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Whether a self-taught artisan or a contemporary art titan, one can make artwork just about anywhere. As the saying goes, the only limit is your imagination. And when art and life intersect, sometimes the distinction between the two disappears.
As the National Trust for Historic Preservation can tell you, homes and studios from rural Kansas to the hubbub of Manhattan have been the locus of eclectic, quirky, and innovative ideas that illustrate how creativity and daily existence are one and the same.
Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle Village, Simi Valley, California
Last month, the NTHP announced the addition of 19 new property members to its Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program. Comprising locations that range from houses and workspaces to quarries and hand-assembled fantasylands, the new spaces bring the total number of network participants to 61 across the U.S.
Colossal readers might be familiar with one of last month’s additions, the Kosciusko, Mississippi, home of L.V. Hull (1942–2008), which was included in the National Register of Historic Places last summer. The designation was the first to honor the residence of an African American woman visual artist, and it was also the first time a home art environment by any African American was on the list.
Women feature prominently in this year’s announcement, including Pope’s Museum in Ochlocknee, Georgia, which is distinguished as the oldest surviving artist-built environment by a woman in the U.S. A self-taught maker, Laura Pope Forester (1873–1953) created elaborate exterior installations, including murals and other works that pay tribute to women’s achievements, military veterans, and literary figures. The crochet-like white facade is composed of sewing machine parts.
Additional places include the homes of groundbreaking women artists Louise Bourgeois and Carolee Schneemann, along with remarkable creations like Grandma Prisbey’s Bottle Village in Simi Valley, California, and Mary Nohl’s unique environment in Fox Point, Wisconsin.
Plan your visits on the Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios website.
Pope’s Museum, Ochlocknee, Georgia
Shigeko Kubota Video Art Foundation, New York City
Spiral House Park, Saugerties, New York
“Enchanted Garden” and entrance to the “Troglodyte Cavern” at Valley of the Moon, Tucson, Arizona
Mary Nohl Art Environment, Fox Point, Wisconsin
Interior of the Mary Nohl Art Environment, Fox Point, Wisconsin
Dog Mountain, Home of Stephen Huneck Gallery, St. Johnsbury, Vermont
Interior of Reuben Hale House, West Palm Beach, Florida
Interior of Prophet Isaiah Robertson’s Second Coming House, Niagara Falls, New York
Interior view of Grandma Prisbrey’s Bottle Village, Simi Valley, California
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