Artists will find lower-cost residencies at Centrum in the month of February. Centrum is slashing $100 from its weekly fee for sculptors, painters, photographers, writers and other creative folk who wish to apply for a residency.

“It’s that time of year when it is great to stay inside and get a lot of work done,” Martha Worthley, Residency Manager at Centrum said.

Once Worthley approves an artist’s application, she said she will charge just $300 a week for a private housing amid the dramatic landscape of the park. Studio spaces and meals are not included, although residences have fully equipped kitchens and a small amount of work space. A studio costs between $50 and $75 per week depending on its size. Residency applications require a project proposal, bio, statement and work samples. One week is the minimum stay.

“My studio at home is only 7-foot wide,” resident artist Margie McDonald (pictured), of Port Townsend, said. McDonald reserved a top-floor studio for a month at the fort’s “205” building to work on 12 sculptures ranging in size from one to six feet long. That studio is 48 feet long by 35 feet wide. Other available studios are 24’ x 11’ and 17’ x 12’.

“Being able to work in a huge space like this lets me really see what my work would look like in a gallery space. It’s been a great place for experimenting. There’s light, sinks, running water—all those good things I don’t have in my studio at home.”

Two artists in residence arrived in January from out of state, drawn by the terrain and the fort’s structures.

“Centrum was a mutual choice for Lisa and me,” Sandra Hunter, a fiction writer from Simi Valley Calif., said.

She and her artistic partner Lisa Sanders, a fine artist from Newark, NJ are working “in parallel,” according to their artist statement, “with Sandra sending Lisa pieces of poetry and prose and Lisa sending images of drawings, paintings and sculptures.”

“We looked at a couple of other residencies,” Hunter said. “But nothing compared to the facilities at Centrum and the breathtakingly beautiful location.”

For more information, visit centrum.org/residencies or send an email to mworthley@centrum.org.

Margie McDonald photo by Bonnie Obremski