Welcome to the February edition of Wednesday Cider, VCCA's monthly newsletter focused on keeping Fellows, staff, and supporters connected.

The big news is that, as of today, applications are open for Winter 2024 residencies at Mt. San Angelo in Virginia. Writers, visual artists, and composers should apply by May 15, 2023, to be considered for a residency anytime in January through April of next year.

Around this time last year, we announced the launch of our 50th Anniversary Fellowships — a promise to award 50 free residencies in a single year to 50 artists of color who had not previously been in residence at VCCA. Not only are we well on the path to fulfilling that promise (we're three application cycles in and have already scheduled the two most diverse cohorts of Fellows in our history), today we can promise to do it all again for another year! We're grateful to our supporters (join them!) who have made it possible for us to continue this important initiative to ensure VCCA's community of artists reflects the diversity of the U.S. population.

Additional fellowships available for our Winter 2024 scheduling period include:

Throughout this month's newsletter, you'll find more good news (of award winners, events, new faces on the Fellows Council, and Fellows happenings) and some good views (of beautiful cake, good food, and French snowfall). Thanks for reading.

Author Kelly Luce has won VCCA's 2023 Wachtmeister Award! The prize acknowledges the vital role of the arts in our world, the importance of artists who exemplify excellence in their field, and the necessity of time and space for the creative phase of all artistic work. The 2023 award was open to established fiction writers demonstrating substantial achievement in their field over at least 15 years.

“Kelly Luce’s writing is clear, surprising, disconcerting, and gorgeous,” shared juror Rebecca Makkai. “We can’t wait to see what she does next.”

Read our award announcement to learn more about Luce's work and her goals for her upcoming VCCA residency.

It snowed in Auvillar in January, which is rare but was beautiful. Now our Mimosa tree is in bloom, a harbinger of spring and of our re-opening.

Spring arrives early in France and by the time the first Fellows arrive at le Moulin à Nef on March 13, we should be seeing spring blossoms and the first produce of the season in the markets: asparagus, fresh garlic, and lettuces, with the most amazing strawberries on the horizon.

Katy Murray, VCCA's beloved Director of Dining Services from Meriwether Godsey, has challenged herself to bake her way through The Magnolia Bakery Handbook this year. Three bakes in to her adventure, Katy tackled Hummingbird Cake, Classic Vanilla (pictured here), and Magnolia Cookie Cake with peanut butter frosting.

We're excited to share her journey throughout 2023! And we trust Fellows in residence at Mt. San Angelo this year are excited to be the lucky beneficiaries of Katy's New Year resoluteness.

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, the Meriwether Godsey crew spent some time researching what Dr. King would have eaten while traveling from town to town to speak: lots of home-cooked meals prepared with lots of love.

This particular meal was prepared with love by Betsy.

The VCCA Fellows Council has elected seven new members and one alternate/reserve member. We're pleased to welcome this newest group who is dedicating time and energy to VCCA from locales around the globe.

Later this month at Sweet Briar College, two VCCA Fellows will present their work to the community. Join interdisciplinary artist/composer/pianist Mary Prescott and interdisciplinary artist/writer/publisher Lindsay Buchman for the next event in Sweet Briar's VCCA Salon series.

Date: Wednesday, February 22, 2023

Time: 7:30 - 9 p.m.

Location: Reahard Learning Gallery, Cochran Library, Sweet Briar College

Fellows, 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.

Jump Baby the Musical debuts at The Lynn Theatre in Midlothian, VA! Live shows February 2-5.

"One of my handmade paper/pulp paintings is in the permanent collection of the Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It has been chosen as the banner/marquee art for this exhibition: Decorated Paper: A Selection of Publications in the Watson Library at the MET, January 5 – April 18, 2023.

"Join Andrea Clearfield and Sandell Morse as they chat on Instagram live on Wednesday, February 22, at 6 p.m. ET about being female artists and creatives, researching, pursuing stories for their work and connecting with others. Andrea Clearfield and Sandell Morse might be a part of two different career fields and two different generations, but their passion for their creative work as a composer and writer (respectively) overlap in more ways than one. Having met in the early 2000s through VCCA, the two had an instant connection but continued on their own, separate paths – both traveling the world, researching for their work and creating art for others – until now! Tune in on Andrea’s page!"

This year, the $50,000 Charles Ives Opera Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters was awarded to “Artemisia” by composer Laura Elise Schwendinger and librettist Ginger Strand, two VCCA Fellows.

Composer Larry Thomas Bell has two new CDs released by Albany Records. The two disc Twenty Four Preludes and Fugues was written at the VCCA in January of 2019. Thoughts and Prayers was designed to bear witness to the loss of family, friends, and especially the victims of gun violence.

Browse our VCCA Fellows page on Bookshop for a wide variety of books by Fellows published since the pandemic.

VCCA Fellows: To tell VCCA about your forthcoming books, send us your news.

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