Mission
The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown is a nonprofit organization dedicated to encouraging the growth and development of emerging visual artists and writers and to restoring the year-round vitality of the historic art colony of Provincetown. The Work Center is internationally known for it acclaimed 7-month residency program granting fellowships to 20 emerging writers and artists, as well as its open enrollment Summer Workshop Program, an online writing program 24PearlStreet, and an extensive series of year-round cultural events and exhibitions.
History
The Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown was founded in 1968 by a group of artists, writers and patrons, including Fritz Bultman, Salvatore and Josephine Del Deo, Stanley Kunitz, Phil Malicoat, Robert Motherwell, Myron Stout, Jack Tworkov and Hudson D. Walker, among others. The founders envisioned a place in Provincetown, the country’s most enduring artists’ colony, where artists and writers could live and work together in the early phase of their careers. The founders believed that the freedom to pursue creative work within a community of peers is the best catalyst for artistic growth. The Work Center has dedicated itself to this mission for over 40 years.
Today the Work Center is a leading long-term residency program for emerging artists and writers and one of the most renowned. Each year the Work Center offers residencies – the gift of time, space and community – to twenty Fellows selected from some 1,500 applications worldwide. From October to May, the Work Center gives the Fellows living and workspace, a modest stipend and each other. The only thing asked in return is that they focus on new work while they are in residence.