Mission and Beliefs

Mission

The Croft Residency provides residents a platform to cultivate their creativity; a refuge in nature where they can draw inspiration and nourishment from the environment and share their art with the Northern Michigan community and beyond.

Land Acknowledgement

Before settlement, before the United States was formed, this land was lived on and cared for by the Odawa. For centuries they lived in relationship with this land and water and depended on it for their livelihood. Despite wars, the dehumanizing tactics of colonization, and tumultuous circumstances, the Odawa survived, stayed home, and are still here.

Nourishment

In reference to Kimerer A. LaMothe, we believe movement matters. We experience stillness as not static, but a liminal space for the movement of observation, an action of perceptive motion searching for the undercurrent. An opening that allows for ever deeper inflection on the roots of being. Time to discern the nourishment that we seek. We care deeply about helping others find access to the movements that nourish them, and in inspiring movements that nourish others.

Gift Exchange

At The Croft we believe that art is a gift, and that the exchange of this gift strengthens community, creativity, and our capacity for empathy. That the importance of a work of art is in the action it inspires in the observer. This action is what keeps the energy of the gift alive. We believe that this exchange mirrors those in nature. That a work of art, much like a Dandelion, uses its tap root to access the core issues of humanity;  bringing these issues to the surface where they become available for those with different root/belief structures. This is why we choose to hold space for creation in nature, and ask all of our resident artists to give a gift to the land everyday. We ask them to keep the gift they receive while in residence alive through intentional exchange with the land they inhabit.

Dialogue

We believe art provides de-centering and framing, allowing for dialogue on issues difficult to discuss without the container of creativity and imagination. We believe that healthy dialogue is rooted in listening, and that collective creativity cultivates this practice. It builds the capacity of the creator to discern their needs from wants, and listen to those of their collaborators. We believe that observance of art focuses the intention of the observer, allowing for a heightened awareness and an openness to re-patterning.

Habitation

We believe in the animacy of existence. We embody nouns that are alive. Nouns that are active. These actions have influence. Our intentions are to influence internal cultivation. Creating an environment within each of us to nourish the radicle growth towards the process of connection. We believe that the first action in connection is to listen. To listen in silence, actively seeking embodied empathy for the other. From this space of empathy we may begin the process of dialogue. A dialogue with the land around us is an act of habitation, residency as a process. Residency as movement. This is our intention for our artists and the lives that they touch. To feel our habitation with this space in this moment, our animacy together.