Mission
“Blue Mountain Center, sanctuary masquerading as residency... a place for regeneration as much as for generation. I am buoyed knowing Blue Mountain Center is out there, a place of recovery and creation, healing and fighting.”
Housed on occupied Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe Land amidst 1,600 acres of Adirondack wilderness, Blue Mountain Center (BMC) was repurposed from a private 19th century golf course resort and family estate into a social-justice oriented artist residency and conference program in 1982.
Today, Blue Mountain Center offers a unique refuge to artists, activists, organizers, and cultural workers who produce transformative work for their times. We trust residents and conference attendees to choose the rhythm they need to counter the pressures of the world, whether through collaboration or solitude, work or rest, in a nurturing environment where they can connect to themselves, local and global movements, the land and story of the Adirondacks, and the growing BMC community.
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Blue Mountain Center was founded in 1982 to provide support for writers, artists, and activists. A 501(c)(3) organization, the center also serves as a resource for culturally-based progressive movement building. We expand and deepen conversations among cultural workers and support projects that emerge from these dialogues.
During the summer and early fall, BMC offers month-long residency sessions. These sessions are open to creative and non-fiction writers, activists, and artists of all disciplines — including composers, filmmakers, and visual artists. These residencies offer time and space for residents to create new work, continue projects, reflect, rest, and be refreshed in the beautiful surroundings BMC offers. Applications are reviewed by accomplished authors and artists who are particularly interested in fine work that evinces social and ecological concern, and is aimed at a general audience.
Blue Mountain Center also hosts 8-10 weekend conferences during the spring and fall months each year. These retreats bring together individuals to talk about pressing social issues around civil liberties, environmental health and safety, peace, and economic justice.
Blue Mountain Center is located within a private family estate in Blue Mountain Lake, New York, about 120 miles northwest of Albany. We are open to invited guests only from the beginning of May until Thanksgiving. Facilities are not open for rent or to the public.
A view of the Blue Mountain Center Clubhouse from the back. The mackerel sky results in dappled shadows across the building.