Virginia Would be Proud

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$50,000 gifts offer women the chance to pursue creative passion

By Carrie Seidman
The Albuquerque Tribune

Shortly after her mother’s death in the summer of 2000, Darlene Chandler Bassett arrived at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu for a women’s retreat—a box of Kleenex and a copy of Virginia Woolf’s "A Room of Her Own" in her backpack.

For almost five years—since she’d quit the executive job she’d had for 20 years as corporate executive for entrepreneur Eli Broad—Chandler Bassett had been adrift, waiting for a strike of passion to lead her to the next phase of her life.

At an evening session focusing on midlife possibilities, Chandler Bassett listened to the story of Mary Johnson, a former nun who had spent 20 years with Mother Teresa and had recently left her order to find a way to write her story.

"All I can do is ask the universe for a room of my own and an opportunity to write," said Johnson, echoing the words of Woolf, who said "a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write."

In that moment, says Chandler Bassett, she found her passion.

"It was so immediately clear to me that I could change her life and that the two of us could change other women’s lives," she says.

With that spontaneous desire was born Chandler Bassett’s new calling. She met with Johnson that night, offering to finance her pursuit of a fine arts degree if Johnson would, in turn, help her create a template for an organization that would give women the privacy, finances and creative support to pursue their work.

Two years later, Johnson is preparing to publish her story, and Chandler Bassett, 51 is founder and president of the A Room of Her Own Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to bridging the gap between a woman’s economic reality and her artistic creation.

The foundation grants a single $50,000 Gift of Freedom award annually to allow a female writer or visual artist to pursue a creative work. How it goes about granting that money, however, is where foundation differs from most other arts institutions.

Unlike other large money grants to individual artists, this one is decided by application rather than nomination.

"For most of the big awards, it’s kind of like a club," says Chandler Bassett, sipping coffee in the Placitas aerie she shares with her husband of 14 years, Steve Bassett, an Emmy-winning TV writer and producer. "So, to get a Guggenheim, you spend 10 years collecting names and getting a leg up, and then, maybe once you’re already known, they give you the money."

To be considered for a Gift of Freedom grant, an artist must complete a detailed application that includes both personal and financial information and answer three essay questions regarding her art.

The artist who receives the grant each year must also sign a "moral contract" that commits her to a specific goal and a finished project.

"What we offer is a process, a relationship and a lot of help," Chandler Bassett says.

Winners are required to be in regular contact with the organization, supplying frequent reports and accountings of their progress. As such, it’s not for everyone, Chandler Bassett admits.

"Andy Warhol said, ‘Good business is the best art.’ But there’s a delicate line between helping and stepping on an artist’s toes," she says.

The recipient of the Foundation’s first Gift of Freedom award last June was Jennifer Tseng of Los Angeles, who will receive $50,000 over two years to create a book of poetry. Tseng will work with a mentor and the foundation’s advisory board, which she admits is an unusual requirement.

"It’s definitely an adjustment," says Tseng. "Most awards it’s just ‘Here’s your check.’ With this one, I had three in-person meetings with the president in the first five days."

Tseng says she is grateful, however, for the opportunity to pursue her poetry, which, while her "first love," is not very viable commercially. She also embraces A Room of Her Own’s philosophy of opening up the award to unheralded and unpublished writers like herself.

"I love that any woman can apply for this award," she says. "It’s a great leap of faith on their part."

This June, the foundation will award its second grant, to a visual artist (the grant alternates yearly between visual and literary artists). It will also sponsor the first of annual summer retreats for women artists—at Ghost Ranch, the very spot where the idea for the foundation was born.

This year’s retreat—"Being a Committed Writer Today: Making it Happen"—will take place Aug. 11-17 and will include presentations by playwright and novelist Denise Chavez, novelist Breena Clarke, and poet and fiction writer Kim Addonizio, among others.

Chandler Bassett intends to keep the foundation’s purpose focused on finding "women of genius, just outside of sight and hearing, who don’t have the time, privacy or money to devote to their art." Still, she hopes that one day each woman will have a room of her own without her organization’s efforts.

"My dream is that it will be here as long as necessary," she says. "My fantasy is that is won’t be needed at all."