Parent Residency Program
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Special Accommodations: Lacawac offers (when available) a private two-bedroom cottage (Ice House Cottage) to parent artists. The cottage sleeps up to five people and was recently renovated with a new bathroom and kitchen. Lacawac reserves one week in August exclusively for its Parent Artist Residency. Parent artists and writers may also apply for the spring, summer and fall residencies and accepted based on availability. Contact us regarding housing options for your family and caregivers. Email us at craig.lukatch@lacawac.org |
Notes from Former Parent Residents:
"As artistic collaborators and a married couple, artwork is enmeshed in our family life, which includes our daughter. Our challenge is to find dedicated time and space to develop and complete ambitious projects together. We were only able to create our recent outdoor installations through art residencies at Lacawac Sanctuary. The Lacawac staff was extremely amenable, and the residency allowed us to develop art installations on a much larger scale. We were also inspired by the beautiful natural setting and having time away from the city. Our daughter loved feeling welcomed along with other families as we shared activities and dined together." "The parent/artist track of Lacawac's Artist Residency Program entirely made my participation possible in the summer of 2017. As mother of two young children and an artist who creates work about human impact in our natural world, this was the perfect residency for my needs and interests. Not only did I shadow scientists to learn about an entirely new field of research to inspire my work (limnology), my family got to spend an entire week surrounded by pristine nature that will further deepen their own love of and respect for our environment." |
Lacawac Sanctuary provides the ideal space for artists in any medium who’re looking to slow down and focus wholly on their craft. As a writer, I found myself surrounded and inundated with opportunities to explore and incorporate unique and fascinating language and landscapes, and as a parent I was thrilled to be able to share these experiences with my children. The history of the sanctuary meshes perfectly with the present; and the scientific component (with the field researchers sharing the space) adds a truly dynamic element. During my stay, I generated nearly a dozen pages of poetry during (which is a lot of material for a week), and discovered the inspiration for the new collection of poems that I will continue to work on for the next few years. It was a boon for myself and for other artists who are parents who work full time and who have care-giving responsibilities and cannot take advantage of the other ubiquitous, multi-week residency opportunities that are out there. The program at Lacawac Sanctuary is absolutely vital and worthy of support. |
This summer, I had the great honor of spending a week at the Lacawac Sanctuary and Biological Field Station as an artist in residence (with my toddler and mother-in-law in tow since they host parent artists and their families for a portion of their residency season). What I found most fascinating about Lacawac was that it boasts a now rare “sky lake,” or a lake purely filled by rain or other natural sources free from human contamination (such as chemicals from agricultural runoff, fuel from motorized boats, etc.). This, I learned, makes the lake very sought after by limnologists (folks who study inland waters). And so I got to tag along on some field research and learn about related topics such as lake browning. My own very non-scientific understanding of lake browning is that rising global temperatures equals more rain, which means more soil runoff, which clouds lakes and wreaks ecological havoc. This was a sobering bit of knowledge to learn in parallel to taking in and sketching the natural beauty surrounding me. This trip was a lovely reprieve from the rush of my typical residencies where I need to make completed artwork while I’m there. It was an appreciated opportunity to read, research, think, document, sketch, and take in nature. I highly recommend it.
-Ashley Cecil
Lacawac's Parent Residency Program is supported through the generosity of :
