The trip has been over for a couple of weeks. We are both in our respective homes, Alicia in Oakland and I (Carolina) in Florida. A lot of information was gathered during our almost month long trip. Hours of recordings with the facilitators, artists and community, drawings, writings, photos. We have been working on profiling each space from our experience, creating the atmosphere that only physically visiting a space can give.
On our last update we were at This Will Take Time …
At This Will Take Time we got to know the facilitators Tara and Ben over two days of cooking meals and re-potting trees. The residency located on an 80-acre plot of land near the coastal town of Point Arena. They have had several artist in residences along with some really interesting events including World Wide West – a creative conference of art and tech. We also had the privilege of having dinner with the mayor of Point Arena, Jim, who came over to the house at This Will Take Time. He is very excited about an artist residency in town, he says artists are visitors which is different from being a tourist. Tourists take and don’t contribute, whereas visitors give something to the community.
After our time in Point Arena we drove 20 minutes to Gualala, CA, where we were staying a night at Project 387. Project 387 is on 150-acres of land owned by the Feeny family. Once a year they host artists in their cabins for two weeks. The artists are given a stipend, a large studio space and dinners 5 days a week! We got the chance to go to an artist talk, explore the land and join in on one of these dinners, which was fantastic! It was a perfect last stop to our trip and the next day we packed up and headed back to Oakland.
The trip was incredibly inspiring and we met so many welcoming, hospitable people along the way. Thank you to everyone who hosted us, gave us meals and allowed us in their world for a day. Lots of stuff to go through — Stay tuned.
