A state court hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, April 14 related to the announced closing of Sweet Briar College. Amherst County attorney, Ellen Bowyer, will ask the judge to issue an order blocking the closure of Sweet Briar College for one year. However, Attorney General Mark Herring says Bowyer has just limited authority to intervene. Sweet Briar's closing will have a yet unknown impact on an internationally recognized artist community on property owned by the college.
For four decades, the Virginia Center for the Creative Artshas provided what it calls, a "…crucible of creativity." It is nestled in the rolling foothills of Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains in Amherst County.
"We provide residencies for artists. A chance to get away from the hustle and bustle of their daily lives to be able to concentrate on their creative work. It's protection from the real world…there are signs here that say, 'entering the real world when you leave VCCA," says Greg Smith, Executive Director of the VCCA.
However, the real world is beneath their feet. The VCCA is on land owned by Sweet Briar College scheduled to close later this year.
"Unfortunately we still don't know for the VCCA what to expect or what will happen. We've asked the president for a response to some questions and he's basically said, 'I can't address those yet.'"
The VCCA has an automatically renewing 15 year lease from Sweet Briar for the buildings and adjacent grounds of the Mount San Angelo estate east of the main campus. Smith says while there are many unknowns the VCCA is vibrant, moving forward and rich with talented artists in residence.
"Hi. I'm Idris Angerson. I'm a poet from the San Francisco Bay area. This is my fourth residency. It's like magic. I get more work done here in a month than I do in a whole year. It's important to me as an artist."
Idris is one of the more than 4000 artists who have found in VCCA their muse.
"You have this magnificent place, this space to work and you have nothing to do but write or produce your art."
"My name is John Nichols, III. I am a composer and a doctoral student at the University of Illinois, Urbana/Champaign. I think it is a fabulous program. I've gotten about seven of eight minutes of a completely new composition done for disclavier in electronics. There's a lot of nature around, the mountains that I also find to be very inspiring. The contours of the mountains I think have directly informed the piece that I am working on right now."
Again, with Sweet Briar moving forward with its closing the future of VCCA rests in the language of law and finance and--equally powerful--in the heart of the poet,
"Most of what happens is this big white canvas of time and space generously given so we can do our work."
