The Art Colony

Driving up the winding road to the Saltonstall art colony in Ithaca, NY, one is struck by the peacefulness of the property. There are only three buildings on the 200-acre property: an office, and two residencies. Each home contains studios for artists, writers, photographers, visual artists, and others to work in during their stay on the colony.

Lesley Williamson, the executive director of Saltonstall, said the colony has been described as a “writer’s jail” because the artist or writer is completely isolated from the world around them. Most of the rooms have a simplistic layout with a living room, bedroom, kitchen, and workspace. Most of the rooms do not have televisions. Each room and residency has its own layout, but both have a common quality: complete quiet.

"A lot of residency programs are started for the same reason, which is a belief that artists and writers need time and space away from their normal daily activities so they can focus on their craft," Williamson said. "It's an important piece of the creative process."

The Fellowship Program

Saltonstall's fellowship program provides two main residency programs for writers and artists: a summer, juried residency program which runs from May to September, and a subsidized, off-season retreats from October through April. Those who apply can choose to live on the colony for a month at a time, or they can choose to work for shorter sessions, either two weeks or four weeks. Writers, visual artists, photographers, filmmakers, sculptors, and painters are among the artists who can apply for the opportunity to attend the summer residency program. The stay on the colony is free. The residency is a fully-funded, all expenses paid fellowship. Williamson said Saltonstall also provides stipends to help residents with other expenses, they have a chef on site Monday through Friday to cook them meals and overall, the organization provides a comfortable, quiet living space for artists and writers to work in peace.

"We basically leave them alone and give them a space in which to work for a month at a time," Williamson said.

The Saltonstall fellowship program has provided, to this day, over 300 emerging writers and artists with residencies, given $530,000 in grants to individual writers and artists all over New York State. Saltonstall has also provided local non-profit organizations with $55,000 of funding for projects to bring in more artists and writers to the Ithaca community.

The Alumni

Bob Proehl, a fiction writer and alumnus of the Saltonstall fellowship program, lived on the art colony during May 2013. He came to the residency with an outline of 20 pages for a book he was writing. He said he was putting off writing this book for a while, and when he came to the art colony, he took advantage of the space in order to finish what he envisioned for the project. At the time he was living on the colony, the Internet connection was poor, which led to less distraction. Work days lasted 15 hours for Proehl; there were five residents at the time, and he said they would get together at 6 p.m. for a meal, but other than that, Proehl would not see anyone for most of the day.

“This was really five of us who were like ‘I’m here, I have a specific project I’m working on for at least five weeks,’ and it really creates a situation where you value that time very differently because it’s limited,” he said.

Melissa Zarem, abstract painter, printmaker and alumna of the program, said she often comes back to the space she previously worked in. Zarem said she loves the high ceilings, the light and the openness of the space, and most importantly, like other residents, appreciated the quiet and isolation.

“The time working in it just becomes your own space after a while, you associate it with the experience of working in it,” Zarem said.

Here is a video story about the fellowship program and Saltonstall's art colony: