Frequently Asked Questions

Questions About the Residency Program

What are you look­ing for?

We're look­ing for tal­ent­ed, serious and ded­i­cat­ed artists and writ­ers, who are legal residents of New York State. We en­cour­age es­tab­lished, mid-​ca­reer and emerg­ing artists, over the age of 21, to apply.  It is our goal to make the fairest judg­ment pos­si­ble of the ap­pli­cants and their work ~ a judg­ment which in­cludes recog­ni­tion of a va­ri­ety of artis­tic tra­di­tions. Our ori­en­ta­tion is, how­ev­er, pri­mar­i­ly to­wards fine arts, rather than pop­u­lar or folk­loric arts.

Who are the ju­rors?

We don't re­lease the names of the ju­rors until the judg­ing has been com­plet­ed. They are dis­tin­guished pro­fes­sion­als in the dis­ci­plines, often pro­fes­sors in MFA and BA pro­grams. Ju­rors for the Colony pro­gram are gen­er­al­ly from the Fin­ger Lakes re­gion. They may in­clude artists and writ­ers who have at­tend­ed the Salton­stall Arts Colony. We care­ful­ly check that ju­rors do not have close fam­i­ly con­nec­tions to the ap­pli­cants.

How is the judg­ing con­duct­ed?

There are two ju­rors for each of the writing categories and three jurors for the visual arts category. Each juror re­ceives a com­plete set of all the ap­pli­ca­tions in that par­tic­u­lar dis­ci­pline. In­di­vid­u­al­ly, each juror views or reads the ap­pli­ca­tions once be­fore meet­ing with the other juror to re­view the strongest ones. Re­sumes and artists state­ments are read at this time. Ju­rors are en­cour­aged to se­lect the Fel­low­ship win­ners based pri­mar­i­ly on the strength of their artis­tic sub­mis­sions, while con­sid­er­ing a bal­anced se­lec­tion of es­tab­lished and emerg­ing artists.

Will the Foun­da­tion claim own­er­ship of the ma­te­ri­al I pro­duce dur­ing the res­i­den­cy pe­ri­od?

No. We may in­vite artists to par­tic­i­pate in ex­hibits or pub­li­ca­tions, but we do not make any own­er­ship claims on these works.

Why would I want to go to an arts colony?

Res­i­den­cies pro­vide artists time and pri­vate space to do their work with­out in­ter­rup­tion. Dur­ing one month at the Salton­stall Arts Colony, Salton­stall Residents are often able to com­plete at least 3-4 months worth of work. There is just one phone, min­i­mal chores, and re­strict­ed vis­i­tor hours ~ all of which al­lows for max­i­mum focus on the artists work. The Colony is in a beau­ti­ful and in­spir­ing set­ting of fields and wood­ed hills, ap­prox­i­mately nine miles from down­town Itha­ca.

I ap­plied to the arts colony last year. Do I need to send new let­ters of rec­om­men­da­tion?

No, we will keep your let­ters on file for one year. In­clude a note on the ap­pli­ca­tion in­di­cat­ing your let­ters of rec­om­men­da­tion are on file.

Is there a stipend for at­tend­ing the colony?

Yes, each artist cho­sen for the Sum­mer Residency Program re­ceives a $500 stipend to help de­fray in­di­vid­u­al ex­pens­es.

I'm a writ­er who needs com­plete si­lence. Can you promise that there will be no in­ter­rup­tions?

Most writ­ers are de­light­ed with the gen­er­al level of quiet at the Salton­stall Arts Colony. There will be very few in­ter­rup­tions. The writ­ers' stu­dios are pri­vate with locks on the door and no tele­phone. How­ev­er, the writ­ers' stu­dios are in the Main House which holds three artists, the pump to the water well, and the Colony kitchen and gath­er­ing room. On very rare oc­ca­sions, our fa­cil­i­ties don't mea­sure up to the stan­dards of some writ­ers. If you need ex­treme quiet, our Colony might not be ideal for you.

Questions About Making An Application

Are you se­ri­ous? A one page resumé?

Yes, we are quite se­ri­ous that you are lim­it­ed to just one page to sum­ma­rize your most im­por­tant ac­com­plish­ments in your artis­tic dis­ci­pline. Do not send a mul­ti­ple paged CV, brochure or book­let about your work.  Any­thing sent be­yond the first page of your resumé will not be sent to the ju­rors.

I've never been pro­fes­sion­al­ly pub­lished or ex­hib­it­ed, so what should my resumé in­clude?

List on your re­sume any­thing you've done which would demon­strate your com­mit­ment and in­volve­ment in your dis­ci­pline, such as class­es, work­shops or writ­ers' groups at­tend­ed and con­tri­bu­tions to non-​pro­fes­sion­al pub­li­ca­tions.

How should I bind my manuscript?

Please DO NOT bind your manuscript. Sim­ply sta­ple each copy in the upper left cor­ner and in­clude them with your other ap­pli­ca­tion ma­te­ri­als. Make sure your name and page numbers are on each page. Do not put them in fold­ers, note­books or spe­cial cov­ers of any kind. These will not be sent to the ju­rors or re­turned. 

What should my "artist's state­ment" say?

This is your op­por­tu­ni­ty to tell the jury what­ev­er you feel they should know about you that isn't rep­re­sent­ed in your work sam­ple or re­sume. In ad­di­tion, the ju­rors will find it help­ful to have a straight for­ward de­scrip­tion of what you plan to do with your award, if you re­ceive a Fel­low­ship. It's a good idea to be spe­cif­ic and to out­line some­thing which can be achieved dur­ing a month at the Colony.

Should I send a draft of the new work men­tioned in the artist's state­ment?

No, send sam­ples of re­cent­ly com­plet­ed work. Show us your best work. These are mer­it-​based awards, not pro­ject based. The jury pan­els will be bas­ing their de­ci­sions al­most en­tire­ly on the qual­i­ty of the work.

May I apply in more than one field?

Yes, how­ev­er you must submit sep­a­rate and com­plete applications for each category, with the ex­cep­tion of let­ters of rec­om­men­da­tion for Fel­low­ships.

What does "Post­mark Dead­line" mean?

This is the last date (be­fore clos­ing time) by which you must mail your ap­pli­ca­tion at a U.S. Post Of­fice. Ap­pli­ca­tions which have post­marks after the dead­line of Saturday, January 14, 2012 are in­el­i­gi­ble and will be re­turned.

Should I send my ap­pli­ca­tion by Fed­er­al Ex­press, UPS Overnight De­liv­ery, DHL Ex­press, or XPEDX?

NO! We DO NOT ac­cept ap­pli­ca­tions sent via Fed­er­al Ex­press, UPS Overnight De­liv­ery, DHL Ex­press. or XPEDX. It is suf­fi­cient to get your ap­pli­ca­tion in the mail by Jan­uary 14, 2012. Spe­cial ser­vices cost a lot of money and make more work for us. If you don't trust reg­u­lar mail ser­vice, use the U.S. Postal Ser­vice De­liv­ery Con­fir­ma­tion Re­quest, which is very af­ford­able and gives you a means of track­ing your ap­pli­ca­tion.

I write short prose pieces. May I send more than one story?

Yes, as long as the group of sto­ries or es­says amount to no more than 30 pages, dou­ble-​spaced with one inch mar­gins.

May I sub­mit work in­tend­ed for chil­dren?

Not at this time. Our ju­rors have been se­lect­ed for their abil­i­ty to eval­u­ate cre­ative prose for adult read­ers and will not be able to give you a judg­ment of works in other gen­res. If you have strong cre­ative prose, sub­mit a sam­ple of that work. If you are award­ed a Fel­low­ship, you may use it to com­plete work in­tend­ed for a young au­di­ence.

My work is in­ter­dis­ci­plinary, com­bin­ing both vi­su­al and lit­er­ary arts. How should I apply?

Please read the cat­e­go­ry de­scrip­tions care­ful­ly to see if your work will apply. You may make two ap­pli­ca­tions, one to each of two cat­e­gories.

What do you mean by "cre­ative non-​fic­tion"?

We mean prose which is lit­er­ary, rather than jour­nal­is­tic or aca­dem­ic writ­ing ~ writ­ing in which the qual­i­ty of the writ­ing is at least as im­por­tant as the sub­ject mat­ter. It's prose that's written in an imaginative, stylish, often dramatic way, in which it's okay to use the the tools of the fiction writer and poet while maintaining allegiance to fact. People used to call it the "Literary Essay."

Will the qual­i­ty of the CDs/DVDs count?

Yes. If the ju­rors can't see your work clear­ly, your art will not be judged pos­i­tive­ly. Check for focus and con­trast. Make sure your discs are read­able on both MAC & PC be­fore you mail them. 

How and when will I be told about the re­sults of the com­pe­ti­tion?

All those who have been award­ed Fel­low­ships will be no­ti­fied by tele­phone as early as pos­si­ble. All ap­pli­cants will be no­ti­fied by mail of final de­ci­sions by April 15, 2012. You do not need to send an en­ve­lope to re­ceive this no­tice. We will mail letters to each applicant.

If I don’t win, will I re­ceive a cri­tique/ex­pla­na­tion?

Our ju­rors do not pro­vide cri­tiques, ex­pla­na­tions, or ad­vice.

When will my work sam­ples be re­turned?

It is not pos­si­ble to re­turn sub­mit­ted work.

Please ex­plain the 'reap­pli­ca­tion el­i­gi­bil­i­ty' ques­tion.

If you have re­ceived a Sum­mer Residency you may not apply until the fourth year after your ini­tial award.