Newspaper editor Rex Smith, Calliope Nicholas and writer Marion Roach Smith attended last year's Millay Colony Open House (photo by Seth Rogovoy)
(AUSTERLITZ, N.Y.) – The Millay Colony for the Arts is holding its annual Open House benefit party on Saturday, July 23, from 5 to 8. This year’s event will feature live music, dancers, open studios, alumni art for show and for sale, and local food and wine.
Critical favorites Christy and Emily from Brooklyn will highlight the evening with musical interludes. “[Their] music is like night air — calmly moving, a gentle swirl of warm and cool, a surrounding thing,” says Mike Wolf of RCRD LBL. Also festooning the environs will be “ambient dancing,” improvised fluid movements surrounding the party tent by lithe and skilled motion experts of NYC-based Emily Skillings & Co.
Christy and Emily will perform at this year's Millay Colony Open House
There are three main objectives to the annual Open House: fundraising; creating awareness about the residency program as well as the range of artists who attend; and providing supporters with the opportunity to meet the artists and experience the beauty of the Colony’s setting. While the first objective, fundraising, is critical to the Colony’s operation, the other two objectives are extremely important, as well.
“The advantage of our secluded location is the privacy and uninterrupted time it gives to the residents,” said Millay Colony Executive Director Caroline Crumpacker. “However, that seclusion also means that we must make a special effort to invite our neighboring community in to see what happens every month at the Colony. We rely on events like this one to showcase the magical world of Millay, a fusion of cutting edge art and remarkable pastoral loveliness.”
Artist studios will be open for guests to visit and meet the makers. Art, books, broadsides & CDs from Millay Colony alumni will be for display and for sale. Several artmakers, including Christopher Kardambikis, Jasdeep Khaira, and Julia Dault will colorfully decorate the Colony buildings and grounds.
Tickets are $75 per person, $35 alumni, $20 for children under twelve. To purchase call 518-392-4144, email director@millaycolony.org, or visit Open House. The event will be held at the Millay Colony on the grounds of Steepletop, the estate of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. 454 East Hill Road, Austerlitz, N.Y.
The Millay Colony for the Arts was founded in 1973 as an artists’ residency program in Austerlitz, New York located on the former property of poet Edna St. Vincent Millay. Its mission is to promote the vitality of the arts by providing writers, visual artists and composers with a rural retreat that encourages creative intensity and exploration in the context of a nurturing artistic community.