Letter from the Director

January 27th, 2023

Happy New Year to you all!

The New Year is frequently a time of change and that is certainly true for our beloved Civitella. Diego Mencaroni is doing a marvelous job as our Interim Executive Director while the Board works hard to find just the right person to succeed Dana Prescott, who stepped into her well-deserved retirement in November. 

Because winter came so late, our groundskeepers are still hard at work painting studios, renovating the gazebo, clearing paths in the forest, and moving our art collection into a new space. Borys and Lyudmyla Khersonsky, the poets from Ukraine who have taken refuge at the Castle for the last year, are a constant joyful presence during these cold days. We remain grateful that we are able to provide them a safe place to work. Our New York staff has scheduled 54 Fellows for 2023 from 28 nationalities, and we will welcome our first Fellows from Belarus, the Gambia, South Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates. Also joining us this year is a Fellow from the Yanomami tribe, a people indigenous to the Amazon. 

Thank you to all who made a contribution to our work in 2022. We truly appreciate all you do in support of our mission. Please stay in touch with us as we will with you!

Sincerely,

Helen C. Evarts
Chair of the Board of Directors