At Willapa Bay AIR

Artists, writers, composers, scholars!  Take note!  The biggest excitement in many years is happening in Oysterville.  Willapa Bay AIR (Artists In Residence) is poised to launch.  The residents’ cabins are being furnished as we speak; their website, http://www.willapabayair.org/, is up and running; applications for their first season – spring and summer 2014 – are being accepted.  The anticipation here is palpable!

This residency program is a long-time dream of Cyndy Hayward and it promises to be a class act.  According to their website, Willapa Bay AIR will offer month-long, self-directed residencies to emerging and established artists, writers and scholars. Rotating committees of artists and professionals in their field and discipline select participants from a broad spectrum of creativity – from visual, musical or literary arts to environmental or scientific projects. The Residency provides lodging, meals, and work space, at no cost, to five residents each month from March 1 through October 31 of the year.

Willapa Bay Air Resident’s Cabin — on the porch

The physical location is on 16 acres just south of the Oysterville National Historic District – a ten minute walk down Sandridge road and hang a right, then a quick left.  The Residency has been specifically designed, from the site selection to the architecturally specific building concepts, layouts, and materials, to combine the opportunity for solitude with the opportunity for daily community that fosters creative endeavor says their website. And, from my own experience, I can say that to see it is to want to move in!

It’s been several years since the Espy Foundation closed its doors for the final time.  It, too, was a residency program but with several huge differences – there were no residences.  That is, there was no “campus” with lovely little cabins and a big, central building and studio space for visual artists.  The Espy Foundation residents (mostly writers) stayed in local homes and were on their own for meals toward which they were given a small stipend.

On the other hand, residents of Willapa Bay Air will have “a full ride” as they say.  An all-expense-paid month with food and lodging, workspace, and solitude provided!  They need only get themselves to and from the nearest airport.  They will even be provided with a bike, once they arrive!

Willapa Bay AIR Resident’s Cabin — Inside

“We want these residencies to be all about the work,” says Cyndy.

Oh… and there’s one other caveat.  While breakfast and lunch will be ‘delivered’ to the cabins, the plan is for a communal dinner that will be eaten in the main house — ‘the lodge.’  It is Cyndy’s firm belief that community and creativity are intertwined, and while the living spaces are private and the work hours solitary, a dinnertime meal together enhances the creative process.

The application deadline for the 2014 residencies is coming up at the end of August and I understand that the applications are already arriving.  Meanwhile, a pilot program – a sort of shake-down cruise – is all set for this fall.     We Oystervillians can hardly wait for Willapa Bay Air to be up and running.  We remember from the years of hosting Espy Foundation residents that there is something about all that concentrated creativity that energizes us all!  Whoo Hoo!