Applications for the Hewnoaks Artist Colony on Lake Kezar at Center Lovell are open and will be accepted through March 8.

This will be the third year of the residency, which gives artists a chance to spend one to three weeks concentrating on their work. The residencies are available for artists in many disciplines, including visual, literary and performing arts. They run June 27 through Sept. 19.

“Our intention is to provide the space and let people use it the way they want to,” Hewnoaks board member Nat May said.

The colony operates on a farm once owned by American artist Douglas Volk. When his last remaining heir died in 2004, she left it to the University of Maine Foundation and asked that it be used as a retreat for artists. When Volk was there, he invited many of his artist friends to visit.

“In the early 1900s, it was a place where many kinds of artists and creative people gathered,” May said. “We had visual artists, people in the textile arts, composers. Marsden Hartley spent time there. John Calvin Stevens was part of that group. It was a summer retreat.”

In addition to a large farmhouse, there are five small cabins on the lake. Four of those cabins are available for the residency.

May emphasized that Hewnoaks encourages applications from people who may not think they qualify. “It’s important to the organization that we are open and accessible to people who have never applied to anything like this before,” he said. “There are many residency opportunities around the country and around the world, and many are very competitive. That’s all good. We are excited about including people for whom even the act of applying is a big deal.”

The residency is supported by the Quimby Family Foundation and the Stephen and Tabitha King Foundation.

Visit hewnoaks.org for information.


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