spotlight
The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences
Okorie Johnson Performs "Fire"
[CLICK ON IMAGE TO PLAY]
SmartThink supports the Hambidge Creative Residency Program.
lucinda's rock house — where fellows gather every evening for dinner and idea exchange.
It was during my residency as a Hambidge Fellow that I realized how much I needed the opportunity to unplug and focus on tapping into and regenerating my creative soul. In a pristine environment with severely limited access to phone or internet, I was free to play — read, write and interact with others from across the country who were in one place with one mission — to create. Having participated in and led several creative development sessions as a marketing professional, this was different. It was not about work (although new creative solutions to nagging marketing questions emerged). With no distractions, it was all about firing up the engines that lead to new thinking and innovation.
For more than 80 years, the Hambidge Center has been nurturing exceptional creative talents within the arts and sciences at their 600-acre creative sanctuary in the Blue Ridge Mountains, providing the space and time needed for visionary works to be conceived and developed.
Hambidge provides a residency program that empowers talented individuals to explore, develop, and express their creative voices. Situated on 600 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains of north Georgia, Hambidge is a sanctuary of time and space that inspires individuals working in a broad range of disciplines to create works of the highest caliber..
As one of the first artist communities in the U.S., the Hambidge Center has a distinguished history of supporting individual artists in a residency program. The Center also continues to act as a steward of its extraordinary 600-acre setting in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
The Center was created in 1934 by Mary Hambidge, who established the artist enclave and sustainable farm in memory of her artist partner, Jay Hambidge (1867–1924). After a brief career as a performer on vaudeville stages (Mary was a world-class whistler who appeared with her pet mockingbird Jimmy), she discovered weaving and eventually found her home among Appalachian weavers in the North Georgia mountains.
In the early days of Hambidge, she employed local women to create exceptional weavings that would one day be featured in many exhibits including the Smithsonian and MOMA. Later she broadened the scope of the Center by inviting artists for extended stays. After her death in 1973, the Center evolved into a formal and competitive residency program open to creative individuals from all walks of life.
Greg Head was a 2021 Hambidge Fellow.