The Hermitage Artist Retreat announced director and playwright Emily Mann will head its National Artist Advisory Committee, replacing Brooklyn Academy of Music Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo, who has held the position since its inception in 2005. The group is responsible for recommending mid-career artists who are invited to receive six-week residencies at the Hermitage Artist Retreat on Manasota Key in Englewood. The committee includes some of America’s top directors, curators and artists. Serving with Mann are: Dr. Tony Bannon, director Burchfield-Penny Arts Center; Dan Cameron, former chief curator, Orange County Museum of Art; Michael Bigelow Dixon, assistant professor of Theater, Transylvania University; Kenneth Fischer, president, University Musical Society; Linda S. Golding, founder/sirector, The Reservoir; Colleen Jennings-Roggensack, executive director, Arizona State University Gammage; Christopher Merrill, sirector, International Writing program, University of Iowa; Josip Novakovich, author; Christopher Offutt, novelist; Carey Perloff, artistic director, American Conservatory Theatre; Barbara Shepherd, director of National Partnerships –Education, The Kennedy Center; and Franklin Sirmans, department head and curator of Contemporary Art, Los Angles County Museum of Art.

Hermitage Artist Retreat