Historic American Art Colonies
MacDowell Art Colony through North Conway Art Colony
MacDowell Art Colony
From other websites:
A Place for the Arts: The Making of MacDowell is a 2025 article by Gemini 2.5 Pro which says: "This was not just a romantic notion of offering artists a quiet room. The "Peterborough Idea" was a structured hypothesis about how creativity functions. The founders recognized the central conflict of the creative mind: the need for intense, private focus is often at war with the need for external intellectual stimulation. Total isolation can lead to stagnation, yet constant community leads to distraction. The MacDowell solution was an engineered environment designed to resolve this conflict. The model was simple and brilliant: solitude by day, with artists working in 32 individual studios scattered throughout the forest, and community by night, with all "Colonists" gathering in a common dining area to share meals and ideas. This curated rhythm was the experiment, and its staggering success would change the course of American art." Accessed October, 2025
Matunuck Art Colony
Please click here to see artworks by artists affiliated with the Matunuck Art Colony
(above: William Trost Richards, Recruiting Station (Bethlehem), before 1862, oil on canvas, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Articles and essays from Resource Library:
Painters of Matunuck, Rhode Island, 1873-1941; article by Lindsay Leard-Coolidge (12/30/10)
From other websites:
A Sense of Place: Painters of Matunuck, Rhode Island 1873-1941 from Lyman Allyn Art Museum. Accessed July, 2015
Images pending:
Caroline Atkinson
Frank Convers Mathewson
Eleanor Richards Price
Maverick Colony
(above: John Flannagan, Figure of Dignity - Irish Mountain Goat, 1932, Granite, and cast aluminum, on concrete plinth, 53 3/4 x 14 1/8 x 8 3/4 inches, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Alexander Shilling Fund, 1941. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
From other websites:
The Maverick Colony was founded near Woodstock by Hervey White, from Wikipedia. Accessed July, 2015
Hervey White and the Maverick Art Colony: An Historical Overview is section of the website The Maverick Festival, 1915 - 1931 from The Jean Gaede and Fritzi Striebel Archive of the Center for Photography at Woodstock. Accessed 4/22
Mississippi Art Colony
Articles and essays from Resource Library:
The Mississippi Art Colony Fiftieth Anniversary Exhibition (12/98)
From other websites:
Mississippi Art Colony is a website devoted to the colony, which was started in 1948 by the Allison Wells Hotel in Way, Mississippi. Accessed 9/25
Mississippi Art Colony and How It Grew from Mississippi Art Colony
Mississippi Art Colony from Archives of American Art. Accessed July, 2015
The Mississippi Art Colony: Mississippi's best-kept creative secret is a 2025 article by Meredith Biesinger in the Magnolia
Tribune which says: "Recognized by the Smithsonian as the oldest
artist-run organization of its kind in the United States, the Mississippi
Art Colony is one of Mississippi's best-kept secrets. But for those who've
experienced it, there's nothing secret about its impact. It all began
in the spring of 1948, when Mrs. D.C. Latimer, artists Karl and Mildred
Wolfe, and resort owners Hosford and John Fontaine took a walk around the
grounds of the historic Allison's Wells Hotel in Way, Mississippi. Inspired
by the natural beauty and quiet charm of the area, they posed a question:
Wouldn't this be the perfect place for an art colony? And just like that,
a powerful idea took root."
Images pending:
Halcyone Barnes
Bess Dawson
Ruth Holmes
Marie Hull
Lallah Perry
Monhegan Island Art Colony
(above: Willard Metcalf, May Night (Florence Griswold House in Old Lyme, Connecticut.), 1906, oil on canvas, 99.5 ? 36.1 inches, National Gallery of Art. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Articles and essays from Resource Library:
Lamar Dodd - Half a Century of Monhegan Summers; essay by Robert L. Stahl, M.D. (10/10/15)
A Gift to the Island; essay by Remak Ramsay (7/21/10)
Jay Connaway and the Landscape of New England (11/27/09)
A Painter's Paradise: Monhegan's Nineteenth-Century Artists; essay by Emily Grey (7/25/09)
The Monhegan Island Art Colony: 1858-2003; essay by Edward L. Deci (9/2/05)
From other websites:
Monhegan Museum of Art & History says: "Each year the Museum presents an art exhibition in the new Gallery Building showcasing a particular artist or period of Monhegan's artistic history using materials from our collection, and from interested friends." Accessed 7/22
Monterey Peninsula Art Colony
(above: William Ritschel, Monterey Coast, after 1911, oil on canvas, Dayton Art Institute. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Please click here to view artworks by artists affiliated with the colony
Articles and essays from Resource Library:
Monterey: The Artist's View, 1925 - 1945; texts by Kent Seavey (7/11/08)
Artists at Continent's End: The Monterey Peninsula Art Colony, 1875-1907 (12/12/05)
The Carmel Monterey Peninsula Art Colony: A History; article by Barbara J. Klein (4/21/05)
A Matter of Style: The Paintings of Armin Hansen and William Ritschel (5/18/98)
From other websites:
"Time Captured in Paintings" is a video narrated by Jack Lemmon, produced in 1991 for the Monterey Museum of Art and updated for PBS in 1995, tells the story of Monterey Peninsula artists. Accessed 5/22
Mystic Art Colony
(above: Robert Brackman, Somewhere in America, 1934, oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 25 1/8 inches, Smithsonian American Art Museum. Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons*)
Please click here to view artworks by artists affiliated with the colony
Articles and essays from Resource Library:
Art Is Upon the Town: A Retrospective Exhibition; article by Willa T. Schuster (2/26/09)
From other websites:
Mystic Museum
of Art presents its history
including the beginning of the Society of Mystic Artists. Accessed 9/25
The Nantucket Art Colony
Please click here to view artworks by artists affiliated with the colony
From other websites:
The Nantucket Art Colony, 1920-45 is a collaborative exhibition presented by the Nantucket Historical Association and the Artists Association of Nantucket. Accessed July, 2015
New Harmony Arts Community
From other websites:
New Harmony Arts Community from AskArt.com. Accessed July, 2015
New Hope Art Colony
Please click here to view artworks by artists affiliated with the colony
Articles and essays from Resource Library:
From other websites:
History / Historic New Hope, PA, article by Terry A. McNealy, a Director of the New Hope Historical Society. The article appeared in the Spring 2005 issue of Bucks County Town & Country Living. Accessed July, 2015
New Hope Art Colony (Bucks County, Pennsylvania) from AskArt.com. Accessed July, 2015
Pennsylvania Impressionists: Valued at Last, April 7, 2003 article by Dennis Gaffney from PBS.Discusses New Hope impressionists. Accessed July, 2015
New Rochelle Art Colony
Please click here to see artworks by artists affiliated with the New Rochelle Art Colony
From other websites:
New Rochelle Art Association from Wikipedia. Accessed February, 2016
North Conway Art Colony
From other websites:
The North Conway Art Colony is a 2025 article by Gemini 2.5 Pro which says: "The legacy of the North Conway art colony is profound and multifaceted. It was arguably the first organic art colony in the United States, providing a model of community and creative exchange that would be replicated across the country. The hundreds of artists who painted there, including luminaries like Champney, Kensett, Durand, and Homer, created a body of work that helped establish landscape painting as the preeminent American art form of the 19th century. Their canvases shaped the national perception of wilderness, presenting it not as a hostile frontier to be conquered, but as a source of beauty, identity, and spiritual renewal." Accessed October, 2025
Return to Art Colonies
American Academy in Rome through Cragsmoor Art Colony
Dixie Art Colony/Alabama Gulf Coast Colony through Lyme Art Colony
MacDowell Art Colony through North Conway Art Colony
Ogunquit Art Colony through Roycroft Art Colony
San Diego Art Colony through Stone City Art Colony
Taos Art Colony through Yaddo Art Colony
Northeast and Mid-Atlantic States Art Colonies
Midwestern States Art Colonies
Rocky Mountain and Southwestern States Art Colonies
Return to Topics in American Representational Art
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