Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing Chelsea Rathburn and Professor of Graphic Design Tennille Shuster spent a good portion of their summer getting in touch with their creative sides as fellows at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), a prestigious artists’ residency program in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
“VCCA is a magical space that draws visual artists, musicians and writers from all over the country,” said Rathburn. “Each artist is creating work independently, but because we’re all working in a collaborative space, in this shared atmosphere of creativity, we often make new discoveries.”
VCCA Fellows are selected by peer review on the basis of professional achievement or promise of achievement in their respective fields. Admission decisions are guided by “high caliber artists who represent a diversity of styles and tastes,” including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, playwriting/screenwriting, children’s literature, performance, film/video, book arts, drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, installation art and music composition.
Rathburn, who is also Chair of Ferrol A. Sams Jr. Distinguished Writer-in-Residence Committee and the Poet Laureate of Georgia, explained that you apply to a residency with a particular project in mind.
“The selection committee wants to know that you’re going to be productive when you’re there,” added Shuster. “So it can be helpful if you go in with a plan.”
Rathburn and Shuster applied for the summer residency independently. After learning they both had been accepted, they realized their residencies would overlap.
Rathburn has authored three award-winning collections of poetry, and during her 15-day residency she worked on completing the first draft of a fourth poetry collection tentatively titled Broken Houses.
“For the last several years, I’ve been thinking about houses,” said Rathburn. “The collection explores concepts of home and the foundations – both physical and metaphorical, stable and unstable – that shape us. I’ve got poems about dollhouses, model homes, cemeteries, hauntings and even a cockroach infestation.”
Shuster, who is also chair of the art department and illustrator of the recently published children’s book Toby’s Campus Tour, spent about three weeks at the VCCA writing a children’s book titled M is for Macon, producing a limited-edition artist’s book titled Moonflower, creating a unique artist’s book titled Chaos that incorporates original marbled paper art, and also creating a series of original folded, marbled paper collages.
“Just to take that time to focus completely on your work and have uninterrupted creative time, it’s a gift,” she said. “Everybody there is so incredibly talented, and it is a competitive opportunity. The people that are there come with lots of credentials, and it’s exciting to be surrounded by that level of creativity.”
Acknowledging how competitive the residency is, Rathburn said that’s one of the things that contributed to how productive she was while she was there.
“There’s this recognition that you have, at the back of your mind, that you have to make the most of your time,” she said. “After all, so many other artists, writers and composers wanted to be here in this space and weren’t offered a residency this season.”
VCCA says residencies can be transformative to an artist’s process and the effect on an artist’s career can be profound. Both professors say their experiences at the summer residency contributed to making them better artists and better teachers.
“Time spent among other artists is inspiring in so many ways. At dinner, we all spend a lot of time talking about our creative processes, and often we discuss our work in the classroom,” said Rathburn. “This helps with everything from developing new assignments and creative prompts to discovering new texts to recommend to students.”
Shuster agreed, saying, “This residency allowed for time spent exploring new methods, and deepening my knowledge of my current practices. I can bring that experience back into the classroom, and that’s valuable.”
