“For the first time in two years I found myself bursting with ideas. I had that rare and fantastic feeling that I was ready to embrace the unknown. It was an extremely liberating experience to be in a space that didn't ask anything of me; a space that welcomed rest, experimentation, and contemplation.”
– Hannah Parrett, Ohio, Painting and Drawing
“I slowed down and started listening to the ideas of 'infinite patience'. I purged old ideas of quantity over quality. Spending time chewing on ideas, and letting go of those ideas that no longer serve me. I ended up making more work in less time because I was laser-focused on this idea of infinite patience.”
– Cynthia Mason, Florida, Painting and Sculpture
“It’s not just about ‘alone time’...having a supportive environment (philosophy, people, place, supplies, recreation, rest, nutrition) is essential. Creativity usually happens best when obligations and expectations are relaxed; paradoxically this tends to facilitate and heighten productivity.”
– Killick Hinds, Georgia, Music, Lee and Margaret Echols Musicians Fellow
“I think this trepidation and overcoming of strangeness and unfamiliarity is the nature of making work. Every time you delve to create something new, you're affronted with this feeling of ‘who am I? how can I make this?’"
– Chlese Jiles, Louisiana, Illustration, Argent Financial Fellow
“As a father of two young kids with a full time job, unstructured time is a rarity...I decided to use my time at Hambidge in a very different way, giving myself time and space to explore a new direction in my work that I had just started finding the edges of.”
– Travis Weller, Texas, Music
“Finding common ground around a dinner table and on the trails, the residents group seemed to evolve as a kind of natural organism unto itself, each individual contributing to a vital, memorable whole.”
– Elly Meeks, New Jersey, Arts & Culture Administration
“Those who "make" need input, but we also need the time to process that input in the light sprung from turning over ideas and images in our minds and psyches.”
– Susie Paul, Alabama, Poetry
“I was safe, supported, and able to explore in different ways because I did not have to deal with the reflexive whiteness, white supremacy, anti-blackness and radicalized aggressions that are the norm in artist residency experiences.”
– Omolara Williams McCallister, Performance and Visual Arts Fellow
Read More“The corollary to [isolation] is the benefit of being an artist in the company of other artists. You become inspired, even a sentence or a word someone says can be meaningful to you in your work.”
– Parul Kapur Hinzen, Georgia, Fiction Writing
“As one who has been working on a project that has taken me five years to really wrap my head around, daily, I come into understanding more deeply the time and space required to truly be immersed in ones craft enough to birth it…”
— Janae N. Williams, North Carolina, Paper making, Nellie Mae Rowe Fellow
“I cannot overstate the significance of having this level of support, and the kind of support that it is, for allowing creative practice to unfurl and flourish. I created the amount of new dance-based performance material that would normally take me 2-4 months or more…”
– Nora Sharp, Illinois, Dance
Read More“It's like clearing away a cluttered room that has an assortment of unpacked boxes, dust, unopened letters, accumulated over years. You open up the windows, let the fresh breeze in, clear space so it is empty, and offers space to dream - what can this (body/space/imagination) become?”
– Beth Graczyk, New York, Dance
“In first those 3 days I had to reassess what I deem as successful, I did a lot of reflective writing to get things off my brain and onto paper, and then I felt a sense of freedom to create, exist and just be.”
– Stephanie Brown, Georgia, Photography
“Early in the residency, a fellow resident shared a copy of Mary Oliver's “Of Power and Time,” a short essay that explores the ways in which an artist must negotiate between the wielding of their own imagination to shape change and the very stuff of life that has us all obligated to day-to-day routines. The essay felt like a call to protect the dreamy spaces I don't allow myself to fully dwell in for too long.”
– Mallory Craig, New York, Arts & Culture Administration, Leaders in the Arts Fellow
”It was the perfect balance of order and freedom. So much that it was really hard to pick up and leave such an ideal place.”
— Herion Park, Florida, Visual Art, Windgate Fellow
“The opportunity to be in a new environment that is surrounded by the fecundity of nature and diverse processes of other residents always allows me as an artist to myelinate different pathways…”
– Julia Rae Antonick, Illinois, Dance
“the intentional and focused creative energy fostered at hambidge is potent. it is palpable. it is obvious in the considerations and anticipations of the staff. it is evident in the fellows that get the incredible opportunity to visit and work and play and recharge or charge on! and the work that they create."
– David Baerwalde, Georgia, Visual Art
“I was able to host an intimate studio visit along with other Fellows to deepen the dialogue around my work. I feel confident and empowered to share this work with my community!”
– Tiffany LaTrice Williams, Georgia, Arts Administration and Visual Arts, Fulton County Arts & Culture Fellow
“The studio space itself was the biggest most beautiful space I've ever painted in. It was inspiring everyday to wake up and see it there as an invitation to paint.”
– Mia Merlin, Georgia, Visual Art
“I was seeking a period of solitude in order to think clearly about what I want to do with my artistic practice and in order to focus every day, all day on making things. The freedom that Hambidge provided from the distractions and responsibilities of everyday life allowed me to think long and deeply about how I want to develop my work.”
– Andrew Hladky, Maryland, Painting
