Welcome to VCCA's community newsletter focused on keeping Fellows, staff, and supporters of the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts connected.

This holiday gift-giving season, we encourage you to support VCCA Fellows by buying and sharing their art with your loved ones. You can browse our VCCA Fellows page on Bookshop for a wide variety of books published this year. We also encourage Fellows to share their books, artwork, CDs, etc. that are available for purchase online in our "Marketplace" topic in Virtual VCCA — a place to post work available for sale online this holiday season and beyond.

Please note that we're coming up on the January 15 deadline for writers, visual artists, and composers to apply for Fall 2022 residencies at Mt. San Angelo. Today, we proudly announce a new fully-funded fellowship opportunity available for that period: the Marian Treger Fellowship for Enduring Creativity. Read on for more details, and help us spread the word to eligible candidates as we approach the January 15 deadline.

We're pleased to share the December edition of our Composer Playlist series to guide your listening this month. And we invite Fellows to keep the music coming!

We also share news from France and messages from Fellows Mark Statman, Leslie Pietrzyk, Joyce Watkin Kings, Meg Kearney, Carter Hodgkin, Carlos Aquilino, and Margaret McCarthy.

"Our 2021 residency season at le Moulin à Nef started on September 27 and is about to end with the departure of our final Fellows on December 12. We welcomed a total of nine visual artists and writers. Although it was a short season this year, some great work was produced and lovely connections between Fellows, staff, and community members were made.

We were delighted to be able to reopen and to provide a safe and inspiring experience for Fellows at our charming Auvillar facility despite the pandemic situation. Best wishes to all of you from our staff at VCCA's le Moulin à Nef."

Pictured: Poet Eugene Gloria with John Alexander and Cheryl Fortier; Visual artist Barrie Kaufman in her studio.

We're pleased to announce a new fellowship opportunity intended to support female-identifying artists (fiction writers, screenwriters, or visual artists) emerging in mid-life and beyond, whose creative paths may have been detoured or hindered by chronic health conditions or disabilities. In addition to a fully-funded two-week residency at VCCA's Mt. San Angelo, the fellowship includes a $400 stipend.

Residencies Available: September 1 – December 31, 2022

Application Deadline: January 15, 2022

Application Fee: $50

Notification by: April 30, 2022

Marian Treger was a writer, screenwriter, and visual artist whose chronic fatigue syndrome interfered with her ability to fully immerse herself in the creative world. Marian Treger’s lifelong friends collaborated to create this fellowship in honor of Marian’s unstoppable multifaceted creativity.

Last month, we enjoyed a special edition of our Fireplace Series honoring VCCA's Alonzo Davis Fellowship. Alonzo Davis himself welcomed us into his studio; recent Alonzo Davis Fellow Judy Bolton-Fasman read excerpts of her debut memoir Asylum: A Memoir of Family Secrets and shared family photos; and Fellow and Board member Christina Chiu served as a fantastic host for the evening's sharing of work and conversation.

The Alonzo Davis Fellowship is a fully-funded, two-week residency for outstanding American writers, visual artists, and composers of African or Latin American descent (apply by January 15).

We're taking a break from online events this month! We'll bring you more news of the Fireplace Series in the new year.

"I want particularly the women out there to take heart that it's never too late to do your art, to make your art."

"The thing about VCCA and other artist retreats is that it forces you into a situation where you must engage and deal with yourself and your creative energy."

Give these five featured composers a listen this month:

Fellows, please share your news. This is a way to tell the VCCA community about your work. We're always especially interested in stories about work created in connection to your VCCA residency.

Hechizo by Mark Statman »

"My new collection of DC stories, Admit This to No One, has been published by Unnamed Press and was listed in the Washington Post as one of 10 books to read in November: 'These linked stories about a powerful politico and the women in his life offer a riveting look at how government really works — with all the attendant misogyny, racial injustice and class feuds — and how much work it will take to solve its problems. It’s a tour de force from a gifted writer.'"

"I have a solo exhibition, Fiasco, at the Maria V. Howard Art Center in Rocky Mount, NC featuring about 40 works, some created in part at VCCA. The works encounter different aspects of the effects of the fast fashion industry on farmers, factory workers, consumers, and especially the environment. The exhibition runs through December 31, 2021. I also created a large installation work in the renovated Rocky Mount Mills, formerly the 2nd largest cotton mill in the state. The piece, Ballgown Breakdown, has been made from more than 100 pairs of jeans, many donated by local community members."

Meg Kearney's (VCCA Fellow 1999, 2000, & 2001) latest book of poems, All Morning the Crows (winner of the Washington Prize), appeared on Small Press Distribution's poetry bestseller list for seven months running, April through October 2021!

🧡 Stay safe, and be well.

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