A Letter from the Director

May 2013


On May 2 the first of our 2013 Fellows arrived wearied by planes, trains, buses and cars, to set eyes for the first time on the welcoming gates of the Castle. The floors and furniture of the castle lay still and freshly waxed, bouquets of snow ball branches sat on desks and tables here and there, and the sweet scent of the freshly mown 'prato' filled the air.

Our two new interns, Catia and Ghyslaine bravely shifted luggage and helped everyone settle in to new rooms and studios. The winter work projects (a restored cantina with its own 'via di fuga', the 'Cortile' apartment now remodeled, new security gates and an updated digital alarm system) came to a halt just hours before our new guests arrived.

We are all still getting to know each other in these early days, but I can tell you that this is a group that laughs easily and that loves to dance; it is a group that is enamored of the kitchen's 'laurino' (an after dinner 'digestivo' made of our own bay leaves), and it is a group that is already hard at work. Deadlines loom for everyone and the escape to Umbria never negates completely our world wide commitments.

On my daily walk from Castrabecco to the Castle I am always undone by the stunning sweep of Umbrian landscape that is our backdrop. There is something about this place that moves us all in ways we don't entirely understand, as if the forms of the landscape are communicating more than just their presence. There is a crepuscular, quickly passing elusive beauty and melancholy to this place, its history, its people. We are blessed to be here, cherishing each day because somehow Civitella enables us to live a life we can't live elsewhere - because we are too busy going about the daily business of living. Civitella returns us to our true selves, our real work, an abundance of time and replenishment. For this we are all infinitely grateful.

Dana Prescott