REFUGE
“I have been thinking, or rather dreaming, of Yaddo ever since I came back to New York. I told you how happy I was there and I want you to know how deeply grateful I am for these wonderful days. Nothing could have helped me more and even the daily struggle in New York against disturbances, noise and all kinds of distractions is now easier to bear.” —Hannah Arendt to Elizabeth Ames, 1952
Refuge from the demands of daily life—quiet time to concentrate on one’s creative work—is at the heart of Yaddo’s mission. Although the ideal of escape from the noise and bustle of urban life hails from the Classical Greek Arcadia, this pastoral longing emerged again in the late 19th century, as cities swelled under the forces of industrialization. Yaddo, and the other artists’ colonies that emerged in this period, sought to provide “city-weary” guests with a temporary escape from the demands of daily life. With the arrival of the Great Depression in 1929, just three years after Yaddo began receiving guests, and the subsequent rise of fascism on the European continent, Yaddo rapidly became a refuge not only from economic desperation, but also from political oppression. Visual artists Louis Lozowick, Philip Reisman, Penina Kishore, and Nikolai Cikovsky and writers such as Albert Halper, James T. Farrell, and Evelyn Scott were among those who sought refuge at Yaddo during the economic crisis.