Djerassi Resident Artists Program
The mission of the Djerassi Resident Artists Program is to support and enhance the creativity of artists by providing uninterrupted time for work, reflection, and collegial interaction in a setting of great natural beauty, and to preserve the land on which the Program is situated. They strive to provide the best possible residency experience for artists of superior talent from a diverse range of backgrounds and geographical locations.
The Residency Program is designed as a retreat experience to pursue personal creative work and share in collegial interaction within a small community of artists. It is unpaid with no practical training or educational components involved. In this spirit residents are expected to commit themselves for the entire residency session awarded to them.
- The rooms in the Artists' House are set up to accommodate writers, each with a large desk, work space, and outdoor deck. The Artists' House also contains the main kitchen, living and dining area, a library, laundry facilities, shared bathrooms, and a large deck.
- The Artists' Barn contains three visual art studios, a large dance studio, a darkroom, and a music composition studio with a baby grand and electric piano. The studios are rustic with wood burning stoves and modest sleeping lofts. There is also a kitchen, a large common area, shared bathrooms, and laundry facilities in the Barn.
- The Diane Middlebrook Studios consist of four private live/work studios for writers, media artists and other artist with clean/non-messy projects. The studios each have private bathrooms and outdoor space.
Residents accommodations on the ranch are determined according to artistic discipline and creative project.
A slide projector and screen, digital video camera, digital video projector, TV, and VCR can be checked out to use on projects or for presentations. Standard power tools can be checked out of the shop. There are Internet/email stations set up in common areas to be shared by all of the residents. The email/work station in the Artists Barn is an IMac Intel with Adobe Creative Suite 5 Production Premium and Microsoft Office. It has a scanner and large format printer connected to it.The Djerassi Program has a WF Internet connection. Personal cell phone coverage may vary depending on the provider.
In the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, 40 miles south of San Fransisco. Situated on a secluded former cattle ranch, its grounds consist of 580 acres of open range lands, redwood and oak forests, mountain streams and miles of hiking trails with spectular views of the Pacific Ocean.