When I last wrote in March, all of us—and the world—knew so little about what lay ahead. When we canceled the summer program in March, I was scared of what was to come in the immediate, but perhaps remained overly hopeful in what the summer months would bring.

At Skowhegan, we have still not returned to our offices for admissions or even every day work. Yet as the fall has progressed, we have continued to envision summer 2021 while cautiously monitoring health and safety recommendations, protocols, and realities throughout the world and locally in Maine.

As of today, I write to ask for your continued patience as we determine how to proceed for the summer of 2021. We will make a firm decision about if and how the program can run in early January.

In January, if we decide to proceed with the program for 2021:

• We will let you know what, if any, accommodations or changes to the program may occur to ensure health and safety in regards to COVID-19.

• We will resume admissions to be completed by early March.

In January, if we decide NOT to proceed with the program for 2021:

• We will address how to deal with application fees submitted for 2020 at that time. We will make a holistic and comprehensive, considered decision for the entire applicant pool in January. We are a small staff, and don’t have the capacity to adjudicate individual requests.

Until that point, as we are not in the office, please direct all questions to help@skowheganart.org.

I am consulting with peers at colleges and universities, artists who run shops and facilities, public health experts and medical professionals; including our own alumni who are artists, but also doctors and nurses dealing with COVID-19 on the frontlines.

Please know that all of us at Skowhegan—myself, faculty, staff, and our boards—want the program to move forward in 2021, but we have a responsibility to you, to our neighbors in Maine, and to ourselves to prioritize everyone’s physical and emotional health as well as the integrity of the program over our own desire to gather in Maine. Skowhegan is an incredibly special, rigorous, and thrilling experience, and while we all miss it, its longevity as a school and organization allows us to feel as though part of protecting that experience and the ethos it embodies relies on protecting the people who make up Skowhegan—applicants and participants alike.

You all have been very gracious with Skowhegan thus far. Your kindness, as we all have experienced some of this together, has meant a lot to us and to me. Sometimes, I rewind back to March and it seems almost like a dream with all that has transpired over the past eight months, these past weeks in the US, in particular. It is impossible to acknowledge everything that has transpired over the last weeks, months, lifetimes in an admissions update, but of course, I want to say something to all of you.

When I began drafting this note, I started to think about that optimism I held that 2021 would return to normal (as if that’s actually a thing or even a thing that I necessarily want), and more recently, I briefly entertained the idea of what seems like a collective hopelessness. We have begun to acknowledge that notions of universality can be dangerous, and it is important to acknowledge that in the face of this pandemic and the political moment that we have faced these challenges differently, some of us from positions of real and embodied danger and real and embodied isolation. But it is also important to recognize that for perhaps the first time, as a globe, we are actively experiencing something simultaneously.

We should have been linked empathetically at least, through countless conflicts, occupations, illnesses, wars, oppressions for a long, long time. The opportunity that we find at Skowhegan to traverse some of the distance between our lives and experiences in order to see differently, is one we might apply abstractly in this moment. As the virus surges and re-surges, I hope we all start to envision some space forward that uses the simultaneity of this distance and this global experience to recognize the limitations we have accepted thus far, and move beyond them. Where that work begins for each of us is different, but even if the personal isn’t universal—the opportunity, even in the smallest ways, is.

I will be in touch in January.

Until then be safe and be good to each other,

Sarah Workneh
Co-Director

Letter to Applicants on March 23, 2020

FAQ

Will the 2021 Summer Session be canceled?

The decision as to whether or not the summer session can safely take place as planned in 2021 will be determined in January.

If the 2021 Summer Session is canceled in January will I get my 2020 application fee refunded?

At the moment, we are still trying to figure out a fair model for dealing with the application fees submitted for the 2020 session. We will let you know in January how this will be handled if we cancel the 2021 Summer Session.

If the 2021 Summer Session is canceled in January, will my 2020 application be considered again for admission in 2022

No. Since Skowhegan only considers work samples in the admission process, we don’t believe it is fair to base our decisions on applications that were submitted two years prior. If we do not run a 2021 session, we will open the 2022 application process as we have in the past. The full applicant pool will need to apply from scratch in the fall of 2021.

How will Skowhegan address my safety concerns if the session is not canceled in 2021?

If Skowhegan decides to open the summer session in June 2021, we will provide a detailed plan on how we will implement a safe opening when we notify the applicant pool in January.

If I am admitted for 2021, will Skowhegan accept deferrals due to reasons such as health or travel concerns?

If we proceed with the 2021 Summer Session, we will address deferral and other options once we have determined an appropriate solution in January. We are doing our best to consider and address a wide variety of concerns and impediments to participating should we run the program in 2021.

If there is a 2021 Summer Session when will it take place?

Depending on our ability to operate safely, the Skowhegan 2021 Summer Session will begin on June 12, 2021 and end on August 14, 2021. Please note, there may be additional time requirements based on quarantining after travel.

Contact Us

We understand that this is an unpredictable time for everyone. If you have any concerns or additional questions, please contact us directly by emailing help@skowheganart.org.

We are checking emails during regular business hours (Monday-Friday, 9:30am–5:30pm EST). As our staff are working remotely, we ask for your patience in receiving a response.