Monhegan Residency’s Announced

Going to the island

Artist: Jennifer Calivas

MONHEGAN—The Monhegan Artists’ Residency Corporation (MARC) has announced their choice of three Maine artists for the 2019 summer residency program on Monhegan Island: Jennifer Calivas, Dozier Bell, and Katherine Cargile. Calivas and Bell will spend five weeks in June and September, respectively, and Cargile was awarded the two-week residency in July, established for artist-teachers who serve the K-12 grade levels in Maine.

A recent MFA graduate of Yale University, Jennifer Calivas is a Maine-native currently living in Brooklyn. Her work uses humor and the uncanny to talk about her personal experiences as a woman and about the broader history of the subjugation of the female body, with a particular interest in the photographic history of female hysteria. She plans to work in the Monhegan landscape to stage photographs and to create a performance that will be based on documentation of female “hysterics” in the 19th century.

Artist: Dozier Bell

Waldoboro resident Dozier Bell is an established painter whose work of the past several years has focused on the natural world as filtered through the lens of her childhood impressions of Maine’s environment and her interest in nature as represented in the art of 15th-16th c. German artists such as Altdorfer and Dürer, and in German Romantic fables, where the landscape itself is a participant in the drama. Bell has never visited Monhegan and is looking forward to having “a more direct and extended experience of the ocean and its atmospheric effects.”

Katherine Cargile is a veteran middle school art teacher from Lewiston, Maine, who is highly interested in literature, history, and visual culture studies, and works in a variety of media, including painting, printmaking, appliqué quilting, and paper-mache sculpture. She explains, “There is a feeling of mystery, timelessness and myth about the island that will contribute to my narrative work as well, as I intend to do some imaginative studies based on my experiences.”

Artist: Katherine Cargile

The three were selected by a jury that included photographer Margo Halverson, chair of the graphic design program of the Maine College of Art; the Portland painter and art instructor John Knight; and Leith MacDonald from Rockland, who is an artist, arts administrator, and author of the recent book, Island Inspiration, Monhegan’s Art Colony, 1895-2000.

Established in 1989, the Monhegan Artists’ Residency program supports the creative growth of dedicated Maine artists by providing them time and space in which to work free of interruption and constraint in the inspiring environment of Monhegan Island. Long a haven for innovative artistic practice, the island offers a dramatic setting and a compelling community of visual artists, fishermen, and gardeners who provide an unusual and distinct perspective on the modern world. For more information about the residency, see monheganartistsresidency.org.

 

Monhegan for Art Teachers

Two week residency opportunity

Applications are being accepted for the Monhegan Artists’ Residency for Maine artists. In addition to two five-week residencies on Monhegan Island for Maine-based visual artists, the program offers a two-week residency for a Maine art teacher. The residency program provides living quarters, studio space, and a $150 per week stipend. The two 5-week residencies run in late spring and early fall.

Nathaniel Meyer, Wreck of the Venus, 2013, oil on canvas, 36″ x 24″

Four years ago, recognizing the need to support artists who teach in Maine schools, the Monhegan Artists’ Residency Corporation (MARC) expanded its offerings by adding the 2-week residency in mid-summer to accommodate artists tied to a school-year schedule. This is a unique opportunity for art teachers, providing time and space for them to reflect on, experiment, or develop their art while living in an artistically historic and beautiful location. Quality of art work is the primary criterion for selection. Artists-teachers compete on equal footing with other applicants. There is no requirement to produce a body of work or to relate the experience to classroom teaching.

The three past artist-teacher recipients are: Nathaniel Meyer (2015), who teaches at Lewiston High School (http://nathaniel-meyer.com/home.html); printmaker Scott Minzy (2014), art instructor at Erskine Academy in South China, Maine (http://www.scottminzy.com/); and Melinda Campbell (2013), retired from teaching but still active as an artist.

The application deadline for all three residencies is March 15, 2016. This year applications for the residency program are being accepted on-line only. For guidelines, a history of the program, and a list of past residents, visit monheganartistsresidency.org. Applicants will be notified by April 15th of the jury’s decision.

The residency program is aimed at visual artists working in painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, sculpture, or the digital arts. An important goal of the program is to enhance the careers of serious artists who have yet to gain wide recognition. The jury of art professionals this year includes MARC board member and artist Sissy Buck, Polly Saltonstall, editor of Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors and noted collector of contemporary Maine art, and artist Duncan Hewitt, whose retrospective exhibition is currently on view at the Portland Museum of Art.

Founded in 1989, MARC is a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by donors, art galleries, corporate sponsors, and major foundation grants. For more information please contact Susan Danly at susandanly@gmail.com or 233.0896.art

Art Teacher Selected for Monhegan Residency

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                 CONTACT: Susan Danly

May 14, 2015                                                             207.747.4586

Nathaniel Meyer, Wreck of the Venus, 2013, oil on canvas, 36″ x 24″

PORTLAND— Three artists with significant ties to Maine have been selected as the 2015 recipients of the Monhegan Artists’ residency: Coreena Affleck (Yarmouth), Justin Richel (Rangeley), and Nathaniel Meyer (South Portland). Affleck and Richel will benefit from five‐week sojourns on Monhegan Island, and Meyer has been awarded the two-week residency for Maine K–12 art teachers, which was added to the program three years ago.

This year marked the first time that the Monhegan Artists’ Residency (MARC) was opened up to artists at all career levels, which brought in a 30 percent increase in applications. The jurors for 2015 were Bruce Brown, collector and former curator at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art; artist Lauren Fensterstock; and Laurie Perzley, Fine Art Director and Curator at Thos. Moser Gallery and MARC Board Member. “It took many hours to come to a decision given the high quality of applicants,” says Brown. “We selected the multi-media artist Coreena Affleck, painter, printmaker, and ceramicist Justin Richel, and painter Nathaniel Meyer with the belief that their diverse media will result in accomplished work and continue to add luster to the important legacy of MARC as a distinguished residency whose very location on Monhegan Island is truly important in the history of American art.”

The Residency supports the creative growth of dedicated Maine artists working in all media by providing them with time and space in which to work free of interruption and constraint. “During the jurying process, we had a lively discussion about art, the possibilities of an artists’ retreat, and the impact of visiting artists in communities,” says Fensterstock. “Monhegan’s rich history as an artist retreat inspires both a reverence for legacies past and an ongoing framework for innovation.” Since its founding in 1989, the organization has sponsored more than 50 artists, providing them with living quarters, studio space, and a small stipend.

The Monhegan Artists’ Residency Corporation is a non-profit organization supported by individual donations and foundation grants. For information, go to monheganartistsresidency.org or visit us on Facebook.

Monhegan Island Artists Residency

Grants to support expanded programs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                CONTACT: Susan Danly
November 12, 2013                                                    (207) 775-6148

PORTLAND—The Monhegan Artists Residency Corporation is the recipient of three grants to support its programming. A $7,500 grant from the Quimby Family Foundation will cover operating expenses for the two annual five-week artist residencies. Grants from the Horizon Foundation and the Maine Arts Commission of, respectively, $6,400 and $1,900 are supporting the new two-week Artist-Educator Residency.

“The Quimby Family Foundation and MARC share a mission: to provide accessibility to art opportunities for Maine residents,” said Susan Danly, chair of the residency board. The five-week residency allows for creative exploration and experimentation “in the crucible of artistic tradition that is Monhegan Island,” Danly said, “in a time when an extended stay is beyond the financial reach of most Maine artists.”

The Monhegan Artist Residency was among a handful of organizations to receive full funding from the Quimby Family Foundation for the third year in a row. This summer Maine-based artists Kristen Fitzpatrick and Daniel Anselmi were the artists in residence.

“The Maine Arts Commission grant provided important seed money to launch our new artist-educator initiative this summer,” Danly noted; the Horizon Foundation grant will help maintain it over the coming summers. Melinda Campbell, a K-6 Art Specialist with the Auburn School Department, was the first artist-educator this past July.

The Monhegan Artist Residency, which will be celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2014, has hosted 44 Maine artists on Monhegan Island. The program depends upon the financial support of individual donations and foundation grants. For further information about the program, the application process and former artist residents, visit: www.monheganartistsresidency.org.