✏️🛠️ Why This Writer Started an Artist Residency in a Tiny Mountain Motel—and How She Actually Made It Work

Casey Scieszka, founder of the Spruceton Inn, discusses the importance of separating your financial well-being from your art and how inspiring it is to have a backyard full of creators.

Photo courtesy of Casey Scieszka; collage by Yunuen Bonaparte

Any artist will tell you there’s no one way, no linear approach to doing the things we dream of doing. Accepting that might be the truest act of creative freedom we can give ourselves as artists. Casey Scieszka, owner of the Spruceton Inn, a minimalist motel (“bed and bar”) tucked away in the Catskill Mountains that’s known for its annual artist residency, is an artist herself — a writer, to be exact. So when she set out to open a reimagined B&B, one that could in turn offer other artists the time and space to get away and work on their craft at no cost, many of those closest to her worried that she was giving up on her own artistic pursuits. But Casey was merely out to take a more creative approach to her ambitions.

Leaving the city for a quiet, rural landscape isn’t what typically comes to mind when thinking of ways to expand your creative network. But after traveling abroad with her now-husband for many years, Casey returned to Brooklyn (where she was born and raised) and quickly knew it wasn’t the right location for what she was looking to do. The Catskills, being one of the most accessible escapes for city dwellers — Casey included — eventually came to mind and when she saw an old motel-style bed and breakfast once previously owned by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s relatives and ripe for renovation, everything fell into place. 

In the 10 years since Casey has opened up the Spruceton Inn with her husband, author and illustrator Steven Weinberg, their artist residency has attracted many notable creative professionals such as Stephanie Danler, Carmen Maria Machado, Sari Botton, Ariel Aberg-Riger and many others. As a dear friend of mine, I often joke with Casey and say, “Who knew you would end up with so many talented, admirable writers and artists shuffling through your own backyard?!” But as it turns out, she’s always known. Read on to learn about how Casey built generosity into her business model and ended up producing space for her own creative work to flourish. 

Ashley: Tell me about the first time you had an immersive experience with a group of artists, and whether that was a part of what inspired you to start an artist residency. 

Casey: I went to pretty artsy schools all throughout my education in different places, so I had the opportunity to be in creative writing classes early on. Workshops were my first experience, which funnily enough, as much as I did like those, it was not at all what I wanted to do with the residency. What I was more interested in was what happens when you get out of your daily life experiences and you open up your mind and artistic eye differently.