Chop Wood Carry Water

a lo-fi, land-based residency and retreat for
individuals and groups of creatives, researchers, and ecological stewards

Chop Wood Carry Water hosts a Spring session and a Fall session.
applicants may choose between 4 day and 10 day residencies.
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Spring 2026 session will run from June 04 - 14
Fall 2026 session will run from Septemeber 25 - October 03
8 residents will be accepted per session
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A maximum of 5 people will be in residency at a given time.
This limitation is intended to allow for a balanced experience between the phyiscal space necessary to be fully present on the land
and the opportunity to spend quality time with fellow residents.

Chop Wood Carry Water does not require or expect anything - even that you be an artist -
except respect and gratitude towards the land and all of its animal, vegetal, elemental, and human inhabitants. The experience is about cultivating presence, curiosity, reciprocity, and a sense of independence within and among community-based living.

This residency is for generating creativity outside the pressures of productivity. While many have taken their experience and applied it to larger visions, works, and aspirations in their daily or professional lives, locating oneself, inspirations, and generative impulses in the immediate environment is the true purpose.

Many guests arrive with materials they plan to use, work they plan to make during their stay, only to become completely immersed in contemplation on the breadth of the landscape or in returning to a specific site in the woods or sifting through a pile of metal scraps; their whole stay becomes about finding connection and response to what already exists around them.

Installations, objects, imprints of former residents are all around the land for the host to visit: witnessing their change with time and weather. While the evidence of some visitors is intangible but absolutely discernible; the contribution of time, care, concentration, intention remains and resonates. Many people have used their time here simply to clear out the noise of modern life and to make the space necessary to hear themselves in concert with that of the environment.

Conversation, movement, research, walking, writing, reading, furniture making, weaving, printing, performing, filming, painting, building, on-site installation, sculpture, kayaking, ceramics, animation, soil study, dancing, biking, experimentation with and processing of natural and local materials are all modes explored and expanded upon by past residents.

 
applications close on April 1 
the application fee is $45 
* if you are accepted, the fee is applied to the residency cost
if your application is not selected, the fee will be refunded *
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access the full CWCW description
and application documents here:

Applications are to assess if Chop Wood Carry Water’s lo-fi,
land-based structure is a good fit for you.
There is no jurying of your past work.

All genders, sexual orientations, religious beliefs, races, and ethnicities are welcome as Chop Wood Carry Water residents.

2021–2025 CWCW resident list

Applications are to assess if Chop Wood Carry Water’s lo-fi,
land-based structure is a good fit for you.
There is no jurying of your past work.

All genders, sexual orientations, religious beliefs, races, and ethnicities are welcome as Chop Wood Carry Water residents.