Millay Colony for the Arts

The guest house at Steepletop, main offices of the Millay Colony

The Millay Colony for the Arts is an artist residency program in Austerlitz, New York. The colony offers one month residencies to visual artists, writers, poets and composers. The Millay Colony for the Arts was founded in 1973 by Norma Millay Ellis, sister of the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, and her husband, Charles Frederick Ellis, a painter and actor.^[1]

The colony is located at Steepletop, the property where the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) lived and wrote for 25 years. Residents are given a bedroom and studio in the Steepletop Barn or Main Building. The Steepletop Barn was built by Edna St. Vincent Millay and her husband from a Sears & Roebuck kit in the 1920s. The Main Building was designed by a team of artists with disabilities. It is based on the principles of universal design, and has offices, two bedrooms, studios, a darkroom, kitchen, dining room and an art library donated by Nancy Graves.^[2]

The colony is adjacent to Edna St. Vincent Millay's former home and the Harvey Mountain State Forest. Edna St. Vincent Millay's former house and gardens, maintained by the Edna St. Vincent Millay Society, are a National Historical Landmark.^[3] Steepletop is named after a pink, conical wildflower that grows there.^[4]

Footnotes

1. ^ "Norma Millay Ellis, 92; Arts Colony Founder", The New York Times, 16 May 1986.
2. ^ Millay Colony for the Arts, about, tour. 30 June 2008. <www.millaycolony.org>
3. ^ Millay Colony for the Arts, about, tour. 30 June 2008. <www.millaycolony.org>
4. ^ The New York Times, 16 May 1986.

References

• "Norma Millay Ellis, 92; Arts Colony Founder", The New York Times, 16 May 1986.
• Millay Colony for the Arts, about, tour. 30 June 2008. <www.millaycolony.org>

External links

Hudson Valley portal

• Millay Colony for the Arts
• Edna St. Vincent Millay Society