Millay Arts, formerly the Millay Colony for the Arts, is an arts community offering residency-retreats and workshops in

Austerlitz, New York Austerlitz is a town in Columbia County, New York, United States. The population was 1,625 at the 2020 census.US Census Bureau, 2020 Census Report, Austerlitz, Columbia County, New York https://www.census.gov/search-results.html?searchType=web&cs ...

, and free arts programs in local public schools. Housed on the former property of feminist/activist poet and playwright

Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay (February 22, 1892 – October 19, 1950) was an American lyric poetry, lyrical poet and playwright. Millay was a renowned social figure and noted Feminism, feminist in New York City during the Roaring Twenties and beyond. ...

, the Colony's campus offers residencies, retreats, and classes. Millay Arts' Vincent is an annual journal featuring highlights of Art-in-Residence.

History

In 1925, Edna St. Vincent Millay bought ''

Steepletop Steepletop, also known as the Edna St. Vincent Millay House, was the farmhouse home of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay and her husband Eugen Jan Boissevain, in Austerlitz, New York, United States. Her former home and garden ...

'', a house with a blueberry farm in Austerlitz, NY, named after a pink, conical

wildflower A wildflower (or wild flower) is a flower that grows in the wild, rather than being intentionally seeded or planted. The term implies that the plant is neither a hybrid nor a selected cultivar that is any different from the native plant, eve ...

that grows there. With her husband, Millay built a barn from a

Sears Roebuck Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwa ...

kit, and then a writing cabin, and a tennis court. After the poet's death in 1950, her sister

Norma Millay Ellis Norma Millay (1894May 14, 1986) was an American singer and actress, and sister of the poet and playwright Edna St. Vincent Millay. Born in Rockland, Maine to Cora Lounella Buzelle and Henry Tolman Millay, Norma Millay was one of three sisters who ...

moved to Steepletop. In 1973, she founded The Millay Colony, which was established as a nonprofit organization. Norma Millay Ellis donated the barn and surrounding acreage to The Millay Colony. The barn was subsequently renovated to provide accommodations and studio space for four resident artists. In the mid-1990s, The Millay Colony commissioned architectural firm Michael Singer Studio, in consultation with an advisory committee of six artists with disabilities, to design an additional building for the Colony using the principles of universal access and environmentally friendly design. This 3,550 square foot building currently houses The Millay Colony's offices and public rooms, and provides accommodations and studio space. The house and gardens are a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a National Register of Historic Places property types, building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the Federal government of the United States, United States government f ...

Notable residents

Composing

Linda Bouchard Linda Bouchard (born 21 May 1957) is a Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exi ...

Andrea Clearfield Andrea Clearfield (born 1960) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Regularly commissioned and performed by ensembles in the United States and abroad, her works include music for orchestra, chorus, soloists, chamber ensembles, ...

* Michael Harrison *

Laura Kaminsky Laura Kaminsky (born September 28, 1956) is an American composer, producer of musical and multi-disciplinary cultural events, and educator. She was born in New York City, graduated from the High School of Music and Art, and studied with Joseph ...

* Zibuokle Martinaityte *

Alex Weiser Alex Weiser is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Early life and education Weiser was born in New York City to a Jewish family. He attended Stuyvesant High School and Yale University, and received a master's degree in Music The ...

Alex Freeman Alexander Michael Freeman (born August 9, 2004) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a defender for Major League Soccer club Orlando City and the United States national team. Youth career Freeman was born in Baltimore, Ma ...

Fiction

* Zaki Baydoun * Teresa Carmody *

Andrew Sean Greer Andrew Sean Greer (born November 21, 1970) is an American novelist and short story writer. Greer received the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for his novel ''Less (novel), Less''. He is the author of ''The Story of a Marriage'', which ''The New ...

* Eugenia Kim (author) *

Paul Lisicky Paul Lisicky (born July 9, 1959) is an American novelist and memoirist. He is an associate professor in the MFA Program at Rutgers University-Camden, and the author of several books. Early life Paul Lisicky was born on July 9, 1959. He grew up ...

Carmen Maria Machado Carmen Maria Machado (born July 3, 1986) is an American short story author, essayist, and critic best known for ''Her Body and Other Parties'', a 2017 short story collection, and her memoir '' In the Dream House'', which was published in 2019 and ...

Sigrid Nunez Sigrid Nunez (born 1951) is an American writer who is best known for her novels. Her seventh novel, ''The Friend (novel), The Friend'', won the 2018 National Book Award for Fiction. In 2025, Nunez was named as the recipient of a Windham-Campbell ...

Alice Sebold Alice Sebold (born September 6, 1963) is an American author. She is known for her novels '' The Lovely Bones'' and '' The Almost Moon'', and a memoir, '' Lucky''. ''The Lovely Bones'' was on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list and was adapt ...

David Shields David Shields is an American author who has published twenty-four books, including '' Reality Hunger'' (which, in 2019, ''Lit Hub'' named one of the most important books of the past decade), ''The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead' ...

Masha Tupitsyn Masha Tupitsyn is an American writer and cultural critic based in New York City. Tupitsyn's writing focuses on contemporary cinema and experiments with form and genre, using media including Twitter, video essays, and Tumblr to produce innovativ ...

Rebecca Wolff Rebecca Wolff (born November 29, 1967 in New York City) is a poet, fiction writer, and the editor and creator of both ''Fence Magazine'' and Fence Books. Wolff has won the 2001 National Poetry Series Award and 2003 Barnard Women Poets Prize fo ...

Non-fiction

Nancy Milford Nancy Lee Milford (née Winston; March 26, 1938March 29, 2022) was an American biographer. She was noted for her biographies on Zelda Fitzgerald and Edna St. Vincent Millay. Early life and education Nancy Lee Winston was born in Dearborn, Mi ...

Judith E. Stein Judith E. Stein (born 1943) is a Philadelphia-based art historian and curator, whose academic career has focused on the postwar New York art world. She has written a biography of the art dealer Richard Bellamy, as well as feature articles rega ...

Playwriting

Annie Baker Annie Baker (born April 1981) is an American playwright and film director. She is known for her Pulitzer Prize-winning play ''The Flick'' (2013). She has written a string of plays which are set in the fictional town of Shirley: '' Body Awareness' ...

Jennifer Haley Jennifer Haley is an American playwright.she was born in Oct. 3,1974.She grew up in San Antonio, Texas and studied acting at the University of Texas at Austin for her undergraduate degree. Haley also received a MFA in playwriting at Brown Univer ...

Honor Molloy Honor Molloy (born May 22, 1961) also known as Honour Kane, is an Irish-American playwright. Her plays have been produced by The Public Theater, Clubbed Thumb, New Georges, WOW Café, NADA, The Cell Theatre, Irish Repertory Theatre, Irish Thea ...

Jen Silverman Jen Silverman is an American playwright, TV writer, poet, and novelist. Silverman grew up living and traveling in Scandinavia, Asia, and Europe as well as the United States. They are the author of the books ''The Island Dwellers'', an interlinked ...

* Fiona Templeton

Poetry

Nick Flynn Nick Flynn (born January 26, 1960) is an American writer, playwright, and poet. Life and career Nick Flynn was raised by his mother in Scituate, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. Flynn had no contact with his father throughout most of his chil ...

* Rachel Eliza Griffiths * Nathan Hoks *

Stephen Motika Stephen Motika (born 1977 in Santa Monica, CA) is an American poet, editor, and publisher. Life and work As of 2024, Motika is the director and publisher of Nightboat Books, a literary non-profit publisher based in Brooklyn, NY. Previously, he wo ...

Lia Purpura Lia Purpura (born February 22, 1964, Mineola, New York) is an American poet, writer and educator. She is the author of four collections of poems (''King Baby'', ''Stone Sky Lifting'', ''The Brighter the Veil'', ''It Shouldn't Have Been Beautiful'' ...

Evie Shockley Evie Shockley is an American poet. Shockley received the 2012 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Poetry for her book ''the new black'' and the 2012 Holmes National Poetry Prize. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2018. Early life and education ...

Danez Smith Danez Smith is an American poet, writer and performer from St. Paul, Minnesota. They are queer, non-binary and HIV-positive. They are the author of the poetry collections '' nsertBoy'' and ''Don't Call Us Dead: Poems'', both of which have receive ...

Where Big Books Are Born: Danez Smith on the Millay Colony" Poets & Writers, March/April 2018

Screenwriting

* Adam Baran

Visual arts

Louise Belcourt Louise Belcourt (born 1961) is a Canadian-American artist based in New York, known for elusive, largely abstract paintings that blend modernist formal play, a commitment to the physical world, and a visual language that shifts between landscape ...

Isa Leshko Isabell Carmella Leshko (born 1971) is an American fine art photographer best known for her ''Elderly Animals'' series which focuses on animal rights, aging and mortality. Life Leshko grew up in Carteret, New Jersey in an Italian-American working ...

Julia Dault Julia Dault (born 1977) is a Canadian artist. She is best known for her abstract paintings and Formica and Plexiglas sculptures. She lives and works in Toronto. Early life and education Dault was born in Toronto to Gary Michael Dault, an art cr ...

B.A. Van Sise B.A. Van Sise is an American photographer and author. He has worked as a travel photographer, and collections of his fine art photography has been exhibited in public installations by US museums. Career B.A. Van Sise is a graduate of Fordham Univ ...

Wlodzimierz Ksiazek Włodzimierz Książek (1951 in Warsaw, Poland – body found May 18, 2011 in Pawtucket, USA) was a Polish-born contemporary artist based in New England, and since 2001 worked from a 6000 sq. ft. studio in Rhode Island. He was best known for ...

Footnotes

References

"Millay Farm Becoming an Arts Colony," ''The New York Times'', February 20, 1974.

* ttps://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/03/garden/an-artists-retreat-is-extending-its-welcome.html "An Artists' Retreat Is Extending Its Welcome," ''The New York Times'', October 3, 1996.* Millay Colony for the Arts, about, tour. June 30, 2008.
Where Big Books Are Born: Danez Smith on the Millay Colony," ''Poets & Writers'', March/April, 2018

External links

Website

Michael Singer Studio, architects
{{DEFAULTSORT:Millay Colony For The Arts Artist colonies Artist residencies Non-profit organizations based in New York (state) Arts organizations based in New York (state) Arts organizations established in 1973 1973 establishments in New York (state)