Bryan and I just got back from a conference of "Emerging Artist Communities" with the Alliance for Artist Communities. It is always a great thing to bump shoulders with other people who have a similar mission. Although the presentations were the things that were most helpful I was grateful for the generous spirit that all of my "peers" had regarding their given projects. They ranged from a tiny cabin in the woods to a newly established residency in Morocco to even one young lady who had just inherited a farm and was trying to figure out what to do with it.

These are the birthplaces of artist residencies.

But with the variety of locations, size, or mission we all had a common vision, even passion. To help the artist.

But the wisdom gained in these session was priceless. Bryan and I came home with a few things to tweak, a new direction regarding non-profit status, and countless more tidbits I won't bore you with. But a few things that made me smile...

1. Seeing others of like mind convinced me that I wasn't insane... or that they were.

2. In regard to sharing the location of our retreat and saying the word "Bahamas", we always got a positive reaction. (who would't want to go to the bahamas?)

3. Learning that creating an artist community is different in every location and that is OK. It is organic in nature and therefore can not be based on a formula or set of rules to develop it. Sure there are basics that makes sense but what I came away with was a strong sense of encouragement that things will unfold as they should, that our instincts for our center are bang-on and that each step along the way reveals the next.