A Retreat in Rural Virginia
Virginia Center for the Creative Arts is an artists' colony in rural Virginia, south of Charlottesville. It offers artists a quiet place to work for periods of approximately one to eight weeks. The colony accommodates 22 visual artists, writers and composers at a time. The VCCA makes an effort to accommodate the varied schedules of residents, so there are arrivals and departures on most days. Applications are accepted three times a year, and include work samples and recommendations. Artists are requested to pay a portion of the residency costs if possible.

The heart of VCCA is a 19th-century dairy barn, a barn converted into 22 private artist's studios. The barn includes a generous kitchen where Cora sets out a buffet lunch each lunchtime. A short walk from the barn, at the site of the old farmhouse, is the residence hall with bedrooms for each artist.

Wild Homespun Pastimes
The hall includes the dining room and kitchen, along with a living room, TV room and library. Often residents meet there to show slides, watch movies, or listen to music in the evening. There are also poker games and ping pong. Pretty wild, right? It IS actually a pretty exciting place, (in a quiet way) because of the focused work that artists are engaged in in their studios. One of the greatest pleasures at VCCA is sharing work and ideas in the evenings with a studio visit, poetry reading, or slide show.

VCCA seems to run effortlessly, though I wonder if Craig or Sheila Pleasants or Suny Monk feel exactly that way! I expect the staff works hard to make a VCCA run so smoothly. The resident artists are helpful and keep everything moving along by orienting new arrivals with information about schedules and activities, laundry and food. Administration is kept to a minimum, the focus is on giving artists quiet time for their work.

For more information about the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts visit: www.vcca.com