Artists find inspiration at Virginia retreat

The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts was once a working farm – 410 acres of rolling land just east of Sweet Briar College. Today, birdsong outside mingles with the music of composer Eric Moe who has been here 17 times.

“I’ve always worked really well here. I do get a lot done!” he says.

This year, he’s facing deadlines for two compositions that will be played in concert halls, recording studios and on streaming services. Here at the VCCA, staffers ensure he has what he needs to get the job done – three meals a day, prepared by a chef, a grand piano and an electric keyboard, a friendly fox terrier, Asta, and a group of artists who provide moral support and inspiration.

“That’s actually one of the draws here, because I spend the rest of the year in the company of musicians,” Moe explains. “I love musicians – don’t get me wrong, but it’s nice to compare work, habits and just to learn about other artists and ways of making work.”

Kevin O’Halloran is the center’s executive director. He oversaw the purchase of San Angelo Farm from Sweet Briar five years ago – a remarkable achievement made possible by one generous donor.

“We received a really magnificent gift from a long-time friend and board member of a painting by a little-known artist called Georgia O’Keefe.”

Now owned by a private collector in Boston, the painting’s sale price allowed Virginia’s Center for the Creative arts to pay $2.5 million for the farm and to begin some renovations. There are 22 living quarters, 3 spaces for composition, 10 rooms for writers and 9 for fine artists.

“Those are in what used to be the cow barn,” O’Halloran says, “so it’s bigger spaces, higher ceilings, lots of light.”

“When I walked into the studio I started crying. I was so moved,” recalls Charlottesville painter Sarah Boyts Yoder.
“I didn’t know there were people who cared enough about art to take care of artists so that they could work.”

A jumble of brightly colored paints and oil sticks litter a tabletop as she prepares to complete ten paintings in a week.

In a studio apartment nearby, Tania James is working on her fourth novel.

“There’s something about being at a retreat with like-minded obsessives. I just like the hum of creativity around me. I find it really helps me and inspires me.”

So, too, does the natural setting.

“I find that going for walks helps me engage with my imagination more easily than if I’m in my house and always thinking about what I need to do for others,” James explains.

The program costs $240 a day per artist to operate, with the center picking up 60% of the tab, and scholarships are offered to those who can’t afford their stay of up to a month. Thirty percent of the artists come from Virginia, 30% from New York, and the rest from across the country — and the world. Nelleke Beltjens is a mixed media maker from the Netherlands.

“It’s fascinating to be at a new place, and new people, and a new environment, and to see how my work will change because of it – new friends, new people, new energies.”

She and the others are grateful for the chance to focus intensely on their creations, and many have shared their work – leaving sculptures and paintings behind. One large library is filled with books that were written, in part, at the center.

It might sound like a vacation, but Sarah Yoder assures me, a stay at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts can be exhausting.

“I’m always really tired at the end of the week and then you go home and rest.”