Writer

Susan Stiles is a poet and freelance writer whose work traces the landscapes of memory and belonging. Her poems have appeared in various publications such as eratio, Trampoline, The Lake, Panorama, Slant, and TheWestchester Review. Recently, she joined Panorama as a reader for their magazine. She makes her home on the Croatian island of Rab where she occasionally writes a blog about the island and her experiences on it. Her freelance work includes penning profiles of artists for mosaicARTS gallery in Virginia. Prior to settling in Croatia, she lived and worked and raised three children in the Washington, D.C. area.

Her goal during the residency is to combine several of her poems into a cohesive manuscript that explores how place inhabits us—as muse, as memory, and as myth.This project is an exploration of place that ultimately asks the two-part question: What does it mean to belong to a place, and what does it mean for aplace to belong to us?

Writer

Anne Schuchman is a writer and translator from Italian into English. Her nonfiction work has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Chicago Story Press, The Saranac Review, and Apricity Press, among others. Her translations from Italian have been published by World Literature Today, The Southern Review, The Los Angeles Review, The Ilanot Review, The

Queens Review, and The Journal of Italian Translation. Her work has been recognized with awards from Bread Loaf, Fulbright, NEH, and the New Jersey State Council for the Arts. dR. Schuchman holds a Ph.D. in Italian Studies from NYUand an MFA in Creative Nonfiction and Literary Translation from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Her current project asks how loss alters the stories we tell about ourselves and about the people we love, and how these stories are shaped by the places we inhabit. While the work begins with personal grief, it has increasingly moved outward, toward questions of continuity, fragility, and disappearance that extend beyondthe self. During the residency, she will also use the time to write new essays, revise existing work, and deepen her attention to how personal and communal loss intersect.

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Poet

Pam Schindler is an Australian poet living by the sea in Blackmans Bay, Hobart, Lutruwita/Tasmania. Herwork has appeared in Australian magazines and anthologies. Her two collections are entitled: A sky you couldfall into (Post Pressed, 2010) and say, a river (Ginninderra Press, 2023).

Pam graduated with an Honours degree in English Literature from the University of Queensland and worked asa reference librarian at both the University of Tasmania and the University of Queensland. She is a Hawthornden Fellow, receiving a writer’s residency at Hawthornden Castle, Scotland, in 2013. In 2020, she was commended in the WB Yeats Prize (Australia). In 2021, she took part as one of 23 Tasmanian poets in the Poetry for a More Than Human World project, led by Kristen Lang, and she was a featured poet in the 2024 Tasmanian Poetry Festival. In 2025, Pam was awarded the Tim Thorne Prize for Poetry at the Tasmanian Literary Awards.

While in residency, she will work on new poems that respond to the village and environment of Montegiovi. As an Australian, she finds the visible layers of history in medieval villages very vivid and moving. In addition, sheis interested in exploring this contrast with Australia, where it is possible to visit wild places, with their intricate networks of plant and animal ecologies still intact, and imbued with a very ancient Aboriginal culture.

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Artist

Nicole Beck is a professional working artist who fabricates sculpture in her studio, has worked for many yearswith young apprentice artists on collaborative public art projects as a Lead Artist, and has an extensive exhibition record. She has installed site-specific public art commissions nationwide that are the result of intensive research and collaborative input from invested stakeholders. Nicole has won numerous awards and has attended many artists residencies, creating a web of support nationwide.

In 2004, Beck co-created Chicago Sculpture International with a tight group of professional sculptors and thus was born a thriving satellite organization of the International Sculpture Center. She is currently a BoardMember At Large and an active committee member of the CSI Project Space Gallery in Bucktown.

Beck’s work has evolved over the years thanks to a background in the sciences to incorporate the conceptsand applications of physics and the natural sciences. Botanical sciences, optics and astronomy are frequent themes.

She will take the time at La Baldi to gestate new ideas, designs and maquettes. She is always searching for new modalities to give form to her public artworks, whether via concepts and missions, or by utilizing specializing media like plantings, or by creating her signature colorful stainless and glass structures that canmark specific spaces with intent and use.

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Writer, Filmmaker, Artist

Nora Rosenthal is a writer, filmmaker, and artist whose work has been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, the NFB, and the Ontario Council for the Arts. She has participated in residencies through the Banff Centre, the RIDM, the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, and UnionDocs in Brooklyn, NY. Formerly the Arts and Culture Editor at Cult MTL, her writing has appeared in Momus, MUBI’s Notebook, The EditorialMagazine and Documentary Magazine. Her short film, Nine Easy Dances, was screened at the MuseoGuggenheim Bilbao and nominated for Best Short Documentary by the International Documentary Association in 2024, and it played at Visions du Réel, Dokufest Kosovo, and DOK Leipzig, among others. The filmgarnered two Best Director awards during its circuit and a Jury Award at the Florence Short Film Festival.

Since graduating with her MFA in Film Production from York University, she continues to work with researchers at York and as a filmmaker-mentor with Wapikoni Mobile.

While at La Baldi, intends to work on a trio of film vignettes and an accompanying book of photographs and texts. The work is called “Before Zero/After Zero/Zero”. The filming component of this project is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. In addition, Nora will use her time in Montegiovi to explore her mother’sphotographic archive, which includes photos from the region and across Italy.

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Documentary Filmmaker

Sanjna Selva is an award-winning documentary filmmaker born and raised in Malaysia and based in New York. Through patient and poetic storytelling, her practice explores narratives of migration, home, and belonging. Her work has been featured on PBS, CBS, the International Center of Photography, supported by institutions such as Sundance, Firelight Media, Chicken & Egg, and Open Society Foundations, andexecutive produced by actress and producer Yara Shahidi. Sanjna’s directorial debut, "Call Me Anytime, I'm Not Leaving the House,” filmed two days into the start of the Russian occupation of Ukraine, was acquired by PBS for North American broadcast on the award-winning series POV. The film also screened at numerous festivals within the U.S., France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Ukraine where it received best short documentary and audience awards. Sanjna is currently producing a feature documentary exploring the rise of Hindu nationalism in India which was recently acquired for distribution by PBS in 2026.

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Artist

Ankit has participated in numerous exhibitions, including those at the Birla Academy of Art, Kolkata, the State Lalit Kala Akademi, Lucknow, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, Academy of Art, Kolkata, the State Lalit Kala Akademi, Lucknow, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi, Dhoomimal Art Gallery, New Delhi, AIFACS, New Delhi andNehru Centre, Mumbai.

He has received several prestigious awards, including the Lalit Kala Akademi Scholarship (Garhi), the YoungArtist Scholarship by the Ministry of Culture, New Delhi,

and the BHU Gold Medal for his Master’s in Fine Arts (Sculpture). He was also awarded the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF).

Anket has also completed workshops in metal casting, repousse’ and raki experimental techniques, and a ceramic study at Bharat Bhavan, Bhopal.

His intention for this residency is to deepen his material practice with paper pulp—its softnessatthebeginningandthewayitbecomeshardandresilient—andtodevelopa new body of work that responds directly to land, weather, and traces of time. The residency offers a focused period of walking, collecting, observing, and making: slow days in the studio balanced with field time outdoors, so the landscape and

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Artist

Ashita Gupta was born in Uttar Pradesh, and she is currently exploring the depth and breadth of self-referentialart within India, examining how personal narratives crafted by artists are woven into the fabric of Indian cultural and artistic expressions. Her study aims to uncover the nuanced ways in which these autobiographical elements influence contemporary Indian art and resonate within broader societal constructs.

Her work has been shown in exhibitions throughout India, including the Jehangir Art Gallery, Nehru Centre,Mumbai; Birla Academy of Art and Culture, Kolkata; Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata; MF Hussain Gallery(UNESCO), New Delhi; the AnnualArt Exhibition of Arts, Amritsar; Abir First Take at Hutheesing Visual Art Centre, Ahmedabad; NGMA, New Delhi; State Lalit Kala Akademi, Lucknow; and Khajuraho.

Her intention for the La Baldi Residency is to deepen her ongoing artistic inquiry into the

relationship between human emotion, bodily experience, and the organic environment, using land and native ecology as active collaborators in the work. Rooted in

practice-based research, her work explores how everyday human gestures—sitting, waiting, leaning,pausing—intersect with plant metaphors and landscape to articulate states of memory, distance, resilience, and emotional transformation.

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Writer

James Barilla is the author of several books of narrative nonfiction about the human relationship with the natural world, including Naturebot: Unconventional Visions of Nature (Routledge), My Backyard Jungle (Yale) and West with the Rise (University of Virginia Press). His work has also appeared in print or online in The New York Times,NationalGeographic, The Atlantic, Conservation and Places. A recent Fulbright Scholar at the University of Bergen in Norway, Barilla is Professor of English at the

University of South Carolina, where he is the Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing and teachescourses in creative nonfiction and the environmental humanities.

At Montegiovi, he intends to work on a section of the book that deals with the question of his Italian heritage as it connects to the watersheds of the region. He will explore the confluence of the Zarcone and Vivo streams near the town as a starting point, but his greater ambition is to consider questions of human history and ecological novelty in the Ombrone River system as it flows through Grosseto into the sea. He intends to pursue these questions personally, by walking stretches of the river system, an approach bolstered by talkingwith local community members and ecological researchers. His time during the residency will thus combine research/writing with exploration of the local and regional watershed, with the goal of completing a draft of a section of the book, How to Love a River, whose central question is the future of post-industrial, urban rivers, specifically what can and should inhabit these ecosystems.

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Lens-based Artist

Caroline Minchew is a lens-based artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and her BA from Sewanee University of the South. Caroline has attended residences at High-Desert Test Sites (Joshua Tree, CA), NARS Foundation New York, (NY), Mudhouse Arts (Agios Ioannis, Crete,Greece), Penland School of Arts and Crafts (Penland, NY), and Burren College of Art (Ballyvaughan, Ireland). Her work has been exhibitedmost recently at the Muscarelle Museum of Art (Williamsburg, VA), Bond Millen Gallery (Richmond, VA), NARS Foundation (New York, NY), and Candela Gallery (Richmond, VA). Caroline’s photographs are housed in the permanent collections of the National Museum of American History and the National Gallery of Art Photograph Study Collection in Washington, DC.

In the context of her residency, she sees her work of photographic collage expanding through direct engagement with the landscape, working with texture, organic material, and the lived histories embedded incultivation and maintenance of the site.

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Artist

Gill Gatfield (Aotearoa New Zealand) holds MFA(Hons) and Bachelor of Laws, University of Auckland. With foundations in human rights law, public policy, and systems- architecture, her studio is a laboratory for creative innovation and transdisciplinary collaboration. Gatfield’s work is presented in museums, biennials, sculpture parks, and public spaces. International exhibitions include Venice Art Biennale, Kunstverein Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz Berlin, KØN Museum Denmark, Venice Architecture Biennale, UNESCO Geopark Ionian Islands, and WomanMade Gallery Chicago, among others.MShe has held artist residencies at NARS Foundation New York, Saas-Fee Summer Institute of Art NYC, Vermont Studio Center, Foreign Objekt Intelligence Lab, Women’s Museum Denmark, and Poison Creek Sculpture Project NZ.

Awards include NSW Sculpture Commission, VSC Sculpture Fellowship, Arts Council of New Zealand Global DigitalArt Grant, NZ Women of Influence, and CODAworx Creative Revolutionary. Gatfield’s work is published in arts media and journals including CLOT Magazine, Sculpture Magazine, Human Code, Contemporary HUM, Juliet Art Magazine, ArtsLife, World Sculpture News, XIBT Magazine, Cassone International Art, Interior Design USA, ArtsCore Italy, Artshub Australia, Trouble Magazine, Femisphere, Art New Zealand, ArtNews Aotearoa, and WOMAN magazine. A monographAbstract Figure: Gill Gatfield was launched at the International Sculpture Centre Symposium 2013.

At La Baldi, she seeks to expand her research on AI2AR (Ancestral Intelligence x Artificial Intelligence in Augmented Reality) in new directions through site-sensitive experiments and development of the digital-physical sculpture Native Tongue XR / Madua Lingua in the landscape of Montegiovi. Carved from a precious, codified ancient wood dated to the end of the last Ice Age, this I-form is extended through augmented reality for sites of special significance, where it is shaped and held in new hands and new light. La Baldi provides the ideal conditions and context for this work: sustained time in place, a cultivated and wilding outdoors, andcommunity exchange to investigate how landscape and culture operate as a commons, a lived, layered phenomenon that grounds and uplifts humanity.

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Scholar, Writer, Violinist

Dr. Insia Malik is a scholar, writer, and violinist based in New York. Insia completed double bachelor’s degrees in Violin Performance and Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies at New York University. She earned her Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York in 2022. Her academic researchengages with music and media in the Arab world. Insia also holds a violin teaching position at the United Nations International School. She performs regularly on violin with the National Arab Orchestra, New YorkArabic Orchestra, the Sinfonietta, and an array of ensembles in New York and across the United States. As a writer, Insia produces the newsletter Twirlable Pasta, which centers food as a segue for larger conversations and Storytelling.

For this residency, she plans to harness both her background as a trained ethnomusicologist—aresearcherofsoundnotlimitedtomusicinthetradi:onal sense—andinterests as a creative writer in food and storytelling to explore Montegiovi’s landscape and commons through its soundscapes.

Artist

Andrea McCluskey’s work is divided between spirit/intellect and abstraction/figuration. In her art she explores change and transformation. Andrea is curious when shapes and forms reappear after some length of time hinting at a place in her psyche that stores this symbolic language. She was born into a Polish-American community in Yonkers, New York. At an early age, she heard two languages and experienced rich traditions. Her parents were members of a Polish church where both Latin and Polish were spoken. Andrea was surrounded by incantations, incense, darkness, and Baroque art influencing her art later in life. Her family moved out of Yonkers to a more suburban area, and it was here that Andrea came in direct contact with the natural world. These two worlds collide in her art making. Her work gravitates between biomorphic shapes juxtaposed to the grid and loose forms reigned in by straight lines.

In collaboration with Lisa Sheirer, they will use the residency time to research the area of Montegiovi and especially the Monte Amiata volcano and the watershed of the Ente, the Zancona, and the Vivo Rivers to examine the flora, fauna and geology of the region. They intend to question the similarities and differences of the Tuscan landscape to their own home region. Using this different environmental perspective in another part of the world will prompt their discussions and shared studio time in this region. They intend to create an active mixed media depiction of the watershed region.

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Artista

Il lavoro di Andrea McCluskey si divide tra spirito/intelletto e astrazione/figurazione. Nella sua arte esplora il cambiamento e la trasformazione. Andrea è curiosa quando forme e figure riappaiono dopo un certo periodo di tempo, alludendo a un luogo della sua psiche che custodisce questo linguaggio simbolico. È nata in una comunità polacco-americana a Yonkers, New York. Fin da piccola ha sentito parlare due lingue e ha vissuto profonde tradizioni. I suoi genitori erano membri di una chiesa polacca dove si parlava sia il latino che il polacco. Andrea era circondata da incantesimi, incenso, oscurità e arte barocca, che influenzarono la sua arte più avanti nella vita. La famiglia si trasferì fuori città in una zona più suburbana ed è stato qui che Andrea è entrata in contatto diretto con il mondo naturale. Questi due mondi si scontrano nella sua creazione artistica. Il suo lavoro gravita tra forme biomorfe giustapposte alla griglia e forme libere governate da linee rette.

In collaborazione con Lisa Sheirer, utilizzeranno il tempo della residenza per studiare l'area di Montegiovi, in particolare il vulcano del Monte Amiata e il bacino idrografico dei fiumi Ente, Zancona e Vivo, al fine di esaminare la flora, la fauna e la geologia della regione. Intendono interrogarsi sulle somiglianze e le differenze del paesaggio rispetto alla propria regione d'origine. L'utilizzo di questa diversa prospettiva ambientale in un'altra parte del mondo stimolerà le loro discussioni e il tempo di studio condiviso in questa regione. Intendono creare una rappresentazione multimediale attiva della regione del bacino idrografico.

Artist

Lisa Sheirer lives and works in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. She has a B.F.A. in painting and printmaking from West Virginia University and a M.F.A. in sculpture from the University of Notre Dame. Sheirer works in a variety of mediums: pixels, clay, ink, paint, wood, and sound are among her materials. Native flora, fauna, and mycoflora of the Catoctin Mountains have been the basis for a recent series. Lisa has an active social media account showing plant life through the seasons in the Catoctin mountains. Lisa's creative efforts aim to educate people about the importance of sustaining wild places. Her public art projects include a ceramic mural at Baltimore-Washington International Airport commissioned by the Maryland Department of Transportation and a glass mural installation in Western Maryland Health System's lobby. In the fall of 2023, Lisa self-published the artist book WaterShed with the help of a generous NEA/Frederick Arts Council grant.

In collaboration with Andrea McCluskey, “We will use the residency time to research the area of Montegiovi and especially the Monte Amiata volcano and the watershed of the Ente, the Zancona, and the Vivo Rivers to examine the flora, fauna and geology of the region.” They intend to question the similarities and differences of the Tuscan landscape to their own home region. Using this different environmental perspective in another part of the world will prompt their discussions and shared studio time in this region. They intend to create an active mixed media depiction of the watershed region.

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Artista

Lisa Sheirer vive e lavora nell'area metropolitana di Washington, D.C. Ha conseguito una laurea triennale in pittura e incisione presso la West Virginia University e un master in scultura presso l'Università di Notre Dame. Sheirer lavora con una varietà di tecniche. Pixel, argilla, inchiostro, pittura, legno e suono sono tra i suoi materiali. La flora, la fauna e la micoflora autoctone dei Monti Catoctin sono state la base per le sue recenti serie. Lisa ha un account social attivo che mostra la flora attraverso le stagioni sui Monti Catoctin. L'impegno creativo di Lisa mira a educare le persone sull'importanza di preservare la natura selvaggia. I progetti di arte pubblica di Sheirer includono un murale in ceramica all'Aeroporto Internazionale di Baltimora-Washington, commissionato dal Dipartimento dei Trasporti del Maryland, e un'installazione murale in vetro nella hall del Western Maryland Health System. Nell'autunno del 2023, Lisa ha autopubblicato il libro d'artista WaterShed con il supporto di un generoso finanziamento del NEA/Frederick Arts Council.

In collaborazione con Andrea McCluskey, utilizzeranno il tempo di residenza per studiare l'area di Montegiovi, in particolare il vulcano del Monte Amiata e il bacino idrografico dei fiumi Ente, Zancona e Vivo, al fine di esaminare la flora, la fauna e la geologia della regione. Intendono interrogarsi sulle somiglianze e le differenze del paesaggio rispetto alla propria regione d'origine. L'utilizzo di questa diversa prospettiva ambientale in un'altra parte del mondo stimolerà le loro discussioni e il tempo di studio condiviso in questa regione. Intendono creare una rappresentazione multimediale attiva della regione del bacino idrografico.

Artist, Founder of Alchemy Residency

A visual artist and trained chef, Claire's Canadian-based, art practice explores and documents the making and sharing of art, food, and dialogue. She is the founder of Alchemy, an artists' led residency offered on the Toronto Islands and in rural Prince Edward County, Ontario. Alchemists share their practices in kitchens, studios, wineries, and, ultimately, the communities they visit and return to. More than 100 artists worldwide have participated in Alchemy since its 2015 founding. Claire was awarded an M.A. in 2024 from the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design (NSCAD University) for her thesis: Alchemy: The Evolution of a Social Practice. With a B.A. from Concordia University (Montreal) and a culinary arts diploma from the George Brown Chef’s School (Toronto), she also studied journalism and public policy at New York University. Now a public arts advocate and facilitator, Claire has served as a press secretary in New York's City Hall, and as Chief of Communications in two of Canada's leading teaching and research hospitals.

Claire wants to reflect on her ten years of art-making experiences in the County of Prince Edward in Ontario, Canada to inform an art-making project at La Baldi. She plans to translate her North American viticulture knowledge (and learn from) the terroir of Montegiovi. While separated by oceans but seemingly united in goals of sustainability and collaboration, the opportunity to visually compare and contrast genius loci of two rural communities with stated intentions of sharing community will allow her to develop and share a richer understanding of the role place/terroir plays in working with collage, paper, plants and found objects.

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Artista, Fondatrice di Alchemy Residency

Artista visiva e chef qualificata, Claire, con la sua pratica artistica canadese, esplora e documenta la creazione e la condivisione di arte, cibo e dialogo. È la fondatrice di Alchemy, una residenza artistica guidata da artisti che si svolge nelle isole di Toronto e nella contea rurale di Prince Edward, in Ontario. Gli alchimisti condividono le loro pratiche in cucine, studi, cantine e, in ultima analisi, nelle comunità che visitano e in cui tornano. Oltre 100 artisti in tutto il mondo hanno partecipato ad Alchemy dalla sua fondazione nel 2015. Claire ha conseguito un Master nel 2024 presso la Nova Scotia School of Art and Design (NSCAD University) per la sua tesi: "Alchemy: The Evolution of a Social Practice". Con una laurea triennale presso la Concordia University (Montréal) e un diploma in arti culinarie presso la George Brown Chef's School (Toronto), ha anche studiato giornalismo e politiche pubbliche alla New York University. Claire, oggi attivista e promotrice delle arti pubbliche, ha lavorato come addetta stampa al municipio di New York e come responsabile delle comunicazioni in due dei principali ospedali universitari e di ricerca del Canada.

Claire desidera riflettere sui suoi10 anni di esperienza artistica nella Contea di Prince Edward, in Ontario, Canada, per ispirare un progetto artistico a La Baldi. Ha intenzione di tradurre le sue conoscenze sulla viticoltura nordamericana e imparare dal terroir di Montegiovi. Pur essendo separate dagli oceani ma apparentemente unite da obiettivi di sostenibilità e collaborazione, l'opportunità di confrontare e contrapporre visivamente il genius loci di due comunità rurali con dall'intenzione dichiarata di condividere la comunità le permetterà di sviluppare e condividere una comprensione più approfondita del ruolo del luogo/terroir nel lavoro con collage, carta, piante e oggetti trovati.

Composer

Born in Hobart, Tasmania in 1997, Dominic grew up playing the drums in local bands before shifting focus to composition. Dominic’s music has been commissioned and performed both locally and overseas in Canada, Italy, Germany, and England. He has collaborated with ensembles such as Decibel New Music Ensemble, CMR Contemporary Music Ensemble, Labyrinth Ensemble, Ensemble Mania, The Hedberg Ensemble, The Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), and the Tasmanian Youth Orchestra, and soloists such as Jan Gerdes, Antony Gray, Lore Amenabar Larrañaga, Jennifer Yu, Judith Dodsworth, Leigh Harrold, and Michael Kieran Harvey. He has studied in Australia with several composers, as well as in the United Kingdom with Michael Finnissy.

The intersection of music and history has been a long-standing preoccupation for Dominic. Music history of a personal nature has been particularly fruitful, evident in past pieces which have explored the colonial and Indigenous branches of his family tree.

The La Baldi Foundation's Cultivate Arts Residency offers him the opportunity to delve into the previously-unexplored Italian side of his family history.

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Compositore

Nato a Hobart, in Tasmania, nel 1997, Dominic è cresciuto suonando la batteria in gruppi locali prima di dedicarsi alla composizione. La sua musica è stata commissionata ed eseguita sia in Canada che all'estero, in Canada, Italia, Germania e Inghilterra. Ha collaborato con ensemble come il Decibel New Music Ensemble, il CMR Contemporary Music Ensemble, il Labyrinth Ensemble, l'Ensemble Mania, l'Hedberg Ensemble, l'Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) e la Tasmanian Youth Orchestra, e con solisti come Jan Gerdes, Antony Gray, Lore Amenabar Larrañaga, Jennifer Yu, Judith Dodsworth, Leigh Harrold e Michael Kieran Harvey. Ha studiato in Australia con diversi compositori e nel Regno Unito con Michael Finnissy.

L'intersezione tra musica e storia è da tempo una preoccupazione per Dominic. La storia della musica di natura personale è stata particolarmente feconda, come dimostrano i brani passati che hanno esplorato i rami coloniali e indigeni del suo albero genealogico.

La residenza artistica Cultivate Arts della Fondazione La Baldi gli offre l'opportunità di approfondire il lato italiano, finora inesplorato, della sua storia familiare.

Curator, Cultural Researcher, Writer

Benedetta Castrioto is a curator, cultural researcher and writer passionate about multidisciplinary projects. She is interested in institutional critique and in the study of cultural production as socio-political praxis. Prior to working as an independent curator, she was the program manager of Zoma Museum, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She led projects in the US, Ethiopia, and the UK, and with partners and donors from Turkey, Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands. In 2023-24 she was Curatorial Fellow at the DC Arts Center, in Washington, D.C., and she is a 2024 Global Cultural Relations Fellow. Benedetta has an M.A. in Arts and Cultural Enterprise from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, and an M.Sc. in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics.

At La Baldi she plans to conduct observations on ants and cicadas while completing pre-selected readings toward the development of a multispecies project inspired by the Multispecies Salon. She will also visit Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri to better understand the artist’s dialogue with the land and his gathering and hospitality practices in continuation of A Plastic Tea Party –an ongoing project exploring the topics of laboring, pausing, and gathering.

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Curatore, ricercatore culturale, scrittore

Benedetta Castrioto è una curatrice, ricercatrice culturale e scrittrice appassionata di progetti multidisciplinari. È interessata a nella criticaistituzionale e nello studio della produzione culturale come prassi socio-politica. Prima di lavorare come curatrice indipendente, è stata responsabiledel programma Zoma Museum, ad Addis Abeba, in Etiopia. Lei ha guidato negli Stati Uniti, in Etiopia e nel Regno Unito, nonché con partner edonatori provenienti da Turchia, Italia, Germania, Francia e Paesi Bassi. Nel 2023-24 è stata Curatorial Fellow presso il DC Arts Center, a Washington, D.C., ed è Global Cultural 2024 Collega alle relazioni. Benedetta ha conseguito un Master in Arte e Impresa Culturale presso la CentralSaint Martins, University of the Arts London, e un Master in Ambiente e Sviluppo presso la London School of Economics.

A La Baldi ha in programma di condurre osservazioni su formiche e cicale, completando letture preselezionate per lo sviluppo di un progetto multispecie ispirato al Salone Multispecie. Visiterà anche Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri per comprendere meglio il dialogo dell'artista con la terra e le sue pratiche di aggregazione e ospitalità in continuazione di A Plastic Tea Party, un progetto in corso che esplora i temi del lavoro, della pausa e dell'aggregazione.

Writer

Jill Bronfman was one of 12 Aspiring Novelists Selected for the Irish Writers CentreNovel Fair 2025, was the Barnes & Noble, National Essay Contest Grand Prize Winner,placed second in the Joan Ramseyer Memorial Poetry Contest, was named a semi-finalist for both the James Applewhite Poetry Prize and The Waking’s Flash Prose Prize, and received an honorable mention in the Storm Cellar Force Majeure Flash Contest. Her work has been accepted for publication in five collections and over thirty literary journals. She has performed in The Bay Area Book Festival, Poets in the Parks, The Basement Series, Page Street, Washington Square Annual Livestream, and LitQuake, and had her story about a middle-aged robot produced as a podcast by Ripples in Space. She has been accepted to residencies and conferences including Looking Glass, WonderMountain, and LitCamp. She is a reader for The Masters Review.

 While in residence, she will polish her award-winning cli-fi first novel manuscript and finish work on her second novel.

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Scrittrice

Jill Bronfman è stata una dei 12 aspiranti romanzieri selezionati per l'Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2025, è stato il Barnes & Noble, vincitore del National Essay Contest Grand Prize, si è classificato secondo al Joan Ramseyer Memorial Poetry Contest, è stato nominato semifinalista sia per il James Applewhite Poetry Prize che per The Waking's Flash Prose e ha ricevuto una menzione d'onore nella Storm Cellar Force Majeure Flash Concorso. Il suo lavoro è stato accettato per la pubblicazione in cinque raccolte e oltre trenta riviste letterarie. Si è esibita al Bay Area Book Festival, Poets in the Parks, The Basement Series, Page Street, Washington Square Annual Livestream e LitQuake, e la sua storia su un robot di mezza età è stata prodotta come podcast da Increspature nello spazio. È stata accettata a residenze e conferenze tra cui Looking Glass, WonderMountain e LitCamp. È una lettrice di The Masters Recensione. Durante la residenza, rifinirà il suo pluripremiato manoscritto del primo romanzo cli-fi, e finire di lavorare al mio secondo romanzo.

Diana Marie Delgado

Writer

Diana Marie Delgado is a Tucson-based writer, editor, and consultant. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing, with an emphasis in Poetry, from Columbia University. Her debut collection, Tracing the Horse, was a New York Times Noteworthy Pick. Her anthology Like a Hammer: Poets on Mass Incarceration (Haymarket, March 2025) illuminates the impact of incarceration in America, and she recently partnered with the Adrian Brinkerhoff Foundation to produce a series of film poems. Selected residencies include Ucross, the Hawthornden Foundation, and Hedgebrook; she will be in residence at Casa Ecco in Lake Como this summer. As founder of No More Pyramids, she advises nonprofits and creative individuals on strategic planning and literary projects. Formerly Director of Literary Programming at the University of Arizona Poetry Center and Executive Director of Hugo House in Seattle, Diana has curated reading series and led writing workshops. A member of the Latinx poetry communities CantoMundo and Macondo, she continues to mentor writers and teach. Her work has appeared in over forty literary journals, and she has read her work nationwide. She is currently working on a memoir.

During her residency she will be devoted to deep revision, sustained drafting, and thoughtful reflection on how poems emerge from—and return to—the land.

(photo credit: Roberto “Bear” Guerra)

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Scrittrice

Diana Marie Delgado è una scrittrice, editrice e consulente che vive a Tucson. Ha conseguito un MFA in Scrittura Creativa, con specializzazione in Poesia, presso la Columbia University. La sua collezione di debutto, Tracing the Horse, è stata una scelta degna di nota del New York Times. La sua antologia Like a Hammer: Poets on Mass Incarceration (Haymarket, marzo 2025) illumina l'impatto dell'incarcerazione in America e recentemente ha collaborato con la Adrian Brinkerhoff Foundation per produrre una serie di poesie cinematografiche. Le residenze selezionate includono Ucross, la Hawthornden Foundation e Hedgebrook; quest'estate sarà in residenza a Casa Ecco sul Lago di Como. In qualità di fondatrice di No More Pyramids, fornisce consulenza a organizzazioni non profit e creativi su pianificazione strategica e progetti letterari. Già direttrice della programmazione letteraria presso l'University of Arizona Poetry Center e direttrice esecutiva della Hugo House di Seattle, Diana ha curato collane di lettura e condotto laboratori di scrittura. Membro delle comunità di poesia Latinx CantoMundo e Macondo, continua a fare da mentore agli scrittori e a insegnare. Il suo lavoro è apparso in oltre quaranta riviste letterarie e ha letto il suo lavoro a livello nazionale. Attualmente sta lavorando a un libro di memorie.

Durante la sua residenza si dedicherà a una profonda revisione, a una stesura sostenuta e a una riflessione ponderata su come le poesie emergono e ritornano alla terra.

(foto: Roberto “Bear” Guerra)

Educator, Watershed Specialist

Amanda Rockler is an educator and watershed specialist whose work spans ecology, community engagement, and collaborative problem-solving. A tenured faculty member in the University of Maryland's Sea Grant Extension program, Amanda collaborates across sectors on green infrastructure design, implementation, and maintenance to develop programs that build local capacity for stewardship and climate resilience.

Amanda serves as co-principal investigator on several research grants on the relationship between human behavior and ecological systems in urban watersheds. Her current work explores how climate resilience and environmental equity can be more fully integrated into nature-based solutions' planning, maintenance, and long-term success.

At La Baldi, Amanda will reflect on how cultural landscapes and local knowledge can inform more holistic and inclusive approaches to environmental stewardship. She is particularly interested in how storytelling and the creative process can enrich scientific work. Through writing, data analysis, reflection, and creative exploration, she will use her time in residence to explore new methods that center lived experience and place within ecological research and practice.

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Educatore, Specialista in Bacini Idrografici

Amanda Rockler è un'educatrice e specialista dei bacini idrografici il cui lavoro spazia dall'ecologia, al coinvolgimento della comunità e alla risoluzione collaborativa dei problemi. Membro di ruolo della facoltà del programma Sea Grant Extension dell'Università del Maryland, Amanda collabora in tutti i settori alla progettazione, implementazione e manutenzione delle infrastrutture verdi per sviluppare programmi che costruiscano capacità locali di gestione e resilienza climatica. Amanda è co-ricercatrice principale di diverse borse di ricerca sulla relazione tra comportamento umano e sistemi ecologici nei bacini idrografici urbani. Il suo lavoro attuale esplora come la resilienza climatica e l'equità ambientale possano essere più pienamente integrate nella pianificazione, nella manutenzione e nel successo a lungo termine delle soluzioni basate sulla natura. A La Baldi, Amanda rifletterà su come i paesaggi culturali e le conoscenze locali possano informare approcci più olistici e inclusivi alla gestione ambientale. È particolarmente interessata a come la narrazione e il processo creativo possano arricchire il lavoro scientifico. Attraverso la scrittura, l'analisi dei dati, la riflessione e l'esplorazione creativa, utilizzerà il suo tempo in residenza per esplorare nuovi metodi che incentrano l'esperienza vissuta e il posto all'interno della ricerca e della pratica ecologica.

Collaborazione interdisciplinare

Artist, Scientist, Writer

Raykiss collective artists Rebecca Wood, Jessica Payne, and Marney E. Isaac use an ecological, interdisciplinary, and artistic approach to land, place, and the commons. Raykiss is. a recipient of a residency award through the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze.

Rebecca Wood is a multi-disciplinary artist exploring relationships in the time of Hyperobjects. Wood is known foremost as a professional photographer, cinematographer and director, working in both digital and analogue mediums. Inherently motivated by challenging conventional narratives, Wood seeks opportunities to work collaboratively in order to challenge photography’s colonial, patriarchal and environmentally toxic histories. Working at the forefront of ethical, aware and caring documentary practice, her work is increasingly focused on sustainable photographic methods to create future focused imagery. An honours graduate with distinction from the Studio Arts + Art History program at the University of Guelph. Wood is currently working towards her M.F.A. in Documentary Media at TMU (formerly Ryerson) in Toronto, Canada. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. Wood was recently awarded a prestigious Social Sciences and Humanities Research grant.

Jessica Payne is an ecology focused interdisciplinary artist working as a writer, poet, florist and gardener, currently at work on a book. Her mediums include essay, poem, autofiction, sculpture, natural dying and land art, all of which are influenced by biomaterials within her surroundings. Previously, she was creative director of an ecological design studio where her botanical art was recognized throughout Canada, the United States. and Mexico. Her work has been featured in CBC, Quill & Quire, 49th Shelf, Green Living Magazine, Flower House Detroit, and elsewhere. She’s the recipient of a HA&L Short Works Prize in literary nonfiction with an essay in the anthology: Bad Artist (Touchwood 2024). Her poetry appeared in Grimsby Wayzgoose 2022 and exhibited in Alchemical Afternoon for Contact Photography Festival 2023. She holds an M.F.A. in creative writing from the University of King’s College, is the president of the CNFC and teaches creative writing from Toronto.

Dr. Marney Isaac is a Professor in the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Global Development Studies at the University of Toronto. Dr. Isaac holds the Canada Research Chair in Agroecosystems & Development and is the co-Director of the University of Toronto’s Sustainable Food and Farming Futures Cluster. She leads an interdisciplinary research lab that explores plant-soil interactions, nutrient cycles and ecosystem function in sustainable agroecosystems, and the social processes that lead to sustainability transitions. Dr. Isaac serves on multiple research networks, including a partnership between the American Museum of Natural History and the French National Centre for Scientific Research on biocultural indicators of farmer well-being in vineyards, the Design of Living Infrastructure for Ecosystem Services training platform, and the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada supported Organic Science Clusters. Dr. Isaac is highly cited (h-index 42) and publishes widely in environmental science, ecology, and multi- disciplinary sustainability science journal.

At La Baldi Residency, Raykiss will explore reciprocal structures, focusing on plant foraging and arrangement, poetry, essays, soil analysis, and photo-chemistry using local plants to develop photographs of the locality.

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Artista, Scienziato, Scrittrice

Le artiste del collettivo Raykiss, Rebecca Wood, Jessica Payne e Marney E. Isaac, adottano un approccio ecologico, interdisciplinare e artistico alla terra, al luogo e ai beni comuni. Raykiss ha ricevuto un premio di residenza dalla Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze.

Rebecca Wood è un'artista multidisciplinare che esplora le relazioni nell'epoca degli iperoggetti. Wood è nota soprattutto come fotografa, direttrice della fotografia e regista professionista, lavorando sia con mezzi digitali che analogici. Motivata dalla sfida alle narrazioni convenzionali, Wood cerca opportunità di lavoro collaborativo per mettere in discussione le storie coloniali, patriarcali e ambientalmente tossiche della fotografia. Impegnata in una pratica documentaristica etica, consapevole e solidale, il suo lavoro si concentra sempre più su metodi fotografici sostenibili per creare immagini orientate al futuro. Laureata con lode presso il programma Studio Arts + Art History dell'Università di Guelph, Wood sta attualmente conseguendo un Master in Media Documentari presso la TMU (ex Ryerson) di Toronto, in Canada. Le sue opere sono state esposte a livello nazionale e internazionale. Di recente a Wood è stata assegnata una prestigiosa borsa di studio per la ricerca in scienze sociali e umanistiche.

Jessica Payne è un'artista interdisciplinare focalizzata sull'ecologia che lavora come scrittrice, poetessa, fiorista e giardiniera, attualmente impegnata nella stesura di un libro. I suoi mezzi espressivi includono saggi, poesie, autofiction, sculture, tinture naturali e land art, tutti influenzati dai biomateriali presenti nell'ambiente che la circonda. In precedenza, è stata direttrice creativa di uno studio di design ecologico, dove la sua arte botanica è stata riconosciuta in Canada, Stati Uniti e Messico. I suoi lavori sono stati pubblicati su CBC, Quill & Quire, 49th Shelf, Green Living Magazine, Flower House Detroit e altre riviste. Ha ricevuto il premio HA&L Short Works per la saggistica letteraria con un saggio nell'antologia "Bad Artist" (Touchwood 2024). Le sue poesie sono apparse su Grimsby Wayzgoose nel 2022 e sono state esposte ad "Alchemical Afternoon" per il Contact Photography Festival nel 2023. Ha conseguito un M.F.A. in scrittura creativa presso l'Università del King's College, è presidente del CNFC e insegna scrittura creativa a Toronto.

La Dott.ssa Marney Isaac è Professoressa presso il Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche e Ambientali e il Dipartimento di Studi sullo Sviluppo Globale dell'Università di Toronto. La Dott.ssa Isaac detiene la Cattedra di Ricerca Canadese in Agroecosistemi e Sviluppo ed è co-direttrice del Cluster per il Futuro Sostenibile dell'Alimentazione e dell'Agricoltura dell'Università di Toronto. Dirige un laboratorio di ricerca interdisciplinare che esplora le interazioni pianta-suolo, i cicli dei nutrienti e la funzione degli ecosistemi negli agroecosistemi sostenibili, nonché i processi sociali che portano alle transizioni verso la sostenibilità. La Dott.ssa Isaac fa parte di diverse reti di ricerca, tra cui una partnership tra l'American Museum of Natural History e il Centro Nazionale Francese per la Ricerca Scientifica sugli indicatori bioculturali del benessere degli agricoltori nei vigneti, la piattaforma di formazione "Design of Living Infrastructure for Ecosystem Services" e i Cluster di Scienze Biologiche supportati da Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. La Dott.ssa Isaac è ampiamente citata (indice h 42) e pubblica ampiamente su riviste multidisciplinari di scienze ambientali, ecologia e scienze della sostenibilità.

Presso La Baldi Residency, Raykiss esplorerà le strutture reciproche, concentrandosi sulla ricerca e la disposizione delle piante, sulla poesia, sui saggi, sull'analisi del terreno e sulla fotochimica, utilizzando piante locali per sviluppare fotografie del luogo.

@raykisscollective