Millay Arts, formerly the Millay Colony for the Arts, is an arts community offering residency-retreats and workshops in Austerlitz, New York, and free arts programs in local public schools. Housed on the former property of feminist/activist poet and playwright

Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. She wrote much of her ...

, the Colony's campus offers residencies, retreats, and classes.

History

In 1925, Edna St. Vincent Millay bought '' Steepletop'', a house with a blueberry farm in Austerlitz, NY, named after a pink, conical

wildflower A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, meaning it was not intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant probably is neither a hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is in any way different from the ...

that grows there. With her husband, Millay built a barn from a

Sears Roebuck Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

kit, and then a writing cabin, and a tennis court. After the poet's death in 1950, her sister

Norma Millay Ellis Norma Millay (1894May 14, 1986) was an American singer and actress, and sister of the poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay. Born in Rockland, Maine to Cora Lounella Buzelle and Henry Tolman Millay, Norma Millay was one of three sisters who ...

moved to Steepletop. In 1973, she founded The Millay Colony, which was established as a nonprofit organization. Norma Millay Ellis donated the barn and surrounding acreage to The Millay Colony. The barn was subsequently renovated to provide accommodations and studio space for four resident artists. In the mid-1990s, The Millay Colony commissioned architectural firm Michael Singer Studio, in consultation with an advisory committee of six artists with disabilities, to design an additional building for the Colony using the principles of universal access and environmentally friendly design. This 3,550 square foot building currently houses The Millay Colony's offices and public rooms, and provides accommodations and studio space. The house and gardens are a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

Notable residents

Composing

* Linda Bouchard * Andrea Clearfield * Michael Harrison * Laura Kaminsky * Zibuokle Martinaityte * Alex Weiser

Fiction

* Zaki Baydoun * Teresa Carmody *

Andrew Sean Greer Andrew Sean Greer (born November 1970) is an American novelist and short story writer. Greer received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel ''Less''. He is the author of ''The Story of a Marriage'', which ''The New York Times'' has ...

Eugenia Kim (author) Eugenia Kim (born 1952) is a Korean American writer and novelist who lives in Washington, DC. She is most known for her novel, ''The Calligrapher's Daughter'', which was critically acclaimed and won multiple awards, including a 2009 Borders Origi ...

Paul Lisicky Paul Lisicky (born July 9, 1959) is an American novelist and memoirist. He is an associate professor in the MFA Program at Rutgers University-Camden, and the author of several books. Early life Paul Lisicky was born on July 9, 1959. He grew up i ...

Carmen Maria Machado ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the Opér ...

Sigrid Nunez Sigrid Nunez is an American writer, best known for her novels. Her seventh novel, '' The Friend'', won the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction. She is on the faculty of the MFA Creative Writing Program at Hunter College (CUNY). Biography Sigr ...

* Alice Sebold * David Shields * Masha Tupitsyn *

Rebecca Wolff Rebecca Wolff (born 29 November 1967 New York City) is a poet, fiction writer, and the editor and creator of both ''Fence Magazine'' and Fence Books. Wolff has won the 2001 National Poetry Series Award and 2003 Barnard Women Poets Prize for h ...

Non-fiction

* Nancy Milford *

Judith E. Stein Judith E. Stein (born 1943) is a Philadelphia-based art historian and curator, whose academic career has focused on the postwar New York art world. She has written a biography of the art dealer Richard Bellamy, as well as feature articles rega ...

Playwriting

Annie Baker Annie Baker (born April 1981) is an American playwright and teacher who won the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for her play '' The Flick.'' Among her works are the Shirley, Vermont plays, which take place in the fictional town of Shirley: '' Circle Mirror T ...

Jennifer Haley Jennifer Haley is an American playwright. She grew up in San Antonio, Texas and studied acting at the University of Texas at Austin for her undergraduate degree. Haley also received a MFA in playwriting at Brown University in 2005, where she ...

* Jen Silverman * Fiona Templeton

Poetry

* Nick Flynn *

Rachel Eliza Griffiths Rachel Eliza Griffiths, Lady Rushdie (born 1978) is an American poet, novelist, photographer and visual artist, who is the author of five published collections of poems. In ''Seeing the Body'' (2020), she "pairs poetry with photography, exploring ...

* Nathan Hoks * Stephen Motika *

Lia Purpura Lia Purpura (born February 22, 1964, Mineola, New York) is an American poet, writer and educator. She is the author of four collections of poems (''King Baby'', ''Stone Sky Lifting'', ''The Brighter the Veil'', ''It Shouldn't Have Been Beautiful ...

Evie Shockley Evie Shockley is an American poet. Shockley received the 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Poetry for her book ''the new black'' and the 2012 Holmes National Poetry Prize. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2018. Early life and education ...

Danez Smith Danez Smith is an African-American, poet, writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. They are queer, non-binary and HIV-positive. They are the author of the poetry collections '' nsertBoy'' and ''Don't Call Us Dead: Poems'', both of which ha ...

Where Big Books Are Born: Danez Smith on the Millay Colony" Poets & Writers, March/April 2018

Screenwriting

* Adam Baran

Visual arts

Louise Belcourt Louise Belcourt (born 1961) is a Canadian-American artist based in New York, known for elusive, largely abstract paintings that blend modernist formal play, a commitment to the physical world, and a visual language that shifts between landscape ...

Isa Leshko Isabell Carmella Leshko (born 1971) is an American fine art photographer best known for her ''Elderly Animals'' series which focuses on animal rights, aging and mortality. Life Leshko grew up in Carteret, New Jersey in an Italian-American working ...

Julia Dault Julia Dault (born 1977) is a Canadian artist. She is best known for her abstract paintings and Formica and Plexiglas sculptures. She lives and works in Toronto. Early life and education Dault was born in Toronto to Gary Michael Dault, an art cr ...

B.A. Van Sise B.A. Van Sise is an American photographer and author. He has worked as a travel photographer, and collections of his fine art photography has been exhibited in public installations by US museums. Career B.A. Van Sise is a graduate of Fordham Univ ...

Wlodzimierz Ksiazek Włodzimierz Książek (1951 in Warsaw, Poland – body found May 18, 2011 in Pawtucket, USA) was a Polish-born contemporary artist based in New England, and since 2001 worked from a 6000 sq. ft. studio in Rhode Island. He was best known ...

Footnotes

References

"Millay Farm Becoming an Arts Colony," ''The New York Times'', February 20, 1974.

* ttps://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/03/garden/an-artists-retreat-is-extending-its-welcome.html "An Artists' Retreat Is Extending Its Welcome," ''The New York Times'', October 3, 1996.* Millay Colony for the Arts, about, tour. June 30, 2008.
Where Big Books Are Born: Danez Smith on the Millay Colony," ''Poets & Writers'', March/April, 2018

External links

Website

Michael Singer Studio, architects
{{DEFAULTSORT:Millay Colony For The Arts Artist colonies Non-profit organizations based in New York (state) Arts organizations based in New York (state) Arts organizations established in 1973 1973 establishments in New York (state)