The MacDowell Colony, the nation’s leading artist residency program, will celebrate its Centennial year with an enhanced and dynamic Medal Day program on August 11th and 12th.  The weekend will underscore the Colony’s yearlong theme of “giving artists freedom to create” by celebrating maverick filmmaker Les Blank as the 48th MacDowell Medalist; revealing Landlines, a striking visual arts commission spanning both the grounds and history of the Colony; peering into the creative process with three hours of open studios by current artists-in-residence; and much more.  Medal Day, which has become a cultural destination every August, this year offers a unique invitation to understand and experience the vitality of a place that has played an integral role in charting the course of our nation’s culture.

Medal Day

This year, its 48th year of honoring artists who have made outstanding contributions to their fields, The MacDowell Colony will award its Edward MacDowell Medal to documentary filmmaker Les Blank.  Mr. Blank joins an impressive list of past recipients, including Robert Frost, Thornton Wilder, Georgia O’Keeffe, I.M. Pei, Leonard Bernstein and Merce Cunningham.

“Not only has Les created a distinguished body of work documenting some of America’s most obscure cultures and musical artists, but he’s pursued his cinematic passion in semi-obscurity with the most meager of resources,” says director Taylor Hackford (Ray, An Officer and a Gentleman), the chairman of this year’s Medal Selection Committee.  “Les’s films will definitely live for generations to come, enlightening the world about America’s rich and diverse musical roots.” 

Mr. Hackford was joined on the committee by filmmakers Ken Burns, Spike Jones, Mira Nair, and Steven Soderbergh, as well as artist Anna Deavere Smith and Telluride Film Festival co-director Tom Luddy.

The MacDowell Colony

In 1997, The MacDowell Colony was awarded the National Medal of Arts for “nurturing and inspiring many of this century’s finest artists.”  Situated on 450 acres of woodland in Peterborough, New Hampshire, the Colony welcomes more than 250 composers, writers, visual artists, architects, filmmakers, playwrights, and interdisciplinary artists from the United States and abroad each year.  The sole criterion for acceptance to the Colony is talent; a panel in each discipline selects Fellows.  To learn more about MacDowell and the yearlong Centennial program, featuring events in New Hampshire, New York, and around the country, please log on to www.macdowellcolony.org.