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Mineral School is an artist residency located in a former 1947 elementary school near Mt. Rainier, in Mineral, Washington. During 2020, we’re offering four two-week residency sessions to poetry and prose writers, as well as visual artists, providing accepted applicants with space and time to create new work without the interruptions of normal life and with the bonus of healthy meals prepared by culinary volunteers using locally-grown organic food whenever possible. During September 2020, we’ll offer one one-week residency to 4 writers or artists who are parents of children under 18, through support from the Sustainable Arts Foundation.

Each resident will live in an 800-square foot former classroom that offers peekaboo views of Mineral Lake and Mt. Rainier, and that will double as their writing studio, with desk and chair, lighting, bookcase, and lots of chalkboards. Visual artist residents will be offered space to work outside of their classrooms (unless they wish or want work in their medium in the room where they sleep). The school building has shared bathrooms with showers. Residents are served all meals daily (plus 24/7 access to a snack fridge and coffee/tea station), and will have the opportunity to share work with the public. Mineral features a swimmable fishing lake, boat rentals, a bar, a B&B, a general store, churches, a post office, and many deer. It’s a 25-minute drive to Mt. Rainier National Park.

Visiting authors and artists: During each two-week residency, special guests will visit and present work. Typically, alumni presenters will visit and in some cases bring with them a special guest artist they’ve chosen to introduce to Mineral.

Resident presentations: If they wish, residents can share with one another and the public at our monthly residents’ “show and tell” held during residency. These presentations are held after dinner in our library/multi-purpose room and are casual dessert potlucks.

We are accepting applications from January 1, 2020, through February 15, 2020 (Midnight, PST) for 2020 residencies. Notification will be given at least two months before the residency period for which you’ve applied.

2020 RESIDENCY DATES

Residency sessions are held during the following time periods.

Two-week residency periods:

May 10-May 24, 2020: Mixed-genre Residency
June 14-June 28, 2020: Mixed-genre Residency
July 19-August 2 2020: Mixed-genre Residency
August 16-August 30, 2020: Mixed-genre Residency

One-week parents’ residency:
September 11-September 19, 2020: Mixed-genre Residency (parents only)

FELLOWSHIP OPTIONS

Mineral School offers a mix of paid and funded residency spots. Our fellowships are competitive and we try to keep our paid spots inexpensive and accessible. If you’d like to pursue a fellowship, please know that on your fellowship application you can choose whether or not to remain in consideration for a paid spot should we be unable to grant you a funded one. We designed applications this way so you pay only one fee to apply but are juried as broadly as desired. (In other words, don’t apply for both a fellowship and a paid spot — just apply for the fellowship and mark that you’d remain in consideration for a paid spot should you not receive a fellowship.)

We’re pleased to offer a total of 10 fellowships in 2020.

June Dodge Writing Fellows (4, any session) attend a mixed-genre summer residency session for free and receive travel assistance from any point in or between Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA, in addition to room and board, visits by presenting authors, and opportunities to share work publicly. These fellowships are open to writers from the Pacific Northwest (AK, ID, MT, OR, WA) and Western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon).

The Erin Donovan Writing Fellow (1, August 2020) is for an emerging woman writer of poetry or prose living in Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, or Washington, who is 40 or older, and whose writing expresses both wit and compassion. This fellowship covers the residency fee (room and board, guest presenters, options to present) and includes travel reimbursement up to $175 (for OR/WA residents) or up to $400 (for MA/NY residents). This fellowship is supported by loved ones of Erin Donovan, an Oregon fiction writer, teacher, and outdoors woman who died in 2015.

The Mona Lisa Roberts Visual Arts Fellowship (1) supports a visual artist (graphic novelist/comics artist, painter, photographer, fabric artist, paper artist, etc.) who self-identifies as LGBTQ and lives in the Pacific Northwest (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington) or the provinces of western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon). This fellowship funds a two-week residency during summer (June, July, or August) and transit from Seattle, Portland, or points between. Depending on the medium and artist’s preference, they can work in the studio room where they sleep, spread out in the gym, or improvise outdoors. Feel free to contact us about space needs before applying.

SAF Parent Fellowships (4, September 2020) support four parent artists from anywhere in North America. If you have parenting responsibilities for a child 18 or under, you are welcome to apply. Accepted artists attend for free and receive travel assistance from any point in or between Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA (including from those cities’ airports, and Amtrak or Bolt bus stops) along the I-5 corridor, in addition to room and board, visits by presenting artists, and opportunities to share work.

PAID RESIDENCY OPTIONS

We’re pleased to offer 10 nominally-priced residencies in 2020.

Two-week residencies for poets, writers and visual artists (painters, illustrators, graphic novelists, makers, photographers, fabric artists, paper artists, and other media) cost $425 and include room, board, presentations by guest writer and artists, opportunities for public presentation, and lots of love. Visual artists bring their own materials and may use as studio space their room, the school’s grounds, covered patio, the gym stage, or plein air sites of their choice; we have ample tables and space which can be configured around your needs. If you are a visual artist and are in doubt about whether you can accomplish your medium in our space, write to us before applying at mineralschoolarts@gmail.com. Travel is not included; travel from points between Portland, OR, and Seattle, WA, to Mineral may be arranged ($20-30/each way).

https://mineralschool.submittable.com/submit

Opportunity Website

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Mineral SchoolSummer Residency