Overview
The Anderson Center provides residencies of two to four weeks’ duration from May through October each year to enable artists, writers, musicians, and performers of exceptional promise and demonstrated accomplishment to create, advance, or complete work. There are typically 5 residents at the Anderson Center at a time, and the organization hosts approximately 35-40 residents each year.
The program is one of the largest of its kind in the Upper Midwest. Since the Center opened in 1995, over 800 artists from 45 states and 40 countries have participated in the program. Residents have come from countries including Argentina, Australia, Cameroon, Canada, China, Croatia, Denmark, Egypt, England, Estonia, Georgia, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Norway, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Spain, and Uganda.
Since 2014 the Anderson Center has offered such month-long residencies in alternating years to small groups of Deaf artists, including poets, fiction writers, and nonfiction writers, whose native or adoptive language is American Sign Language (ASL). Supported by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Anderson Center's Deaf Artist Residency is the only program in the country that is Deaf-centric. It was developed with the goal of contributing to the creation of a local and national network of Deaf culture-creators.
The Anderson Center’s Jerome Emerging Artist Residency Program offers month-long residency-fellowships to a cohort of early-career artists from Minnesota or one of the five boroughs of New York City. Offering a stipend & travel honorarium, the program aims to meet the specific needs of emerging artists while welcoming them into a supportive and inspiring residency environment that empowers them to take risks, embrace challenges, and utilize unconventional approaches to problem-solving.
The Center also engages in artist exchange programs with the city of Salzburg, Austria, and with Red Wing's Sister City, Quzhou, China. The Salzburg Artist Exchange operates in cooperation with Stadt-Salzburg Artist-in-Residence Program and is open to emerging and mid-career Minnesota artists. Quzhou Artist Exchange partners with the Quzhou College of Technology and is only open to artists living in or around Red Wing. The Center also participates in annual scholarship programs with the MFA programs at The University of Minnesota and Pacific Lutheran University in Washington.
Anderson Center residencies begin on the 1st or 16th of each month and end on the 15th or last day of each month. There is no charge for the residency, and all food is provided. Outside of the Emerging Artist & Public Artist programs, additional funding is not available at this time. Residents must arrange for their own transportation to the center, or to the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, or to the train station in Red Wing.
The Anderson Center Residency Program was set-up by a working poet to support other artists and continues to function by those with hands-on experience in the creative process. The organization seeks out feedback from residents each month in order to implement necessary changes as it works toward continual improvement of the program. Most importantly, staff trust artists to know what they need most to advance their individual practices. The Center does not dictate specific outcomes. Instead, the expectation is that the gift of time and space will generate significant advancements in residents' work. The Anderson Center trusts the artists to best use their time to benefit their own work and reach their own goals.
As an interdisciplinary arts organization, the Anderson Center embraces artists who are diverse in every way. Since its inception, the organization has intentionally worked with artists representing a wide range of disciplines, with the belief that the exchange of ideas is generative. The residency program supports artists from around the world, representing a wide range of cultures, races, sexual identities and genders. The Center intentionally works to make space for people and ideas to comfortably come together and operates with a spirit of welcome for all.
Location
The Anderson Center campus consists of 350 acres of the historic Tower View Estate, built by Dr. Alexander Pierce Anderson between 1915 and 1921, on the western edge of Red Wing, Minnesota. The estate’s original buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Center features a large sculpture garden, and is adjacent to the Cannon Valley Bike Trail, a 20-mile biking and walking trail that runs from Cannon Falls to Red Wing.
The Center is approximately 45 minutes southeast of Minneapolis and St. Paul, and 5 minutes northwest of the small but charming town of Red Wing. Transportation is provided between the Center and the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport (MSP) on the first and last day of residencies only. Residents who choose to drive will have access to private parking on the property. Residents without cars can either use one of the Center bicycles to ride into town (about 5 miles) or, often, can get a ride in with another resident.
The community of Red Wing, Minn., (pop. 16,000) is nestled amidst the scenic bluffs of the upper Mississippi River. The town is settled on the ancestral homelands of the Mdewakanton & Wapakute bands of the Dakota people. The City of Red Wing is named after Tatanka Mani (Walking Buffalo), a leader of the Mdewakanton Dakota in the upper Mississippi Valley who wore a ceremonial swan’s wing dyed in brilliant red. In 1815, Tatanka Mani and his people moved their village south to a place they called Khemnichan (Hill, Wood, & Water) in present-day downtown Red Wing. Euro-American immigrants who met him as they advanced into the region in the early nineteenth century came to know him and his village as “Red Wing.”
Since its settlement and eventual incorporation in 1857, Red Wing established itself as a center for agriculture, industry, tourism, medical care, technology, and the arts. The Red Wing Shoe Company and its iconic brands, in particular, continue to have a significant impact on the community’s economic, business, and community development climates. Natural resources abound with Red Wing's riverfront, winding paths through the majestic bluffs, bike trails, and 35 city parks. The Prairie Island Indian Community is located northwest of the city. Frontenac State Park is to the southeast on Lake Pepin. Minnesota State College Southeast Technical’s Red Wing campus is known for its string and brass instrument repair programs. The MN Dept. of Corrections also operates a large juvenile residential facility in Red Wing.
Other amenities include a destination bakery, a chocolate shop, coffee shops, restaurants, the flagship Red Wing Shoe Company store, Goodhue County Historical Society Museum, the Red Wing Stoneware & Pottery store, the Pottery Museum of Red Wing, a Duluth Trading store, the Red Wing Marine Museum, a Target, several pharmacies, a plant nursery & garden center, a Mayo Health System Hospital, a small independent bookstore, and a public library (the Center has arranged for residents to have access to a library card for their month at the Center)
Other key community stakeholders include the historic Sheldon Theatre, the Red Wing Arts Association, Red Wing YMCA, Red Wing Youth Outreach, Hispanic Outreach of Goodhue County, Red Wing Area Friends of Immigrants, Red Wing Area Women’s Art History Club, Live Healthy Red Wing, Artreach, Red Wing Artisan Collective, the Artist Sanctuary, Pier 55 Red Wing Area Seniors, Big Turn Music Festival, Red Wing AAUW, Red Wing Environmental Learning Center, Red Wing Girl Scouts, Red Wing Public Schools, Tower View Alternative School, and Universal Music Center, as well as several City boards, commissions, and departments.
Accreditation
The Anderson Center at Tower View is a fully accredited member of the Alliance of Artists Communities and RES ARTIS: International Association of Residential Art Centres.