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?

In each dis­ci­pline there are two ju­rors. 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 modest 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 (January 15, 2010) 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 15, 2010.  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.

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.  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.