Djerassi Artists Residency

Last updated
Djerassi Resident Artists Program
Formation1979
Type 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
Purposeto enhance the creativity of artists through the residency program and to preserve the land on which the program is situated
Location
  • San Mateo County, California
Website https://djerassi.org/

The Djerassi Artists Residency, also known as the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, is an artists and writers residency in San Mateo County, California, south of Woodside. [1] The residency sits on a 583-acre former cattle ranch with a 12-sided barn converted into artist studios. [2] Djerassi hosts 10 to 12 artists at a time for its month-long residencies, from March to November. The facilities include lodging with chef-prepared weekday dinners, living quarters, the Artists’ Barn (with multiple studios) and Old Barn (an installation and performance space). Djerassi is located in the Santa Cruz Mountains less than 40 miles south of San Francisco and overlooks the Pacific Ocean. Since Djerassi began, it has provided over 2,500 residencies to visual artists, composers, choreographers, media artists, writers and scientists from all 50 states and 54 countries. In addition, the Djerassi Hiking Program provides public access to the property and has expanded to include private hikes and specialty excursions, such as a five-hour walking meditation and sound immersion experience. An annual open house event allows visitors to explore the facilities, go on sculpture tours, meet the artists and enjoy performances. [3] The residency has a dual mission: to enhance the creativity of artists and to preserve the land on which the program is situated. [4]

Contents

History

The program was co-founded in 1979 by Carl Djerassi, the inventor of the birth control pill, and Diane Middlebrook. The residency is competitive and held at no cost to the artists. Originally a women-only residency program in honor of Djerassi's artist daughter Pamela Djerassi Bush, lost to suicide at age 28 in 1978, [2] [5] [6] the program later expanded to welcome all genders.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodside, California</span> Town in California, United States

Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It has a council–manager system of government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Cruz Mountains</span> Mountain range in California, United States

The Santa Cruz Mountains are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States, constituting a part of the Pacific Coast Ranges. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean from the San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley, and continue south to the Central Coast, bordering Monterey Bay and ending at the Salinas Valley. The range passes through the counties of San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz, with the Pajaro River forming the southern boundary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Clarita Valley</span> Valley in Los Angeles County, California, United States

The Santa Clarita Valley (SCV) is part of the upper watershed of the Santa Clara River in Southern California. The valley was part of the 48,612-acre (19,673 ha) Rancho San Francisco Mexican land grant. Located in Los Angeles County, its main population center is the city of Santa Clarita which includes the neighborhoods of Canyon Country, Newhall, Saugus, and Valencia. Adjacent unincorporated communities include Castaic, Stevenson Ranch, Val Verde, and Valencia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montalvo Arts Center</span> Historic house in California, United States

The Montalvo Arts Center is a non-profit center for the arts in Saratoga, California, United States. Open to the public, Montalvo comprises a cultural and arts center, a park, hiking trails and the historic Villa Montalvo, an Italian Mediterranean Revival mansion nestled in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The mansion and estate were constructed from 1912 to 1914 by California statesman and businessman James Duval Phelan. After Phelan's death, the entire estate was donated to California as a park and then a cultural and arts center as it exists today. The arts center maintains the estate in partnership with Santa Clara County. The mansion is a historic landmark, and in 1978 it was awarded inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

Gerald Oshita (1942–1992) was an American musician, composer, and sound recordist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Other Minds (organization)</span> Organization

Other Minds is an American nonprofit organization based in San Francisco. It was founded In 1992 by Charles Amirkhanian and Jim Newman. According to their mission statement, the organization is dedicated to the "encouragement and propagation of contemporary music."

Harrell Fletcher is an American social practice and relational aesthetics artist and professor, living in Portland, Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Mountain (near Los Altos, California)</span>

Black Mountain is a summit on Monte Bello Ridge in the Santa Cruz Mountains of west Santa Clara County, California, south of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, and west of Cupertino; it is within the Palo Alto city limits though not near the developed part of the city. It is located on the border between Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve and Monte Bello Open Space Preserve, with the summit located in the former. Early Spanish explorers commonly named tree- or chaparral-covered summits which look black in the distance Loma Prieta, from the Spanish . The Spanish also called the middle portion of the Santa Cruz Mountains the Sierra Morena meaning, extending from Half Moon Bay Road south to a gap at Lexington Reservoir, and which includes a summit called Sierra Morena. There are over 100 "Black Mountains" in California.

Kings Mountain is an unincorporated community in San Mateo County, California, located along State Route 35 between Skeggs Point and Pise Mountain. This is about 5 miles (8 km) north of Woodside Road (SR84). In the U.S. Geological Survey, National Geographic Names Database, the area is identified only as a geographic feature of type "summit" and not as a populated place. The community is inside area code 650 and uses the Woodside ZIP Code 94062.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sanborn County Park</span> County park in the Santa Cruz Mountains, California, USA

Sanborn County Park is a 3,453 acre (13.97 km2) county park situated in the Santa Cruz Mountains, managed by the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department. The deeply forested park features over 15 miles of trails, second-growth redwoods, and creeks that flow year-round. It offers hiking, RV camping, walk-in campsites, and picnicking/BBQ sites. In the summer months, Sanborn County Park hosts the only outdoor Shakespearean company in Silicon Valley.

The Ucross Foundation, located in Ucross, Wyoming, is a nonprofit organization that operates a retreat for visual artists, writers, composers, and choreographers working in all creative disciplines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cowell Lime Works</span> United States historic place

The Cowell Lime Works, in Santa Cruz, California, was a manufacturing complex that quarried limestone, produced lime and other limestone products, and manufactured wood barrels for transporting the finished lime. Part of its area is preserved as the Cowell Lime Works Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007. In addition to the four lime kilns, cooperage and other features relating to lime manufacture, the Historic District also includes other structures associated with the Cowell Ranch, including barns, a blacksmith shop, ranch house, cook house and workers' cabins. The 32-acre Historic District is located within the University of California, Santa Cruz campus, to either side of the main campus entrance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monte Bello Open Space Preserve</span>

Monte Bello Open Space Preserve is a 3,133-acre (12.68 km2) open space preserve, located near Palo Alto in the Santa Cruz Mountains, in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties, California, United States. The preserve encompasses the upper Stevens Creek watershed in the valley between Monte Bello Ridge and Skyline Ridge. "Monte Bello" means "beautiful mountain" in Italian, and refers to Black Mountain which is the highest part of Montebello Ridge. The straight valley of upper Stevens Creek is also the rift valley of the San Andreas Fault.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Wassaic Project</span> Arts organization in Wassaic, New York, United States

The Wassaic Project is a non-profit artist-run arts, community and art education space in Wassaic, New York founded in 2008 that hosts festivals, community events and year-round artist residencies. Currently it consists of a year-round competitive residency program and summer arts programming which culminate in a large, free summer festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thornewood Open Space Preserve</span>

Thornewood Open Space Preserve is a small regional park located in the Santa Cruz Mountains in San Mateo County. The park lies in the San Francisco Bay Area and is operated by the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. It offers approximately 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of hiking and equestrian trails and is dog-friendly. The Schilling Lake Trail leads to Schilling Lake, a protected wildlife habitat. This trail offers brief views of the southern San Francisco Bay, Palo Alto and surrounding cities, and the Diablo Range. From Schilling Lake, the Bridle Trail leads to Old La Honda Road.

Rodney Ewing is an African-American interdisciplinary visual artist. He lives in New York City as of 2022, and formerly lived in San Francisco, California.

The Sanchez Art Center is a nonprofit arts organization located in Pacifica, California. It was formed in 1996 by local artists and community members.

Raheleh "Minoosh" Zomorodinia is an Iranian-born American interdisciplinary visual artist, curator, and educator. She works in many mediums, including in photography, video, installation, and performance. Her work is informed by the tension between Iran and the United States, as well as explorations of the self, of home, nature, and the environment. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Paz de la Calzada is a Spanish-born American interdisciplinary artist and illustrator, working in drawing, installation, and public art. The relationship of nature to human life is a major theme in her work. De la Calzada was born and raised in Spain, which largely informs her art practice. She lives in San Francisco, California.

References

  1. ↑ Kendzulak, Susan. "Fine Art: The Djerassi Artists Residency". About.com. Archived from the original on 2014-05-02. Retrieved 2014-04-30.
  2. 1 2 "Djerassi artists' retreat hosts rare open house". East Bay Times. 2007-07-28. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  3. ↑ "Arts Residency Programs: The Secret Engine of the Bay Area Arts Scene". KQED Arts. Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  4. ↑ Le, Anh-Minh (September 26, 2022). "Forty Years On, a Legacy of Art Intertwined with Nature Thrives in the Santa Cruz Mountains". Nob Hill Gazette. Archived from the original on September 1, 2023. Retrieved February 15, 2024.
  5. ↑ Tan, Cheryl Lu-lien (2014-10-10). "Want to Get Into an Artists' Retreat? Go as a Tourist". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2017-08-02.
  6. ↑ Newman, Bruce (2012-07-26). "Woodside: At bucolic Djerassi ranch, muse calls on artists, not other way around". The Mercury News . ISSN   0747-2099 . Retrieved 2024-01-07.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.