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ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency (EMAR) program by Collar Works is designed to provide a diverse group of emerging and established artists an immersive, supportive, productive, and communal atmosphere for art-making and dialogue on a bucolic 77-acre farm in Washington County.
The residency program aims to create opportunities for artists to take risks and develop new work across many art forms, primarily visual and literary arts, while engaging in meaningful dialogue with fellow residents and arts professionals.
Elizabeth Murray believed that each person deserves an opportunity to make their art and for their art to be visible on equal platforms. Our residency program responds to the critical needs of emerging artists and artists as parents, while striving to build a program that reflects the rich cultural environment of today through an active commitment to diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion.
We offer 2 individual sessions and 1 family residency session each season.
Elizabeth Murray in her studio, Spring 1991. Photo Brigitte Lacombe © The Murray-Holman Family Trust
For more than two decades, Elizabeth Murray and her husband Bob Holman, together with their children, split their time between NYC and a classic farmhouse in Washington County, New York. Murray, who passed away in 2007, was a groundbreaking artist. Her many honors include a Skowhegan Medal in Painting in 1986, a MacArthur “genius” grant in 1999 and a career retrospective at MoMA in 2005. Holman, a poet and arts activist, founded the Bowery Poetry Club in 2002 and produced the PBS series The United States of Poetry (1996) and Language Matters (2019). In 2017, the Murray-Holman family partnered with Collar Works to design a summer residency program for visual artists.
With its 77 acres of bucolic farmland, multiple bedrooms, common areas and barn-loft artist studios, the farm is an ideal residency location. For many years, the farm served as both a summer home for the Murray-Holmans and a creative retreat for Elizabeth Murray, whose studio was located in the large, cathedral-like dairy barn. Given the history, location and amenities, the family felt that the creative use of the property and its natural surroundings would carry on Elizabeth Murray’s legacy.
APPLY TO EMAR
Applications for the Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency are open now! Apply by October 1st.
Alumni
Danni O'Brien
Maryrose Cobarrubias Mendoza
Caitlin Green
Angela Marie Conant
Rebecca Nava Soto
2023 SEASON
Kenzie Allen
Kyle b. co.
Liz Ferrer and Bow Ty Enterprises Venture Capital
Ty Defoe
Gaby Collins-Fernandez
Florencia Escudero
Justine Hill
Tochukwu Okafor
Maurine Ogbaa
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Applications for the 2023 season are closed. Information about the 2024 will be available soon.
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We are committed to having EMAR be a supported, no cost residency. Our goal is to keep working towards providing artists with meaningful financial support and stipends.
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No. EMAR is currently only open Spring, Summer, Fall.
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The studios at EMAR are semi-private. They are located in a hay loft of a former dairy barn, the same barn where Elizabeth Murray made her iconic paintings. They are each equipped with a six-foot table, a chair, fan, 3.5 walls and a privacy curtain at the entrance. Studios are all the same size: roughly 12 x 18 feet. The studios are not air conditioned but are designed for air flow with large industrial fans and windows.
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EMAR does not provide supplies, and artists are responsible for bringing their own supplies. However, proper waste disposals and fire-safe containers are provided.
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Currently the EMAR schedules weeks 1-4 for individual artists only. Week 5 is dedicated to artists with families only. We are sorry but we can not accommodate outside guests or pets (not including certified service animals).
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EMAR provides staples/stocked pantry for breakfast, lunch and snacks to be assembled by artists on their own schedule, and dinners are prepared and served communal family-style by an onsite chef at 6pm daily.
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Although Collar Works is working towards a site-accessibility study in order to make improvements, currently this historic house, barn and studio property is not currently ADA accessible year-round. We will diligently work with individuals on a case by case basis to help meet your specific needs. Applicants to EMAR should be aware that there are no medical facilities or medical personnel on site. If you are an artist with a disability, and/or require a certified service animal to be in residence with you, please reach out to us so we can discuss your needs and how we can best accommodate you.
