MacDowell Colony
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Colony Hall and Sigma Alpha Iota Cottage
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Location | 100 High Street, Peterborough, New Hampshire |
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Built | 1908 |
NRHP Reference # | 66000026 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | October 15, 1966 |
Designated NHLD | December 29, 1962 |
Coordinates: 42°53′24″N 71°57′18″W / 42.89000°N 71.95500°W The MacDowell Colony is an artists' colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, United States, founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds. She led the colony for almost 25 years, against a background of two world wars, the Great Depression, and other challenges.
The mission of The MacDowell Colony is to nurture the arts by offering creative individuals of the highest talent an inspiring environment in which they can produce enduring works of the imagination.
Over the years, an estimated 7,700 artists have been supported in residence, including the winners of at least 79 Pulitzer Prizes, 781 Guggenheim Fellowships, 100 Rome Prizes, 30 National Book Awards, 26 Tony Awards, 24 MacArthur Fellowships, 9 Grammys, 8 Oscars, and 8 National Medals for the Arts. The colony has accepted visual and interdisciplinary artists, architects, filmmakers, composers, playwrights, poets, and writers, both well-known and unknown.
In 1962, the colony was designated a National Historic Landmark.
In 1997, the colony was awarded the National Medal of Arts.
The composer Edward MacDowell was one of the first seven members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He believed that interdisciplinary associations among artists were valuable.