Chalk Hill Artist Residency

Chalk Hill Artist Residency Providing Space and Time for Visionary and Contemporary Artists. Each agency has an art group whose members have attended the Studio Program since 2010.

Chalk Hill Artist Residency is a place that encourages high-quality, creative output in all media for abled and disabled artists alike. Using a wondrous natural setting in Northern California as the catalyst for exchange and interaction between artists and the cultural community, Chalk Hill creates synergies that expand artistic horizons and opportunities. Artists from local nonprofits are invited

to spend a day at Chalk Hill making art and developing a reciprocal relationship with our current artist-in-residence. The Studio Program has a proven track record of working with local agencies and has been enthusiastically received by these artists. Together we schedule logistics for the day, then we are witness to the magic that happens when the participants arrive, meet the artist in residence and begin their art practice. We partner with the following agencies and their client artists: Becoming Independent Artworks, NAMI Sonoma County, Sonoma County Department of Health Services, and the Wellness and Advocacy Center. Following a format of “sharing” rather than teaching, the Studio Program creates an atmosphere of peer-to-peer exchange that leads to impromptu collaborations and new work. We offer creative time and space to artists that are underserved—there is an unmet need for artists with disabilities to access professional art spaces and contemporary artists. Artists with developmental disabilities and mental health challenges have long been a marginalized population. Far from being limited, these artists are incredibly talented, unbound by formal rules and current art markets. They create from their heart with emotional authenticity as their muse. Giving the space and time to develop their talents is key to the mission of the Studio Program. Here, they are respected as fellow professional artists and their individual gifts are recognized for their inherent artistic value. The Studio Program has had important outcomes for participating artists; it has allowed them to be introduced to Sonoma County museums, San Francisco galleries, and other professional Bay Area venues. The Studio Program offers unique access into the greater arts community for artists with disabilities. The natural setting of the ranch inspires them in ways not found in institutional settings and encourages independent living skills. Simply being involved in a professional art program as artists, rather than individuals with disabilities, is a meaningful step to help combat the stigma surrounding and affecting people who have a different experience of reality. Our Studio Program also leads to exhibition opportunities and performances during residency Open Studios. A recent example of this was a performance of the Artisticatz (of Becoming Independent) with resident sound artist Rinus Van Alebeek. Rinus conducted an Open House with a live radio cast on the global/Berlin-based channel: Radio On. This kind of collaboration and international exposure for the Artisticatz was wonderfully unprecedented and big time fun! Chalk Hill Studio Program’s goal is to become a nationally recognized program for artists living with disabilities, and to facilitate interaction between nonprofits that support those artists.

Welcome to the residency Kirsten Furlong Kirsten is a multidisciplinary artist based in Boise, Idaho whose work explores...
06/12/2025

Welcome to the residency Kirsten Furlong

Kirsten is a multidisciplinary artist based in Boise, Idaho whose work explores the complex interactions between humans, animals, and plants in ecologically and culturally significant landscapes. Rooted in the American West, her drawings and installations reflect on environmental degradation, species loss, and the deep imprints of climate change. Through repeated patterns and natural motifs like bird migrations, tree rings, or spider webs, Kirsten expresses a poetic response to ecological crisis, grounded in empathy and an ethic of care.

Recent projects investigate nuclear waste in Idaho’s high desert, habitat loss in the Great Plains, and the broader impacts of environmental disruption on wildlife. Her work positions animals and plants as both literal and symbolic figures, emblematic of nature and reflective of human desire. As a mixed race woman in the American West, Kirsten’s practice challenges dominant ideologies such as manifest destiny, species hierarchy, and rugged individualism, offering instead a counter-narrative grounded in observation, connection, and resistance.

Furlong earned her BFA in Studio Art from the University of Nebraska and her MFA in Visual Art from Boise State University, where she now serves as Director of the Blue Galleries and Lecturer in the Department of Art, Design, and Visual Studies. Her work has been widely exhibited in solo and group shows across the U.S. and internationally.

We’re very happy here to welcome .dickenson to the residency. Melissa Dickenson is a San Francisco–based artist whose wo...
05/13/2025

We’re very happy here to welcome .dickenson to the residency.

Melissa Dickenson is a San Francisco–based artist whose work explores the intersection of material, memory, and place through abstract landscapes rooted in the natural world. Using pigments made from soil, sand, charcoal, and rock — often combined with synthetic hues — she creates layered compositions that evoke the quiet, dreamlike quality of memory. Her intuitive process of pouring, tilting, and wiping paint allows a landscape to emerge on the canvas as both a portrait of place and a tactile record of experience. While primarily working in painting, her practice also utilizes photography, drawing, sculpture, and site-specific research.

Dickenson holds a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and an MFA from California College of the Arts. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout San Francisco and nationally at venues including the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, and American University’s Katzen Gallery. International exhibitions include Youkobo Art Space in Tokyo and the Moscicki Center for Culture in Poland, and her work is held in the permanent collection of the Embassy of Sudan in Khartoum.

We love that she works-large scale and processes her own pigments, creating etherial spaces in her work.

We are looking forward to seeing what she gathers and creates around the ranch.

Looking forward to seeing you at our Spring Open Studio this Saturday, May 3! Please join us for ***Art, Wine, and Food*...
04/30/2025

Looking forward to seeing you at our Spring Open Studio this Saturday, May 3! Please join us for ***Art, Wine, and Food***

Friends and family are welcome.

1-4 pm at the Warnecke Ranch.

13427 Chalk Hill Rd
Healdsburg, CA 95448

(cover image)
art




Our partnerships artists:

i.l.i.a.n.a.t


Adrianna Sorondo


Our partnership organizations:




Welcome Adrianna Alejo Sorondo, a mixed media artist and child of deaf adults from California. Focusing on ritual and ge...
04/29/2025

Welcome Adrianna Alejo Sorondo, a mixed media artist and child of deaf adults from California. Focusing on ritual and genetic memory, her work highlights the spiritual and physical resilience of people over time through the tending of gardens, turning poison into medicine.

Her work incorporates gardens, greenspace, clay, textiles, food, painting, found material, and installation. Alejo Sorondo’s current art and design practices are inspired by her experiences as a mother and daughter. Playfully, she explores the elements of joy and motherpeace through a dedication to whimsy and curiosity in everyday life.

She co-founded Taller Tirineni, an art and design studio dedicated to sustainable fashion and local production. Her artistic work spans murals, installations, and exhibitions throughout California, including significant contributions to spaces like San Francisco’s Mission District and Fresno’s Arte Américas Cultural Center. Solo exhibitions such as Valley Girls and a retrospective at Yosemite International Airport showcase her individual voice, while group exhibitions including the MexiCali Biennial and Timed Adaptations reflect her collaborative ethos.

Fluent in American Sign Language, Adrianna serves as an inclusive art facilitator at our partnership program Creative Growth Art Center and has led interactive workshops for youth, community groups, and wellness programs, using art as a tool for storytelling, activism, and collective healing. Her work extends beyond the studio into research, public panels, and community development. As co-founder of the Central Valley Healing Collective, she continues to bridge creative expression with cultural and social impact. Her academic background includes a BA in Anthropology from San Francisco State University, along with certifications in full-spectrum doula care and trauma-informed practice.

Welcome Liliana Torpey from NIAD, one of our Bay Area Partners.  Liliana Torpey is a writer, critic, and translator from...
04/10/2025

Welcome Liliana Torpey from NIAD, one of our Bay Area Partners.

Liliana Torpey is a writer, critic, and translator from Oakland, California. She translates poetry and prose from Spanish and Italian into English and is a quarterly review columnist for Asymptote's "What's New in Translation" column. Currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing - Poetry from San Francisco State University, Liliana is a staff member of Fourteen Hills, SFSU's graduate literary journal.

She is inspired to write and read literature that embraces both interiority and political and cultural conditions, and is curious to experiment with performative elements in her poetry. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, Euronews Culture, Full Stop, and other journals.

Liliana is a part-time Development Associate at both NIAD Art Center and the North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA).

Liliana and Kate from NIAD Art will be joining us for one week.
@.i.l.i.a.n.a.t

Welcome Kate Laster from NIAD, one of our Bay Area Partners. Kate Laster is an artist, educator, and critical historian ...
04/09/2025

Welcome Kate Laster from NIAD, one of our Bay Area Partners.

Kate Laster is an artist, educator, and critical historian whose work explores themes of memory, community, and diaspora. Her practice is deeply rooted in place and the complexities of belonging. She specializes in subtractive mediums like papercutting and wood carving, using them to reveal figures, texts, and layered narratives over time. Laster’s work blends storytelling, non-linear poetry, and portraiture to honor unseen emotional labor. Her ritualistic approach incorporates placing delicate papercuts into bodies of water, where waves transform them into ephemeral books. She holds a BA from Evergreen State College and an MA+MFA from SFAI, where her thesis examined displacement and monuments in San Francisco. Committed to accessibility in the arts, she creates donation-based art history courses and has collaborated with organizations like the SF Poster Syndicate and NIAD Art Center. She has been an artist-in-residence at Vermont Studio Center, Kala Art Institute, and other spaces dedicated to creative exchange.

Kate and Liliana from NIAD Art will be joining us for one week.



April is our Partnership month! Each year we invite our three Bay Area Partnerships to send two of their teaching artist...
04/01/2025

April is our Partnership month!

Each year we invite our three Bay Area Partnerships to send two of their teaching artists for a residency.

Creative Growth is a non-profit organization based in Oakland that advances the inclusion of artists with developmental disabilities in contemporary art and strengthens community by providing a supportive studio environment and gallery representation.��

Creativity Explored is a studio-based collective in San Francisco that partners with developmentally disabled artists to celebrate and nurture the creative potential in all of us.��

NIAD Art Center is a progressive art studio for adult artists with developmental disabilities. NIAD artists engage in a dialogue with the contemporary art world. As NIAD studio artists paint, build sculpture, mold clay, or work with textiles, their skills of observation and project management improve. As they explore and express their creativity, exhibit work in contemporary galleries, participate in the community, and earn money from selling art, their feelings of independence and self-esteem increase.





Big welcome to these teaching artists who will be doing residencies with us!
i.l.i.a.n.a.t

Victoria Chang
Adrianna Sorondo


Please join us for our Spring Open Studio! This one’s going to be packed with art from 12 artists, local and abroad.Art,...
03/27/2025

Please join us for our Spring Open Studio! This one’s going to be packed with art from 12 artists, local and abroad.

Art, wine, and food.

Friends and family are welcome.

1-4 pm at the Warnecke Ranch.

13427 Chalk Hill Rd
Healdsburg, CA 95448

(the cover image is their painting)art





i.l.i.a.n.a.t


Adrianna Sorondo


Welcome Dina Yakerson  to the ranch. Dina’s works are a combination of reality and fantasy. Each work is a hybrid of div...
03/07/2025

Welcome Dina Yakerson to the ranch.

Dina’s works are a combination of reality and fantasy. Each work is a hybrid of diverse references: daily scenes, mental images, texts, art-history, etc.

In her works she mainly draws inspiration from
mythology and folklore, from various texts, as well as mental impressions of different situations, thus, constantly infusing the mundane reality with fantastic elements.

She is interested in investigating the medium of painting, but also in expanding the two-dimensional act of drawing / painting into performative actions and combining painting with sound art. During the past two years, she has collaborated with sounds artists, and also created painting-installations and performances inspired by ancient mythology.

Farewell to our most resent resident artist Holly Beals. She was excited with her breakthroughs while in residence. She ...
02/19/2025

Farewell to our most resent resident artist Holly Beals.

She was excited with her breakthroughs while in residence. She made advancements in her color palette and technique, in particular.

She created still lifes, landscapes, and architectural paintings.

Come see her work at our next open studio on May 3!

Thank you for some of these great photos of Holly.

Welcome Holly Beals  to Chalk Hill Artist Residency! Based in California’s Central Coast, Holly is a talented visual art...
01/31/2025

Welcome Holly Beals to Chalk Hill Artist Residency! Based in California’s Central Coast, Holly is a talented visual artist known for her vibrant mixed media works that combine acrylic paint and collage. Her art reflects a deep appreciation for the natural beauty of people and places, drawing inspiration from her global travels and life as a mother.

Holly worked as a graphic designer for six years. But new adventures were calling and she was given the chance to teach conversational English to college students in Tibet. “What a wild and beautiful ride that was, full of ups and downs.”

One afternoon in Tibet, Holly grabbed some scrap paper, acrylic paint and magazine clippings, and went to work. It was the perfect soul therapy in the midst of a challenging time.

To this day, Holly works primarily with a combination of acrylic paints and paper collage on wood panel. Some things she will never stop believing: life has meaning, each person is significant, and the One who made all things is beautiful beyond comprehension.

Holly has exhibited her work in venues such as the Superfine Art Fair in San Francisco, the Santa Paula Art Museum’s California Scene exhibition, and multiple Open Studios Art Tours. Her achievements include a second-place award at the prestigious California Scene show and the 92nd Annual Landscape Show, as well as a feature on the cover of the Open Studios Art Tour catalog in 2023. We can’t wait to see how her time here unfolds!

Wishing you all a creative and fun 2025. We are full of gratitude to our donors who are setting us up to be supportive h...
01/09/2025

Wishing you all a creative and fun 2025. We are full of gratitude to our donors who are setting us up to be supportive hosts for our upcoming artists. We’re now entering our 15th year as a residency!

We’re looking forward to seeing you all at the open studios, and seeing the great work artists will make this year.

Peace and Love!

Address

Healdsburg, CA

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