytheville, Galax — 91.9 Wise County — 90.5 To hear an eight-minute version of the story on the WVTF website — Click Here Surrounded by her art, Annika Putz (Berlin, Germany) talks to Sandy Hausman Poet Dorianne Laux (North Carolina) in her studio with Sandy Hausman Sandy Hausman and Albert Braun (Finland) in his studio.

Somewhere "between science fiction and poetry" — that's how the French newspaper La Depeche described the work Aurélien Morisse did while in residence at Moulin à Nef in Auvillar, France, this summer. Thanks to having "a time and place conducive to inspiration", Aur é lien produced thirty works in about as many days. Read the rest of the story in La Depeche .

Fully-Funded Fellowship for Social Media Artist This fellowship is specifically for an artist working in the emerging genre of social media— an artist exploring ways to seamlessly integrate the social media platform (Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc.) into the work itself. Just as a painting could not exist without paint, the art project for this fellowship could not exist without social media. Are you using social media in new and compelling ways — as a tool of self-expression? Thanks to a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, VCCA is able to offer a fully funded, six-week fellowship—accompanied by a $2,000 stipend—to a social media artist doing outstanding work on the cutting-edge of this genre Craig Pleasants, VCCA Artistic Director, explains: “The artist selected for this fellowship will be working in ways that move art from the gallery or museum to the web, seeking ways to free art from geographical and temporal constraints. We are not defi...

Whether you want to find out what a VCCA residency is like, or reminisce about one, don't miss this reading at The Writer's Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on Sunday, August 12. Local poets and editors will read from the anthology,  Entering the Real World: VCCA Poets on Mt. San Angelo , published in celebration of VCCA's 40th Anniversary. Readers include VCCA poets  Kelly Cherry ,   Barbara Crooker ,  Neva Herrington ,  LuAnn Keener-Mikenas ,   Laurie Kutchins ,   Kathleen O'Toole ,   J.C. Todd ,  and   Michele Wolf , as well as   Margaret B. Ingraham   and  Andrea Carter Brown , who also edited the anthology. VCCA staff Sheila Gulley Pleasants, Lexie Boris and Carol O'Brien look forward to seeing you and sharing the podium to read with these great poets. Reception and book signing to follow. Admission is free.