Hosting as a practice

A few months ago I invited the public to apply to Window Place, an artist residency and rural land project where I live in Cedar, MI. Eighty-nine people applied and I invited twelve. Yesterday the first person arrived and I could not be more delighted. is tucked away in the camper, working on their novel in the tiny studio. Shannon writes the newsletter and every time I say something meaningful comes back with an even more poetic quip.

Hosting artists and giving them the time and space to do their work has been a part of my practice for over a decade. In 2013 I opened Have Company as a storefront in Grand Rapids and before I started hosting residents in the back half of the space I hosted them in my home. In California I developed the hosting project CENTER with the visioning and design help of Nicole Lavelle who writes . I hosted Billy and Bob while they worked on a new Bonny Doon album and we made the Longwave music video. I then hosted Ellen Rutt where we begin our many years collaboration of rearranging shapes together.

When I moved back to Michigan, Center carried on as an artist residency in a mansion that I co facilitated with John Hanson. It was a wild risk to move in with the person I was once married to, but we found our footing in a new way and had nine months of artist residency bliss. This is where I met who would eventually make the art for this newsletter and Common Shapes. (and John made the music! Family affairs only)

To say that hosting a residency is a foundation of my ecosystem is an understatement. It has given me some of my favorite people and collaborators as well as fills me with great purpose and joy. It is what I turn toward when nothing else makes sense. It grounds my months ahead to have this tether to the place and space that I live and steward.

For the last five years I have had my fair share of hosting friends in the many places I have lived, but haven’t had a proper residency in that time. Until today!

As I was preparing the camper for Shannon the other day I spotted a few mouse droppings and felt my stomach drop. I set a few traps and the next morning found that one mouse had indeed been causing havoc and passed away in the trap. I may live in the woods by myself but picking up a dead mouse is not in my wheelhouse. I had to call and have her on the phone with me while I gloved up, got tongs, squinted my eyes so I couldn’t totally see what I was doing, and put the mouse in a trash bag.

When running a residency transparency is the most important thing to me. I remind potential residents they have a compost toilet many times before they come so they can be sure of what they’re getting into. I felt so nervous to tell Shannon that there had been a mouse and I’m happy to report they understood. reminded me mice are part of living in the country and we must find ways to coexist.

Part of hosting for me is loving a place, showing someone else the nooks and crannies of the sand dunes, the lake, the vintage shops, the bookstores, the coffee shops, the trails, the creeks, and the meadow. It’s about rooting into the place I live with a new found eye for what is important to me. I learn just as much from the hosting as they do from the being hosted.

I am reminded that my role in the ecosystem of liberation and change isn’t always on the front lines or shouting from the rooftops, but it is providing a quiet sanctuary to the artists and writers and flower farmers who need the solitude from their daily lives to dig into their radical practice. This part of the web is so important to me.

This past week in my Gemini hyper fixation portal I considered changing the name of Window Place back to Center - to bring back the container that is my hosting practice and not have to name everything in a fresh way. The way Nicole guided me in designing the language for the project was that it could be ever changing, it didn’t have to always be in the same place, and was the umbrella for all the ways I host the people. Alas, we’ll see if it emerges again. For now Window Place remains and everything is the center but nothing is apart from the edge.

I am pleased to announce the 2024 Window Place Residents :

Shannon Shreibak
Cate Sols
Mylène Parisot
Nicole France-Coe
Isabetta Herrera
Lea Cawthorne
Sam Slupski
Cindy Crabb
Moonbear Aguilar
Shivani Mehta Bhatia
Rowen Brooke
Kate Rose Weiner

The projects and knowledge these twelve are bringing feels like such a gift to the land, the place, each other, and the creative ecosystem as a whole.

In the meantime I would love to host YOU in the digital space this weekend for The Poetics of Squares : A Quilt In A Weekend Sat June 29 and Sun June 30 12-4pm EST