Composer Edward MacDowell and his wife Marian dreamed of building a community where artists could work in an ideal place among the stimulating company of peers. Mr. MacDowell, inspired by his role as a founder of the American Academy in Rome, made the idea a reality with the establishment of the MacDowell Colony. In 1896, they bought the 450-acre farm in Peterborough, New Hampshire where Edward said he was inspired to compose more and better music than was possible for him elsewhere. Thus, began an experiment that became an extraordinary success. The Colony, founded in 1907, now stands on its record of hosting more than 4,500 writers, composers, visual artists, photographers, printmakers, filmmakers, and architects from the United States and abroad.
Talent is the sole criteria for acceptance.
Aaron Copland composed parts of Appalachian Spring at the Colony. Thornton Wilder wrote Our Town, and Leonard Bernstein completed his Mass. Forty-eight colonists, including Willa Cather and Alice Walker, have earned Pulitzer Prizes. Many more MacDowell artists have won the National Book Award, the Rome Prize, or were named Guggenheim, Fulbright, or MacArthur Fellows. Grover Cleveland, Andrew Carnegie, and J. Pierpont Morgan created a fund that helped the Colony initially flourish. Many individuals and organizations, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, continue to support the Colony in helping many of the world's foremost artists achieve creative excellence.