Getaways to Nurture Your Artistic Side, Even if You're Not an Artist

New York Times

25-04-2025

Many professional writers and artists dream of being chosen for a prestigious residency like Yaddo, in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., or MacDowell in Peterborough, N.H. But even amateurs can benefit from the intense concentration a residency allows. For them, select programs offer the opportunity to pay their own way for a few days or even weeks, sometimes at affordable rates, to create art.
'A lot of people don't realize that they can do residencies and not be someone who has chosen art as their career, or music or dance,' said Alicia Toldi, 34, an artist living in Paonia, Colo. Together with Carolina Porras-Monroy, a collaborator she met during a formative residency, Ms. Toldi has documented American residency programs in five regional editions of 'Piney Wood Atlas.'
Residencies offer participants an environment for production as well as reflection, Ms. Toldi said. They provide chances to try new methods that can foster creative growth in ways that spa, yoga or wellness-related tourism do not.
To attend, a brief application is often required, sometimes months in advance. Prospective participants should consider the resources and amenities they will need. Many programs include meals and room cleaning to maximize creative time. In return, participants should expect limitations: Some programs have rules about quiet hours, screen time and alcohol.
The Brooklyn-based author Christene Barberich, 56, recently designed her own writing retreat to work on a book proposal, an initiative she wrote about in her newsletter, A Tiny Apt. After having created a few such itineraries, Ms. Barberich has a few productive guidelines for herself: plan a minimum of one day; limit interruptions, including time spent on social media; pack inspirational material; resist the urge to go with a friend. Most importantly: Establish what you want to get out of the time, and be disciplined with yourself.
Here, some places to get away where the muse is encouraged to strike.
Good for groups
A 400-year-old chateau is on offer for team retreats and self-organized festivals outside of Paris at Château du Feÿ, which targets an activist and engineer crowd in addition to artists. When it isn't hosting workshops (December through May), Château du Feÿ turns its event space over to everyone from techno-utopians for their annual foresight weekend to a conference of representatives of French eco-villages.
'Our goal is always to provide a space that encourages creativity — unlike a typical cold and rigid chateau,' said Agathe Simonin, who works on the Château du Feÿ events team. Past visitors have created site-specific work in the woodlands using lasers and choreography. It was here that artists prototyped the Sonic Sphere, a spherical concert hall designed for immersive music and sound art. The geodesic installation was inspired by the vision of Karlheinz Stockhausen, an avant-garde composer and father of electronic music who built a spherical auditorium for the 1970 World Expo in Osaka. The sphere made at Château du Feÿ traveled the world in recent years, including a 2023 stint at the Shed in Manhattan.
Conveners are in charge of programming their time on the 103-acre property. Participants can stay in 28 bedrooms (weeknight accommodations for groups up to 30 start at 6,600 euros per night, about $6,940; glamping tents are available for €150 each per night). In between events, participants can forage, go on nature walks and learn about permaculture.
On a smaller scale, Mesa Refuge in Northern California offers space for up to six people to host their own writing retreats, with the nearby Point Reyes National Seashore serving as a local source of inspiration. For two weeks in December and a few additional weeks throughout the year, groups of writers or a family can make use of the three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bathroom house with two writing sheds in the garden ($5,245 for seven nights).
Kamala Tully, the executive director of Mesa Refuge, described the refuge's creative energy as 'strong and unique for writers focused on climate, economic equity and social justice.' Terry Tempest Williams, Robin Wall Kimmerer and Rebecca Solnit have all been in residence. When the space is not booked for self-organized retreats, individuals participate through grant-supported invitational residencies or alumni weeks, or they can apply for their own retreats. 'Knowing that all these writers and activists have been here before them is a great motivator and source of inspiration,' Ms. Tully said.
Self-structured residencies
Need more solitude? People keen to go on a solo retreat may be wooed by experimental living spaces in Joshua Tree, Calif. Participants can stay up to four weeks at High Desert Test Sites, an arts nonprofit, alongside outdoor installations and artworks (prices start at $600 for seven nights in a guest cabin). The group's Desert Research Library, which is building a collective history of the region through its multimedia collection, is accessible to residents, and experienced artists can take advantage of a woodshop and weaving and ceramics studios. 'The site offers a much deeper engagement with site-specific art and the surrounding landscape than a retreat or staycation would,' said Aida Lizalde, one of the program's coordinators.
In northern Pennsylvania, Bischoff Inn offers low-cost 'micro-residencies' ($350 per week in winter and spring or $375 in summer, with a $50 fee to bring a partner or child). The pricing is emblematic of a type of hosting that seeks little or no profit, focusing instead on encouraging new creative work, or even just letting participants rest.
'Our typical artist-in-residence is someone who has a busy life — day job, kids — and cannot take a month off of work and domestic duties to attend a residency or, frankly, cannot afford to,' said Maria Stabio, owner of the inn, which is in Tamaqua, Pa. Educators and academics have used their school breaks to join the more than 80 artists who have spent retreat weeks there since January 2024.
On the West Coast, Sou'wester on Washington's Long Beach Peninsula promises space for deeply focused and self-directed time, including for craftspeople and musicians (rates to stay in one of 30 vintage travel trailers range from $275 to $500 per week).
Fixed date retreats
Many programs bring together people who are looking to connect with others practicing the same craft. Participants have left these and other retreats and residencies with manuscripts that were later published, ideas for films that are now in production and, perhaps most important, informal support networks.
For fiction and memoir writers seeking feedback, the annual Sirenland Writers Conference includes coaching and craft talks in Positano, Italy ($6,750 for six nights' accommodations plus meals, coaching and workshops). The conference is hosted by authors including Dani Shapiro, and applications open in September for next year's gathering.
For an off-the-grid option, residencies at the Sable Project in Stockbridge, Vt., are scheduled at fixed windows throughout the summer and into September ($50 a night for two- to five-day guest artist residencies, up to $500 for 10-day summer residencies). While in the Green Mountains, artists working in a range of disciplines cook family-style dinners for their 10- to 12-member cohort. They sleep in tents and forgo electricity for the duration of their stay. As with many programs that host artist talks and public performances for local community members, the Sable Project features Food and Art Fridays throughout the summer.
In Labastide-Esparbairenque in southern France, La Muse Artist and Writers Retreat features programming that includes creative hiking (early August) and an 'expressive pages' workshop facilitated by the poet and circus performer Jenny Hill (late October; accommodations range from €575 to €965 plus a €250 workshop fee).
'Everyone lives at their own pace, apart from the workshops and evening meals, often followed by readings and singing,' said Alain Brichau, a former resident turned owner. 'After all, in France, everything ends with songs.'
For more options, the Artist Communities Alliance, an association of artist residencies, has a residency profile tool to compare programs. Another site, the Res Artis network, lets users filter more than 600 programs around the world.