Alternate Writing Residencies for the Trump Era

My earlier post was about artist residencies, these magical places that take the writer out of her workaday world and into a new place, just for the artist. No need to let answering the phone or procuring and cooking food slowly chip away at one’s day. Because it’s expensive to house and nurture artists, many residencies need public funding, which will be in danger for the next four years.

In case Donald Trump cuts off all public funding for the arts, here are my tongue-in-cheek favorite alternative, quasi-publicly-funded residencies:

The Airport Residency
Airplanes, with their engine-whines and the threat of the seat recline crushing your laptop, aren’t great spaces to work. But once, when I was stuck in an airport for a few days (ironically, on the way to a residency), I had the time to realize how delicious it was to be the still point in a hub of transit. Everyone was so focused on their destination, I was as anonymous and private as if I were in a cabin out in the woods. There was plenty of food, comfortable chairs, even a branch of the Tattered Cover bookstore. Had I wanted it, legal pot was just a cab ride away.

The Volunteer House in Riverside Park Residency
I don’t actually know how to get into this house, but it’s a quiet little hut that overlooks Riverside Park in New York city (which is much quieter than Central Park). And every time I pass this house, it looks so reminiscent of the studios I’ve been in, say, at Yaddo. The place looks like it gets plenty of sun and there’s an Ecuadorian food cart just a few hundred feet away; in the spring summer and fall there’s a bar/ restaurant that operates inside the park. Perfect!

Vermont Rest Stop Residency
I couldn’t have been more charmed by this rest stop, a wood stove, a solarium with its plant powered waste-treatment plant. There were desks and a view, as well as unlimited coffee, and, I was told, sometimes they provided Twizzlers. Who doesn’t like a little Vermont socialism?

My Home Office Residency
I actually have a nice little office, by New York City apartment standards. Faces a quiet street, expansive desk. Now, if I could just get my spouse to take a break from being a professor and devote his day to making meals that he can tuck into a picnic basket, we’d be in business.

What are your fantasy residencies?

Image Credit: Flickr/Miel Books

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