Displaced Artists Fund
The Vermont Studio Center’s Displaced Artists Fund exists to assist artists and writers displaced by natural and political disasters worldwide. By providing a creative community of refuge in Vermont, these Fellowships restore normalcy to a creative practice, ease the isolation that often accompanies displacement, and extend the “artists supporting artists” founding spirit of the Vermont Studio Center to artists and writers who need it most. While it is not possible to help all who may be in need, the fund aspires to bring relief and hope to a growing number of artists and writers each year.
The Displaced Artists Fund was conceived by VSC Trustee Marina Day to support artists whose lives and studio practices had been disrupted by California wildfires. The Studio Center has also hosted artists from New Orleans who lost their homes and studios to Hurricane Katrina and partnered with the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation to support of a number of New York artists and writers who were displaced by the events of 9/11. In 2010 VSC funded two month-long residencies for Haitian artists and writers. These awards were in honor of longtime VSC Visiting Artist and friend James McGarrell's son, Flo McGarrell, who was killed in Haiti’s recent earthquake while in the art center in Jacmel where he worked. In 2012, VSC offered two Vermont Artists Week fellowships for Vermonters affected by Tropical Storm Irene with a residency for a visual artist and a writer with generous support from Write Action, a Brattleboro-based organization. In 2012, the Displaced Artists Fund also provided a residency fellowship for a visual artist from Japan affected by the 2011 TÅhoku earthquake and tsunami.
2013 Emergency Relief Residencies Supported by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation
The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Inc., as part of its Hurricane Sandy Emergency Relief Fund, is collaborating with the Vermont Studio Center to assist visual artists who have experienced damage, losses, and/or displacement due to Hurricane Sandy by providing 4-week to 8-week studio residencies at the Vermont Studio Center. Eligible professional visual artists can be working in any discipline and must reside in Connecticut, New Jersey, or New York.
Applications are accepted and awarded on a rolling basis, with residencies scheduled beginning as early as January 2013.
Artists are asked to:
1) Describe the damage sustained as a result of Hurricane Sandy, how a VSC residency would provide relief, and the dates of VSC residency being requested.
2) Submit a current resume/bio and link to artist website.
3) Include any additional information or materials that would help determine eligibility (references, photos, etc.)
Email these materials as attachments to admissions@vermontstudiocenter.org
For more information on these fellowships and the Displaced Artists Fund in general, please contact development@vermontstudiocenter.org or 802-635-2727 ext. 2.
Michael Wyshock, Waiting in Line after Katrina, 2005, charcoal & graphite on paper
Support VSC's Displaced Artists Fund
Other resources for information and support:
Americans for the Arts Emergency Relief Fund
CERF+ Craft Emergency Relief Fund
Claudel “Zaka” Chery and Ronald Bazile, 2010 fellowship recipients from Haiti
