No matter the time of year, there is often something in the Village of Oak Creek that can cater to any person’s needs. During the summer, it is the Sedona Summer Colony that attracts and keeps resident and traveling artists in the VOC from July 21 until Aug. 11.

The first Sedona Summer Colony began in 2016, and since then, the program has put itself on the map as a renowned artist residency program in the Southwest.

The program lives and breathes collaboration, right down to its participants and the organizations behind the program — the Sedona Arts Center and the Verde Valley School.

A few years ago, VVS Head of School Paul Amadio met up with Eric Holowacz, the then– SAC executive director, over a bottle of wine to create the Summer Colony to be. He and Holowacz had both been part of or created similar programs in the past, and wanted to offer an artist-in-residence program in Sedona. Today, Amadio said the program is everything and more than what they imagined.

“We felt bringing in artists from outside this region to explore and create and discover could create opportunities within Sedona itself for the community to become more involved. That’s what has happened,” he said. “We are celebrating the arts in a way that is universal in the sense that these amazing people are coming to Sedona to do their work, but in the process they are giving back to the community just by what they do when they are here.”

The colony features artists from Sedona and around the world across different media, such as landscape painters, animation directors, potters, slam poets and more, and the diversity keeps coming.

This year, Amadio said they are noticing more participation from performance artists. Valerie Pulido, the membership and community relations coordinator at SAC, echoed that sentiment as some artists from past years have returned this year to work outside their preferred medium of choice.

“Just seeing what they have done with their lives after the Summer Colony, it’s really kind of impressed us,” Pulido said. “We’ve got an illustrator, we’ve got a jewelry maker, a muralist. It’s a wide-range group.”

Summer Colony dates for individual residency began July 21, and participants have been able to choose between a one-, two- or three-week residency. All residents are responsible for travel, supplies and equipment, but residency includes living quarters, working studio space and two meals per day.

Day residencies for people who live in Northern Arizona are also available for any length, but are subject to availability. A full residency is $85 per day or $40 a day for daytime residents.

New to this year’s program were four-day residency workshops, which took place from July 16 to 19, one being a contemporarymixed media workshop with SAC instructor Joan Fullerton.

The intimacy of the program’s workshops and the community atmosphere of the Verde Valley School campus is like a breeding ground for the artists, which Amadio said offer inspiration and tranquility through nature that keeps many participations coming back each year.

To preserve that feeling, participation is kept at a manageable number.

“The sweet spot is 30 [people],” Amadio said. “I think we average about 28 per day. Overall, between the week to two to three weeks, I think we have about 75 artists this year.”

All in all, Amadio said artists are given the best of both worlds — ability to chase their muse through personal reflection, but also to network and collaborate with other like-minded artists.

“Over the course of a couple days, you will see how it shifts from this internal perspective,” Amadio said. “What we found is that these artists come together and they are sharing with one another, and they’re are exploring things together in a way that we didn’t anticipate. They want to be in a tribe, and they want to be with people who have common interest and grow from each other.”

Saturday, Aug. 11, will be the last day of the program, and during the last week of the colony, from Aug. 6 to 11, there will be a six-day spoken word workshop, which will culminate in an evening presentation on Aug. 11.

Although this year’s Summer Colony will soon come to a close, Amadio said the program is just getting started, and it won’t be long until more world artists return to Sedona for next year’s Summer Colony.

“I am very proud of this program,” Amadio said. “It has benefited all of us involved and given us a lot to take with us moving forward.”

Makenna Lepowsky can be reached at 282-7795 ext. 126, or email mlepowsky@larsonnewspapers.com