State Teacher/Artist Residency

The State of Florida is filled with talented, dedicated artists who are also talented and dedicated, certified full-time public school teachers.  The lives of these particular people are spent trying to balance the challenge of expressing their artistic selves while pursuing their profession as a public school educator.

The STAR program is designed to honor and nourish the artist in the educator by providing five public school educators from Florida with the opportunity to pursue their artistic work in the inspiring environment of the prestigious Hermitage Artist Retreat.  Four-week residencies will be offered to two visual artists; two writers (fiction/non-fiction/poetry/playwriting); and one composer.

A Hermitage residency is a gift of time and space for artists to attend to their work.  There is no requirement to produce.  It is an intensely personal time for concentration AND a community of artists from different disciplines with which to share and learn.  Artists invited to seize the opportunity and find themselves more productive than at any other time in their creative lives.

Selection criteria:

• Fulltime teacher in Florida Public School
• Artistic quality of work
• FAAE Member

The Hermitage Artist Retreat:

The Hermitage Artist Retreat is a not-for-profit artist community on 8.5 beachfront acres on Manasota Key in Englewood, FL.  Its five historic buildings have been lovingly and expertly restored and adapted into living space and studio space for writers, painters, poets, playwrights, sculptors, composers, and other primary creators.  In five short years, the Hermitage has become one of the premiere artist communities in America.  Our artists are Pulitzer winners, MacArthur winners, Guggenheim winners and NEA winners.  They are among America’s more influential and creative artists.

2021 Timeline

• Application opens March 15
• Deadline for submission: April 15
• Announce Recipients: May 1
• STAR Residency: July 6-18
• Welcome Dinner for STARs: July 6
• General Public Evening with the STARS Event: July 16 or 17