The Alumni Newsletter

Our Spring Alumni Newsletter is here!

We are celebrating the artists and scholars who have received support through our interdisciplinary residencies. Each year, Craigardan awards more than $150,000 in scholarships and fellowships to more than 60 artists and scholars from around the Adirondacks and around the world through our creative residency programs. Their accomplishments are a testament to the power of art in all of our lives!

Are you interested in applying for a 2027 residency or resident internship opportunity? Stay tuned for our new application dates. Learn more HERE

Would you like to make a gift towards our programs and scholarships? Please consider supporting the Alumni Fellowship, the new Mainhouse Project, or the general fund HERE

Alumni! We have a page just for you. Share your news, use the short-form residency application to return to Craigardan, submit to the Gardan Journal, and learn more about ways to stay connected HERE

Amanda Palmer (‘18)

After the death of my husband (during my Craigardan residency) I moved to Southern Colorado and began again in the high desert of Trinidad, where the landscape’s openness and severity continue to shape my work.

Recently, I opened my second gallery with my partner, Randini Welch. Together we run a nonprofit artist collective of about a dozen artists, centered on rotating themed exhibitions. Our projects extend beyond the gallery through murals and art scavenger hunts designed around discovery—unexpected encounters with art in everyday spaces, inspired in part by Drop City.

Music is part of our openings through the LoCo Music Ensemble, founded by Randini, who plays bass. In my studio, I continue relief printmaking while returning to painting and assemblage, and I remain committed to teaching and mentoring within this rural creative community. The work here grows slowly, shaped by place, collaboration, and a commitment to staying present and engaged.

Fran Hoepfner (‘24)

My nonfiction humor book THE FIELD GUIDE TO NEPO BABIES is out on May 12, 2025 - a satirical deep-dive into nepotism across industries and ages, complete with quizzes and asides and pictures galore. It was such a blast to write this book, which doesn't really "take down" the nepo baby so much as it reckons with how nepotism impedes every part of our culture, and I can't wait for people to read it!

Lu Chekowsky (‘24, ‘25)

Debut memoir, "DON'T BUY WHAT I'M SELLING: ON BREAKING UP WITH ADVERTISING AND FINALLY LEARNING TO LOVE MY WHOLE, FAT SELF," publishing June 9th from Little, Brown. Part memoir, part manifesto, this is the “fascinating, smart, and hilarious look” (Christie Tate) of a woman determined to go deep inside advertising so she could save the world—and herself. What could possibly go wrong?

Michael ‘Yoko’ Amos (‘23)

I’ve been called: a salesman, fun, loud, a team leader, a supervisor, father, and friend. I’m really just a DJ in disguise, turning 67.

New Music out Now!

Yoko will also be leading a free storytelling workshop at Craigardan this summer.

Learn more HERE

Elle Lash (‘24, ‘25)

Recent recipient of a Creative Individual grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council. As well as publication in Emerge Literary Journal issue 36, upcoming publication in April issue of Roi Faineant, and the anthology Digging Up the Bones.

Learn more about Elle: Elissalash.com

@elissa_lash_writer on Instagram

S.a.m Hunter (‘24, 25’)

Ox Mag published two of my poems in Issue 55: Defiance. My residency at Craigardan was essential to the existence of these poems; I started writing poetry on the advice of a fellow resident who suggested it might strengthen my fiction.

Both poems can be found here

@s.a.m.hutner on Instagram

Michelle St. Romain Wilson (‘23)

Michelle St. Romain Wilson, literary arts and Bookgardan resident in fall 2023, is happy to share the release of the novel she completed at Craigardan. Song of Belonging is a dual-timeline story with hints of magical realism about a young woman learning to find her place in a lineage of women healers who protect the waters of their Louisiana home. Michelle grew up in Louisiana surrounded by a large extended family with deep roots in the area, and the story combines her love of her French Acadian heritage and her commitment to caring for the environment. It began in her mind when she was seven and her great-grandmother left her a green jewelry box when she died. This is the first of a trilogy about three sisters and their matrilineal ancestors.