A place to write and film and create. To find and renew creativity while surrounded by spiral-vined gardens, creaky wraparound porches and towering magnolias. To walk among the whispers of friendly ghosts and pastoral splendor. Quiet nights and productive, inspiring days, imaginative minds awakening, sweet music originating, the savory aroma of a country meal, the satisfaction of a finished page or canvas. The Bowers House Creative Retreat offers customized workspace for artists and academic residency programs in literature, music and some fine art disciplines. We are currently accepting applications for minimum one week group or single residencies, where baths and kitchens are shared and clean up is essential. Resident members agree to provide for film and audio programming a recap or focus of their creative work via readings, concerts, public performances interviews workshop directorships or lessons for BOWERS HOUR, the fundraising programming program that keeps the facility on a perpetual operation. Visiting guests may be present, and room and facility rentals keep the lights on in the 100 year old hotel, and cooperation and quiet consideration of work day time is observed by all who stay here. We welcome collaborative production and cosponsorship when possible with the missionl of one day being able to provide this opportunity to those who might night be otherwise able to have this residency experience.

Our Writers in Residence Program supports free-to-writers residencies for selected women-identified writers at the retreat each year. Up to 7 writers can be in residence at a time, each housed in a handcrafted cottage. They spend their days in solitude – writing, reading, taking walks in the woods on the property or on nearby Double Bluff beach. In the evenings, “The Gathering” is a social time for residents to connect and share over their freshly prepared meals.

Writers must be women, 18 and older, which is inclusive of transgender women and female-identified individuals. Because gender inequity still occurs in all spaces including literary ones, it is part of our explicit mission to support and promote women’s voices. Residents must be willing to adhere to a specific set of health and safety protocols we have implemented to keep writers, staff, and surrounding communities safer. 

Our application and adjudication processes are genre-specific. Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry, TV/Screenwriters, Playwrights, and Songwriters are all encouraged to apply. Applications are read by jurors who are proficient to read in each genre. 

The Steel Yard’s Year-long Residency program can assist you in growing and strengthening your creative industrial art practice. Residents receive an all-access pass to our 10,000 square foot studio, tools, resources, and community. All participants should display experience, and an avid interest, within their media and a desire to work in a community studio.

The Steel Yard supports emerging and mid-career artists working in the industrial-arts: ceramics, welding, blacksmithing, or jewelry. Year-long residents have the opportunity to reapply for a second year. 

Accepted residents are invited to take, or teach, courses, attend critiques, participate in exhibitions, vend at art markets, be paid to design and fabricate public art work, and be part of a vibrant community of makers.

Residents will be required to sign a contract detailing responsibilities, privileges, studio access, and safety procedures. Residents will also be expected to contribute at least 5 hours of work time to the department monthly, and to participate in organizational fundraisers and departmental clean ups. Upon completion of their term, residents should expect to provide the Steel Yard with 5 images of the work created during their term, or as a direct result of their time at the Yard.