The Artistic Home
Leadership for the Design and Revitalization of Artistic Communities
Inspirational new work is made in a variety of ways: seated cross-legged on one's bed with a laptop or a pen in hand, standing by an easel at a window, gazing at one's reflection in a movement studio mirror, poised above a keyboard, or dynamically engaged with a range of leading-edge technologies.
Art is also crafted at formal artist communities and creative retreats: environments rigorously designed to support and uplift the ability of artists to take vital risks, make mistakes, start over, and be in provocative conversation with their peers, across genres.
What Artists need is Time + Space and the Freedom to Fail.
Creating artistic homes – venues that inspire bravery and where individual creativity will flourish – has been my life's work. Discovering what artists ideally need to liberate their most inspirational selves continues to be a compelling conversation for me and among artists across mediums, always taking into account the quickly shifting provocations and landscapes of our current world.
Philip Himberg
Founder & Director
After a long professional career leading major cultural institutions, I now consult with individuals, non-profit cultural organizations, and creative corporations to ensure all elements coalesce for the benefit of artists. I aim to maximize the successful launching
of new residencies, as well as the growth, maintenance and recharging of existing artist communities.
I offer guidance and consultation in four related areas with individuals and/or organizations, crafting a range of timelines and approaches, rooted in the spirit of fairness and equity. Find consultation services here.
My process is rooted in open and calm inquiry, shepherding conversation among stakeholders and supporting the creation or re-emphasis of core values, vision and mission, objectives, and innovative methodologies. Accessibility and Equity are central to this process. I provide the voice of guidance and experience. Goals and Outcomes include Concept Creation, Marketing, Fundraising Strategies and Effective Partnerships.
As Artistic Director of the Sundance Institute Theatre Laboratories for nearly a quarter of a century, I embraced the role of active listener, discovering a wide range of support issues, which elevate and enhance the artist experience.
Every element of an artist retreat echoes with a powerful resonance. Communities can be assembled in the countryside, cognizant of the dynamic interplay between the natural world and human creativity, or successfully embedded in stimulating urban environments.
The composite design of the residence venue deeply influences a successful experience. From the height of a writing desk to the shape of a dining table, from codes of conduct to well illuminated pathways, artists-in-residence respond to stimulation from the immediate world that surrounds them. In some instances, effective dramaturgical partnerships, well considered rehearsal and presentation schedules, curation of mealtime conversations and screenings, readings or lectures magnify the energetic nurturing. The crafting of meaningful feedback sessions, when appropriate, may also be a key part of what assures an exalted experience.
My expertise lies in how to conceive and curate an artistic community, as well how to select creative problem-solving staff and understanding the architecture of daily production schedules and management. I collaborate with you to help engineer and realize your vision.
Identifying Partnerships that are meaningful and nourishing significantly influence an organization's impact in the world, and marketing and fundraising strategies play a key role.
Flexibility is key. As former Executive Director of MacDowell (America's first artist residency), context greatly shifted my responsibilities during a world in crisis. As Covid took hold and in the wake of George Floyd's murder when the social justice movement in America came powerfully to the fore, an unprecedented interval set up fierce challenges, as well as an opportunity to boldly re-examine existing structures. With the brave input of a large range of artists across media, and board and staff support, we made space to re-invent and implement change.
Why & to What End?
Storytelling takes place in the empty space between an audience (reader, listener, or observer) and the work of art being put forward. In the same way, making an effective home for artists is navigating the great and beautiful and empty field between inspirational impulse and bringing into being.
Now more than ever, our world craves creative thinking, inspiring storytellers, and inventive boundarybreaking perspectives. The setting and 'casting' for this is core. The ability to uplift the artistic process should be as transformative as the art being made. The goal is to discover and potentiate the elements that artists need to unlock their most creative selves.
What lies behind this urgent process:
THE SPACE IN-BETWEEN is a span between mystery and knowledge. It is the terrain of thought and intuition. We begin with reflecting on and acknowledging our yearning for a sense "home" - a place where talented artists imagine, toil at their craft, and bring into being new worlds.
Only two cultures and languages have a word that defines the very human condition of longing for what is deeply embedded in our hearts.
In Welsh the word "hiraeth" means a homesickness for a home to which you cannot return, a home which maybe never was.
In Portuguese, "saudade" is a profound emotional state of nostalgic longing for an absent something - or someone - that one loves but that is not, by definition, attainable. This "creative tension" informs our journey.
Since I first watched Dorothy Gale's house cascading from the sky in The Wizard of Oz, the concept of "Home" has held a kind of obsessive fascination for me. "Home" manifests in countless ways. In our stricken world, actual human migration is an often desperate search and journeying for home, motivated by a need for safety and refuge.
We need to also assure that artists from across the globe have time + space and resources: a terrain where they may embrace their aspirational hearts and souls and hone their talent and craft. Artists articulate and beckon us and illuminate our way forward. The role of Artist Residencies has been and will be a key part of a new Renaissance. I invite you to work with me as we make valuable room for artmakers so they may gather to think, break bread, and share their dreams with a hungry universe.