BRB Retreat
The BRB retreat is Fresh Ground Pepper's annual summer program of creative residencies. In collaboration with the Little Pond Arts Retreat in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, BRB residency weeks are six-day deep dives into FGP’s methods of delighted listening and joyful creation, providing an opportunity for artists of all mediums to jumpstart their own projects, build collaborative relationships, and develop their creative practice. The annual summer retreat, now in its twelfth year, has served hundreds of theater artists, musicians, filmmakers, choreographers, composers, designers, installation artists, writers, arts educators, podcasters, and more.
Jaime Jarrett, BRB Resident 2019
My time at Fresh Ground Pepper’s BRB Retreat has reminded that community is a crucial part of my art making experience. I felt both right at home and encouraged to grow: whether it be through discussions over communal meals, collaboration on projects, or bonding time literally chopping wood. I couldn’t be more grateful for having spent a week immersed in nature with fellow passionate artists.
Project Week
This retreat is intended for artists of all mediums and interests. Artists are encouraged to apply with a specific project at any stage of development.
At the BRB Project Week residents will spend six-days living with a community of artists each working on a new creative project. The week is a deep-dive into FGP’s methods of delighted listening and joyful creation, providing an opportunity for artists of all mediums to jumpstart their own projects, build collaborative relationships, and develop their creative practice.
We encourage artists to apply with projects that will benefit from embodied exploration and investigation. Projects being created by more than one artists , or by a group of collaborators, are welcome to apply. Please just submit one application for the project.
Eco Week
Nature often serves as a backdrop or a provocation for our work as artists, but only human-nature is actually present in the ultimate manifestation of our work. How do we correct this imbalance? Galleries, theaters, and screens manufacture representations of the non-human world in empty climate-controlled studios, often with no windows. What leads to this sterility and how does it reinforce our disconnection from the more than human world? What are the underlying ideologies embedded within the stories we tell about nature, and the attitude with which we form an audience or play a role?
As species extinction and climate collapse threatens our lives increasingly each year, can we challenge ourselves as creators, not only to speak of the greater life that supports us through metaphor, but to go beyond metaphor, to be direct agents in the regeneration and protection of the ecologies that sustain us? In addition, can we enlist the more-than-human world as a teacher and collaborator? Can we de-center the human within our artistic lives and learn from the wild world itself how to become more resilient creators? What would it be like to put the non-human world at the center of our practice?
This residency seeks to incubate artists who are interested in forging and deepening their own path towards an original ecological-centered artistic expression. We will work in community to devise, play, and nourish each other in building a regenerative creative biome.
Recent Guest Facilitators
Liz Morgan, Ben Holbrook, Haruna Lee, Ben Hobbs, Anisa George, Cristina Pitter
Past Residents
2023
Hilary Chapman, Mekala Sridhar, agnes borinksy, Eli Nixon, Dara Silverman, Julia Marks, David Guzman, Piper Hill, Chad Kaydo, Arden Traynor, Ben Hart, Alex Hansen, Jeana Scotti, Derick Edgren, Julia Byrne, Peregrine Teng Heard
2022
lucas a degirolamo, Andrew Kortina, Leigh Jones, Sarah Finn, Ayesha Jordan, Luz Lorenzana Twigg, Miles Orduna, Kirstyn C Ballard, Dani Nelson, Jerrica White, Annie Jin Wang, Thai Harris Singer, Adin Lenahan, Sophie Sagan Gutherz, Chris Lysick, Alexa Derman, Melissa Toomey, Dan Daly, Nikolai Mishler, Eli Nixon, Jeanna Phillips, nicHi douglas, Jacinta Yelland, Trey Lyford, jose sebastian alberdi
2021
SMJ, Mary Wright, Amanda L. Andrei, David Tiegen, Skye Kowaleski, Erika Phoebus, Katherine Vondy, Sarah Sanders, Max Berry, Doug Paulson, Anisa George, Laura Lapidus, Katie Willmorth, Tessa Barlow-Ochshorn, Sav Souza, Daniel Krane, Ellie Strayer, Reese Castaldi, Sarah B Mantell, Madeline Dennis-Yates, Catherine Weingarten, Emmy Kuperschmid, Chris Cornwell.
2020
2019
Adrian Collins, Joe Drymala, Dyalekt, Jared Field, Jessie Field, C.C. Kellogg, Doug Kmiotek, Mara Vélez Meléndez, Molly Beach Murphy, Angela Sclafani, Johanna Soleyn, Mallory Jane Weiss, Erin Adams, Adi Eshman, Mary Glen Frederick, Sarah Gallegos, Noam Harary, Julia Hoch, Adrienne LaValley, Turner Barrett Law, Joey Massa, Matt Zambrano, Cinthia Chen, Freddy Edelhart, L M Feldman, Kosaku Horiwaki, Amy Jo Jackson, Jaime Jarrett, Sara M Kommer, Larissa Lury, Alexis Powell, Nina Roy, Brant Russell, Candance Thompson, Karoline Xu, Tom Costello, Nikki Diloreto, Anya Gibian, Seth McNeill, Claire Moodey, Jacob Marx Rice
2018
Paige Campbell, Andrew R. Butler, Alphonso Horne, Amy Gijsbers Van Wijk, Thomas Matthews, Phillip Christian Smith, Kate Eastman, Tom Costello, Nathaniel Blake Johnson, Grace Herman-Holland, Gil Torres, Billy McEntee, Roger Q Mason, Anya Gibian, T Adamson, Jessica Ellen Creane, Noam Shapiro, Wi-Moto Nyoka, Sarah Cook, Joseph White, Jessun Choi, Brenda Neisler, Graham Techler, Desiree De Cahlo, Michael Barringer, Rebecca Vineyard, Freddy Epstein, Ryan Fogarty, Cristina Pitter, Wil Petre, Aaron Gonzalez, Danielle Bechman, Jackie Rivera, Chris Tyler, Liz Morgan, Ben Holbrook, Max Reuben, Shaun Peknic
2017
Kersti Bryan, Miguel Govea, Jessica O’Hara Baker, Emma Jaster, Melissa Mahoney, Marcus Middleton, Ryann Weir, Zach Trebino, Nicole Weiss, Morgan McGuire, Natalie Zutter, Marcus Scott, Steven Ackley, Jessica Frey, Claire Rothrock, Dan Daley, Seth McNeill, Jen Kwok, Sam Salmond, Kev Berry, Lucy Powis, Charlotte Moroz, Noah Mease, Jay Stull, Lena Hudson
2016
Callan Stout, Helen Banner, Jordan Schulze, Hannah Vaughn, Tori Keenan-Zelt, Gil Varod, Joel Escher, Victoria Flores, Jean Anduzulis, Max Reuben, Joe Cantalupo, Gina Femia, Isaac Klein, Matthew Jellison, Thomas Gibbons, Jay Owen Eiseberg, Ryann Weir, Ben Gullard
2015
Anna Abhau Elliott, Ian Axness, Lena Hudson, Matthew Gehring, Marina Tempelsman, Vinny DePonto, Kevin Kautzman, Carly Hoogendyk, Chelsea Hanawalt, Ben Katz, Ilana Becker, Max Reuben, Michael Klein, A.P. Andrews, Tori Keenan-Zelt, Kristie Wortman
2014
Stivo Arnoczy, Kevin Armento, Max Reuben, Ben Gullard, Trevor Salter, Scears Lee, Ryann Weir, Evan Watkins, Charly Simpson, Chris Williams
2013
Claire Rothrock, Andrew Farmer, Ryann Weir, Dylan Lamb, Max Freedman, Taylor Adamson, Joel Soren, Jamie McGonagill, Anna Abhau Elliott
Past Apprentices
2019
Daniel Holzman, Anna Lieberman, Deana Taheri, Grace Traynor, Lic Millar, Isabella Molica
2018
Aaron J Stewart, Adrian Collins, Sarah Hough, Michael DelaFlor, Marianna Hoitt-Lange, Aliria Johnson, Emma Dorfman
2017
Guillermo Contreras, Neo Cihi, Kat Giordano, Caroline Albert, Shannon DeVaughn, Sav Souza, Kirsten Hansen, Tomas Espinoza
2016
Bella Grace Leitman Harris, Lia Fitzsimmons, Emmy Weissman, Alice Kors, JB Douglas, Jenna Rush
2015
Jenna Rush, Megan Allison Hayes, Barrett Law, Julia Louis, Lindsay Wolgel, Caitlin Cobb-Vialet