Baxter St Family Residency
The Baxter St Family Residency at STONELEAF RETREAT grew out of conversations Baxter St President Michi Jigarjian and STONELEAF Co-Founder Helen Toomer had regarding the increased difficulties of working and parenting during a pandemic. As working parents, Jigarjian and Toomer wanted to provide time, space, and support to artists who are juggling families, artistic practice, and, often, a day job, and simply do not have the time or resources to do it all.
“While the traditional residency model of escaping to a bucolic environment to singularly focus on artistic practice can be a well-intentioned dream, for most artists who are also mothers, leaving family behind is often not an option,” said Michi Jigarjian. “The Baxter St Family Residency is intended to drive home the notion that motherhood and artistic practice do not have to be mutually exclusive.”
The two-week annual program, started in 2021, provides lens-based artists who are also mothers with an unrestricted grant of $2,500, focused studio time, one-on-one critiques with members of Baxter St’s Art Advisory Board, and family accommodations on STONELEAF’s 22-acre property in New York’s Catskill Mountains. The residency is a partnership between Baxter St, a 137-year-old organization renowned for its critical support of emerging lens-based artists, and STONELEAF, an artist residency and creative space for women and families, and is made possible by the generous support of 7|G Foundation and the Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation.
Baxter St at the Camera Club of New York supports emerging lens-based artists at critical moments of their careers. Founded in 1884, Baxter St is one of New York’s oldest artist-run nonprofit spaces, and has long been a catalyst for innovative creation within the artistic mediums of photography and video practices. Through exhibitions, workspace residency programs, and conversations series, Baxter St is a hub for a vibrant community deeply engaged in the art of lens-based contemporary practices.
7|G Foundation champions organizations and individuals that challenge inequality in human rights, education, art and culture. By partnering with organizations, artists and community facilitators we seek to build strong community bonds that elevate local culture, while supporting cultural change founded upon our core values of social impact and sustainability.