Atlantic Center for the Arts' Residency #170: Part I

By Linda Rodriguez

December 26th, 2018

Every year we make resolutions – as an author, it’s to write more, to keep growing and learning, but how?  Have you ever considered a residency? It’s a getaway that gives you space and the artistic interactions to keep you inspired and motivated. That’s what Storyrocket author, Linda Rodriguez did for the 6th time at Atlantic Center for the Arts.  Follow her journey, here’s her 4-part blog series, and see why she keeps going back for more.

 

Just Be An Artist

 

At ACA your artistic soul glides over many creative oceans, even though physically you never really move much afar from the Doris Leeper Studio Complex. But who would want to?

 

The Studios and the Joan James Harris Theater are beautiful and peaceful and while these provide the space where much of the artistic work happens, it is at the Commons where artists get re-fueled with healthy home-cooked-style meals. ACA is a love-filled home for artists quietly nestled among palmettos and pines at the end of a sandy lane.

 

A sandy lane? Yes! At least that’s how I remember the path that took me to ACA when I first arrived there in the summer of 2002 to write poetry with Master Artist Ishmael Reed.

 

Now the sandy lane has become Art Center Avenue, well paved and large houses standing to each side, plus on US 1 there is a road sign that points the way to ACA. But then and now, above all, ACA is still a place where you are allowed for a time to leave behind burdens, travel lightly, and just be an artist.

 

To have the luxury of just being an artist! This had become especially important to me having survived Hurricane Maria and months later still finding myself trying to cope with the catastrophe’s aftermath that left Puerto Rico devastated and its people struggling to re-built from the ground up.

 

I Keep Going Back

 

During the summer of 2018, I was on one of ACA’s twenty-one-day creative journeys, led by master artists poet Tracie Morris, composer Laura Schwendinger, and visual artist Matt Madden. It was my sixth time as an associate artist at ACA. Yes, my sixth time. So now you might be asking me: “Why do you keep going back?

 

First of all, every time you go to ACA it’s different. But, thankfully, it is also the same experience: The wonderful studios, theater, library, gallery, and yes, the beehives! And the raised boardwalks! As soon as my feet hit those wood planks I know I’m home and that the creative adventure has begun.

 

Traditionally at ACA residencies start on a Sunday afternoon. That’s when the new arrivals begin to settle into the Associate Artist Housing and the air is filled with nervous energy. But soon things begin to settle down as everyone gathers in the Commons for a meet-and-greet and homecoming dinner which for Residency #170 was lovingly and professionally prepared by Chef Sue.

 

What changes with every residency is the people you work with, both master and associate artists. Although at this point, there are some “repeat offenders” I know from previous residencies. This time I was happily reunited with fellow associate artist Kevin Ottem-Fox who I had not seen since we worked together as part of master artist Heather Woodbury’s playwriting and performance residency in 2011.

 

Also, each residency has its own focus and on this occasion, it was a special challenge for me. I do not consider myself a visual artist, but here I was as an Associate Artist to comic book Master Artist Matt Madden who had titled his residency: Build Your Own Labyrinth: Using Constraints to Challenge and Surprise Yourself.