As part of ACA’s ongoing reflection on our history and evolution over the past few decades, we remain guided and inspired by the leaders who have shaped this field. In this column, we speak with members and colleagues whose perspectives illuminate the past, present, and future of artist communities. For this issue, we talk with Linda Earle, longtime arts leader, educator, writer, and former ACA board member.
ACA: In the early years of ACA, convenings were among the few spaces where artist residencies could gather to share practices and build shared language. How did those early meetings shape your understanding of what “community” can mean in the arts?
Linda Earle: During those early years the word “colony” to describe a residency program was rarely spoken at the conference but its ghosts were still present in the field—unspoken artiacts of the field’s lineage that showed up bearing traces of all the baggage that attaches to the word. Many of them—ideas about the role art making in this society, the mystique of the (privileged) outsider, solitary genius, and various strands of philanthropic influence—were still deeply embedded in the field’s institutions, even as the language, demographics and intentions were changing. I think that some of the most important and ultimately productive discussions at the conferences had to do with excavating these underlying notions and exposing them to fresh air. ACA’s transparency modeled honest conversations. Because of the variety of organizations that gathered under the ACA tent the exchange was especially informative. The best conversation happened informally at the bar over coffee, during excursions—itself a lesson in the power of community and convening.
ACA: Across your decades in the arts, how have moments of confluence—where social, cultural, and institutional currents meet—shaped the evolution of ACA and the residency field, and what threads of that history feel most alive as we gather for the 35th-anniversary conference?
LE: Having worked in the arts in different roles for fifty years or so, I think I’ve learned that transformation is not a fixed destination. Certainly, the current political environment teaches us that progress is not linear. I think arcs and patterns can be seen more clearly at a distance and from the benefit of different perspectives. So, it’s something you learn with experience, but it was often difficult for me to apply fully and deeply when I was on the front lines. My engagement and perspective shifted when I moved to teaching late in my career, developing a course examining the confluence of economic, social, and cultural energies emerging from the Depression that ultimately led to the creation of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1965. A century ago most Americans had never been to a museum or a live performance. The Federal arts programs developed during the Depression changed that. It was not perfect. WPA programs were challenged, debated , excoriated and ultimately dismantled- but they succeeded in radically expanding public access to arts participation. Fueled by the New Deal credo of “bold, persistent experimentation” the architects designed an approach that was multi-fronted and collaborative. The energy and interest it created among a generation of folks seeded cultural policy for decades. Transformation was not a moment but a journey. Adaptable, resilient organizations (and people for that matter) have that capacity for persistent experimentation. It requires institutionalizing courage, humility, and honesty. ACA’s approach to attaching community building to equity demonstrates those qualities and the field is extraordinary in its commitment to those values.
ACA: How did your early experiences as a writer and your first residency shape your understanding of what artist communities make possible?
LE: Years ago, I ran a public funding program for artists and wrote fiction late at night. This was during the early 90’s -an earlier era of political attacks on creativity and difference. My writing practice was a sort of secret, parallel life after a day spent navigating an often-bruising gauntlet of bureaucratic and political challenges. I was on the verge of putting it aside when I was accepted to a faraway writers residency. My time there was transformative. I didn’t gather quite enough courage to move to the woods to write but I gained a new sense of possibility for myself as a writer, and for my job with renewed commitment to that work because of the resonant energy artists’ communities generate. Later, I went on to run one for several years. The basic residency business model is an anomaly to those who insist on applying capitalist logic to it: no assurance of results , product or “earned” income; few if any public programs, and little public understanding of its value. From its beginnings ACA has worked with an awareness that communities (of all kinds) require a high level of attention and care to face the challenges of that thinking. Operation and governance of communal creative spaces is often a difficult dance, a combination of soul and mechanics that I think also applies to serving the field.
ACA: Based on your time on ACA’s board and your long view of the field, how do you see ACA’s role in sustaining creative courage and community in the face of recurring cultural and political pressures?
LE: The currents that culminated the Culture Wars 30 years ago have reassembled and rearmed with new language and guises. We have a fight ahead of us, and it will come from many different directions. But we are not over-matched. The tools of creativity and freedom under attack : reflection, imagination and fearlessness are also our strengths. And the fear and panic driving the politics of cultural redaction is its weakness. My time on ACA’s board taught me that the hard work of helping to build as yet unimagined futures is fortifying and expansive. As the ecology of the field evolved difficult conversations often ensued, but they were had in the context of shared values. Along with that, was the exhilaration of learning from artists and each other. And always laughter. Years later I still harvest the wisdom of my board colleagues and ACA’s leadership. I’m grateful that comradeship was the institutional culture. It is essential to locate our courage as a community in this moment. ACA has grown and changed and throughout has stayed human, accountable and responsive in beautiful ways. Onward.
| Linda Earle is a former ACA Board member. She recently retired as Professor of Practice in Art History/Arts Management at Tyler School of Art + Architecture, and was Visiting Scholar at the Pew Center of Art and Heritage in 2022. Linda was a Director of Skowhegan from 1999-2009. She still writes late at night. |
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