Art for Art’s Sake: A Conversation with Michael Chabon

Celebrated author Michael Chabon speaks with NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown about the artists colony community in Peterborough, N.H.

The first time author Michael Chabon came to the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, N.H., it was 1996 and he was the new father to a one-year-old child.

“The introduction of a child into my life had proved much more disruptive of my work than I [anticipated],” he said. “I wasn’t really prepared for it.”

On the recommendation of a friend, novelist Mona Simpson, he came to MacDowell, an artists colony that supports the arts by giving selected fellows a quiet, inspiring place to live and work without distraction.

Today, Chabon is a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, author of “Manhood for Amateurs” and chairman of MacDowell.

In a conversation with NewsHour’s Jeffrey Brown, Chabon drew upon his own experiences living as an artist-in-residence at MacDowell.

“The experience you have while you’re here is constantly one of gratitude,” he said.

“There are very few times in your life that you have the experience of a place that is almost too good to be true. That shouldn’t exist.”

Read more on the MacDowell Artists Colony: Jeffrey Brown profiled the community on its 100th anniversary in http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/july-dec07/macdowell_08-24.html 2007.