In November, 2019 Hubbard Hall and The Bushwick Starr announced a new Artist Residency program at Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, NY for artists and projects to be produced at The Bushwick Starr in Brooklyn, NY. In support of scheduled new work and through a rigorous application process, the first three residencies were accepted and scheduled for Hubbard Hall in December, 2019 and March, 2020, in support of the shows The Conversationalists, SKINFoLK, and Preparedness, all of which were produced in Brooklyn at The Bushwick Starr in Late Winter/Spring of 2020. Since then we have collaborated with Bushwick Starr on a number of artist’s residencies, making this a valued partnership.
“This is an extraordinary next step in Hubbard Hall’s ability to serve wonderful artists and incubate great new work through artist residencies, while enhancing our audience’s experience by exposing them to these exciting, cutting-edge artists from the city. I’m thrilled to join with Noel, Sue, John and the entire team at The Bushwick Starr in supporting these artists and their work,” says David Snider, former Executive & Artistic Director of Hubbard Hall.
“We’re thrilled to be working with Hubbard Hall to provide a nurturing and supportive environment ideal for the creation of new work. This partnership provides valuable, focused time for our season artists to take giant steps in their process and is the kind of mutually beneficial relationship we see as a model for how new work gets developed.” – Noel Allain (Artistic Direcor/Founder), Sue Kessler (Creative Director/Founder), and John Del Gaudio (Producing Director)
RESIDENCIES
Hubbard Hall/Bushwick Starr Residencies will support the exploration and development of new and emerging work, with a focus on work and artists producing and performing at The Bushwick Starr in the coming season and beyond. The residencies will occur in Cambridge, NY (four hours north of NYC), in Hubbard Hall and across the Hall’s campus with visiting companies, artists and ensembles. Focusing on the development of new and devised work, this residency series will invite artists to develop new work in beautiful, quiet and artistically rich surroundings far from the constraints and pressure of the city, and then to share portions of that work with local audiences via a final showcase sharing (reading, workshop performance or simply demonstration/discussion depending on the project, artistic process, and artists’ comfort). This series will also allow audiences to explore and learn about the development process, and intends to support the development of local, regional and national artists, seeking to further develop our local talent pool through exposure to visiting artists. Typical residencies include honoraria for all participating artists and housing. Artists are responsible for their own travel costs. Residencies can last anywhere from two-three days to two-three weeks.
TYPES OF PROJECTS
For the 2024-2025 Season, Hubbard Hall/Bushwick Starr residencies will focus on supporting the development of work already scheduled for production in The Bushwick Starr seasons.
RECENT PROJECTS
For many years The Freight Project operated as a residency series on the Hubbard Hall campus, resulting in dozens of successful projects, including the development of The Hunger Artist with Sinking Ship Productions (Drama Desk Nomination). Other recent Hubbard Hall residencies have included a dance residency with the legendary Twyla Tharp, a theater residency with Tony Award winner Rupert Holmes, the development of a new production of I Am My Own Wife by Doug Wright. A theater residency with Ryan J. Haddad was awarded three Obie awards one for Best New American Play for Dark Disabled Stories. An experimental opera Sorry John Henry the Song Has No End by Ian Askew and shorter-term residencies in puppetry, dance, movement, theater, music, opera and even radio.
HUBBARD HALL PROVIDES
- Housing and Honoraria (typically $300 per artist per week, depending on project);
- Hubbard Hall is currently renovating the Lovejoy building on our campus into artist housing and hope to open this space in September 2024. In the meantime we will make every attempt to provide housing within walking distance of the space. In some cases housing may be provided within a 15-minute drive of the space, requiring transportation to be provided by either the artist or Hubbard Hall (to be determined per project).
- Access to the Hubbard Hall main stage space, studio theater and/or dance studio (and other spaces as needed).
- Limited technical support (basic lighting and sound as needed).
- Basic set elements, including chairs, table and/or playing cubes.
- Listing of project on website and social media outlets.
- Box Office & Front of House support for showcase.
- Guidance and support in helping to shepherd this project towards greater exposure and funding after residency.
RESIDENCY PARTICIPANTS PROVIDE
- All other expenses and elements not covered by Hubbard Hall including: casting, all physical production expenses (including any necessary costumes and props).
- Transportation to and from Cambridge, NY.
THE BUSHWICK STARR PROVIDES
- The Bushwick Starr will present these projects at their theater in Brooklyn, NY as part of their main stage seasons.
ABOUT HUBBARD HALL
Hubbard Hall is a thriving arts center dedicated to cultivating, sustaining and promoting the cultural life of our rural community in Washington County, NY and throughout the Capital Region. We gather people from all walks of life to create, learn, and grow together, while developing, producing, and presenting world-class art and artists. We are an arts incubator, a training ground for artists of all ages and backgrounds, a magnet for artistic activity, a safe haven for risk-taking, an economic driver for our region, and the beating heart of our community. Since 1878 Hubbard Hall has developed, produced, and presented theater, music, dance, and the visual arts, and in recent years has become a world-class development center for new work. Since 1977, Hubbard Hall’s current nonprofit has engaged thousands of artists, students, and audience members in acclaimed productions of theater, opera, music, and dance.
Hubbard Hall operates four buildings across our campus, including the original 1878 opera house and three recently renovated freight yard buildings containing dance, music and visual arts studios, offices, arts exhibit spaces, and a black box theater. We also own and operate the Cambridge Community Garden, a collaborative garden managed entirely by volunteers and engaging hundreds of students each year with opportunities to grow and harvest their own vegetables; as well as a Quebecois bread oven, available for baking fresh bread and pizza year-round. Recognized as an arts institution in the state of New York, Hubbard Hall is a national model for community-based arts organizations. 25 East Main St. Cambridge, NY 12816 (518) 677-2495 www.hubbardhall.org
ABOUT THE BUSHWICK STARR
The Bushwick Starr is an Obie Award winning not-for-profit theater that presents an annual season of new performance works. We are an organization defined by both our artists and our community, and since 2007, we have grown into a thriving theatrical venue, a vital neighborhood arts center, and a destination for exciting and engaging performance. We provide a springboard for emerging professional artists to make career-defining leaps, and we are a sanctuary where established artists come to experiment and innovate. We are also a neighborhood playhouse, serving our Bushwick, Brooklyn community’s diverse artistic needs and impulses. Our past Seasons have included new work from groundbreaking artists such as Heather Christian, Diana Oh, The Mad Ones, Clare Barron, Phillip Howze, Dave Malloy, The Debate Society, Daniel Fish, Kristine Haruna Lee, and the TEAM.
“The work they program is boldly experimental. It’s also a lot of fun… a bright spot on the Off Off Broadway map” – New York Times
“It’s hard to understate the joy of seeing a show at The Bushwick Starr, theater’s answer to the rock club where you caught your favorite band before it got big.” – Village Voice (2012 OBIE Award for Outstanding Work)
“There are only a handful of venues dedicated to showcasing actually risky, vividly in-flux work on a regular basis… the immensely valuable Bushwick Starr is one of them.” – Vulture
ABOUT THE VILLAGE OF CAMBRIDGE, NY
The Village of Cambridge is an eclectic community filled with families, business people, artists, retired people and many others who have fallen in love with our small town atmosphere, located centrally with access to big cities and towns, and some of the best scenery in New York. We are the home to a Main Street filled with a world-class arts center, a thriving independent bookstore, bakery-café, diner, barbershop, hair salon(s), microbrewery housed in our old railroad station, Quebecois bread oven, public library, local grocery, famers’ market, artists’ co-op and food co-op, to name just a few amenities.
