Museum & Box Office Hours
Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-4pm (Dec-May)
Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm (Jun-Nov)
Visitors can find us, tour our galleries and studios, and visit the rooftop at 533 Eaton Street.
Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-4pm (Dec-May)
Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-4pm (Jun-Nov)
Visitors can find us, tour our galleries and studios, and visit the rooftop at 533 Eaton Street.
Admission to our galleries and campus is always free of charge. As a non-profit, community organization, we offer discounted fees for classes, performances and events to members of The Studios. If you are interested in the benefits of membership learn more here!
From rooftop parties to business gatherings, The Studios offers a host of unique spaces to make your event one for the ages! Learn more here.
Zehra Khan is a multi-disciplinary artist who likes to make things by hand. She works in drawing, sculpture, installations, performance, and painting on people.
A Pakistani and American born in Indonesia, Khan lived in Paris and Switzerland before moving to the US for high school. She received a BS from Skidmore College and an MFA from the Mass College of Art & Design at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA.
Khan has attended art residencies at Yaddo, I-Park, the Post-Contemporary, the Virginia Mountain Lake Biological Station, and four times to the Vermont Studio Center. She is a current participant of the NYC Drawing Center Viewing Program and the deCordova Museum Corporate Lending Program. She co-authored the children’s book “A Sunny Day for Flowers” and contributed to “The Resistance Coloring & Activity Book.” In March 2018, Zehra was nominated as one of “10 Emerging New England Artists” by Art New England.
Since 2016, Chris Daley has been Director of Writing Workshops Los Angeles, a private writing school for the brave, enthusiastic, and talented. She received her Ph.D. in English from the City University of New York Graduate Center, and is currently Lecturer in Writing at the California Institute of Technology. She has worked as a writing instructor for several universities in New York and Los Angeles, including Brooklyn College (CUNY), Loyola Marymount University, and the Polytechnic Institute of New York University.
Her writing has appeared in The Collagist, FORTH Magazine, Angel’s Flight • Literary West, DUM DUM Zine, Cease, Cows, and Front Porch Journal, and her essay “Thoughts on Time After Viewing Christian Marclay’s ‘The Clock'” was recently included in the Norton anthology of contemporary nonfiction, Brief Encounters. She has reviewed fiction and nonfiction, primarily focusing on music and Los Angeles history, for the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Review of Books. She served as a judge for the fiction and first fiction awards of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes in 2013 and 2014. Daley was also a Ucross Foundation writer-in-residence during the spring 2014 session and was awarded the Yefe Nof California Writing Residency in 2018.
SAT & SUN APR 27 & 28, 2019, 12-3PM/ WORKSHOP
Memoir with Chris Daley
Tara O’Grady is a singer, songwriter and band leader from New York City who dazzles fans with her witty lyrics and vintage fashion. She’s also a rare storyteller and soon to be published author with fascinating tales of her encounters across the globe. With looks reminiscent of the Golden Age of Hollywood and a voice to match, she transports audiences to another era singing the songs of Nina Simone, Nat King Cole, Edith Piaf and Billie Holiday. She brings her breathless charm to jazz festivals and music venues across New York, New Orleans, Austin, Nashville, Budapest, Seville, Copenhagen, Dublin and beyond.
O’Grady’s soulful voice has been compared to legends such as Billie Holiday, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Peggy Lee and Patsy Cline. Awarded Irish Voice’s Most Influential Woman 2010 by Ireland’s Prime Minister, the singer-songwriter has five cd releases, Black Irish (2010), Good Things Come to Those Who Wait (2011), A Celt in the Cotton Club (2013), Irish Bayou (2015) and Folk Songs: Songs About Real Folks (2017). Her recording of the famous song Danny Boy was ranked #6 in Best Selling Blues MP3s and #10 in Best Selling Jazz MP3s on the UK’s Amazon.com. That song was also featured in an award winning BBC documentary film celebrating the song’s 100th anniversary. The film was nominated for best documentary at Ireland’s Film & Television Awards in 2014, and starred O’Grady, Judy Collins, Joe Jackson, Gabriel Bryne, Rosanne Cash, and Paddy Maloney of The Chieftains. Her original songs and unique renditions of Irish standards can be heard on radio stations across America and Europe. French jazz band The Sassy Swingers from Nantes recently recorded one of Tara’s original songs ‘Heaping Helping of My Love’ on their new album because they “fell in love with Tara’s sound and lyrics.” Her rendition of the Irish classic song ‘Nora’ also appeared on Ireland’s television show Dancing with the Stars.
Her band Tara O’Grady & The Black Velvet Band perform weekly in Manhattan at jazz clubs and combine celtic, folk, funk, blues, and especially jazz in their unique lickety-split swing sound that has been described as eclectic, authentic, timeless and nostalgic. This Irish-American jazz powerhouse writes original music that sounds like it was composed for Ella Fitzgerald or Louis Armstrong, but also performs traditional songs with fresh arrangements meant more for a prohibition swing dance hall than an Irish pub.
FRI APR 26, 2019, 8PM/ BLUE HEAVEN CONCERT SERIES
Good Things Come to Those Who Wait
Through generous sponsors we are able to provide the following extras to use during your residency:
BEST OF KEY WEST RENTALS. Generously provided your linens, bedding and towels.
FORT ZACHARY TAYLOR STATE PARK. We want you to visit the state park and beach as much as you’d like! Our pass unfortunately needs to be tied to a staff member, so you can coordinate a day to go together, or we’ve got a gift card you can use to visit on your own time. The card is in the PEAR House, be sure to bring it so you don’t have to pay the entry fee.
KEY WEST YOGA SANCTUARY. Free yoga classes all month! Register for your first class online with code ‘PEAR’ then connect with staff to get set up with a full month at your first visit.
YOGA ON THE BEACH. Meet at Ft. Zach Beach by 8:15am to flow with Nancy and Don. PEARs get your first class free!
KEY WEST PUBLIC LIBRARY. We’ve partnered with the library to offer you a library card to use during your stay. Key West Library has an extensive catalog of books and other media, plus e-books and audiobooks available for download and even some special events! Their calendar has more about what’s going on.
LAZY DOG ADVENTURES. Lazy Dog does it all – kayak and paddle board tours, rentals, lessons and classes, paddle yoga and fun boat adventures! They’ve offered a paddle pass for PEARs – simply inquire with staff about an available day and they’ll hook you up with a free rental.
WE*CYCLE. The fun way to get around town! Public transportation with 2 wheels. They provided your conch cruiser or tricycle.
The Studios accepts applications on a rolling basis from January-May of each year for the following residency season. The season runs from October-August. There is a $45 application fee to apply which supports the program.
Applications are evaluated by selection committees comprised of working artists and professionals in the applicants’ respective fields of discipline under the five categories: Visual Arts, Literary Arts, Media Arts, and Musical Arts and Performing Arts.
Acceptance to The Studios’ PEAR Program is based on the merit of past work and the potential for creative, intellectual and personal growth through the time and space to imagine new artistic work, engage in valuable dialogue and explore island connections.
Key West’s official motto, “One Human Family” reflects our commitment to living together as caring, sharing neighbors dedicated to making our home as close to paradise as we can. To that end, we encourage artists of all races, nationalities, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities to apply.
The Studios of Key West’s mission is to support artists, inspire creativity and build community.
The Studios was founded with the vision of bringing world class artists to the island, connecting them with local audiences and artists, and offering space for both to explore their creativity. We’ve hosted Pulitzer prize winners, world renowned artists and musicians, and introduced thousands of students to different ways of seeing and working. Our Helmerich Theater stage bristles with talent, music from our rooftop concerts flood into the neighborhood, and every month hundreds of people visit The Studios to take in new experiences and catch up with old friends.
You’ll find that the Key West community is very welcoming to new people (especially creative ones!) – and there is never a shortage of things to do. Your time is yours to do with as you choose, of course, and we respect that you’ll need plenty of time to dream, reflect and create. We do ask that you join us at two events during your residency:
Depending on the time of year, a group of about 20-40 friends and community members gather together for an informal potluck and a chance to meet our residency artists. Guests bring a dish to share (bring whatever you’d like – from chips and salsa to your favorite recipe). About halfway through the night, each of the residency artists takes few minutes to introduce themselves and talk about their work or what they’re working on in Key West (remember, it’s very casual, so no PowerPoint presentations necessary!). Writers often like to read a very short bit of their work and artists often like to open their studios to show what they are working on – but neither is necessary, whatever you feel comfortable with.
Friends new and old are invited to join us for each month’s First Thursday Open House event, when we keep our lights on late and throw our doors open to celebrate the newest work in our galleries. Stop in to say hello, relax with a glass of wine on the rooftop terrace, tour the third floor artist studios and see the just-installed exhibitions in the Sanger, XOJ, Zabar Project and Zabar Lobby Galleries.
Key West is an island community, two miles by four miles wide, at the very end of the road. Most people get around on bicycle or foot, and the neighborhoods are compact and filled with lush gardens and tropical plant life. There are Cuban groceries and café con leche on every other corner, and a mix of Latin and Caribbean influences everywhere. Known for blue skies, open water and mangrove islands, and 80 degree days in winter, Key West is removed from the American mainland by 120 miles of bridges and small islands.
Long a home to artists and creative people, the ghosts of Hemingway, Robert Frost, Elizabeth Bishop, Mario Sanchez, and Shel Silverstein still haunt our Old Town neighborhood. Flowers bloom year-round, and fruit trees proliferate. And on any given day, it’s not unusual to run into modern-day creative people, such as Judy Blume, Billy Collins, Jimmy Buffett, Meg Cabot, Terrence McNally, John Martini, Seward Johnson, or Annie Dillard.
For a small community, Key West is rich in cultural events, creative projects, and celebrations of every kind. The population is diverse and compassionate, and takes to heart the island’s famous motto: One Human Family, which reflects The Studios’ commitment to living together as caring, sharing neighbors dedicated to making our home as close to paradise as we can. Our creative community is proud of this special sense of place. We embrace an independence from the mainland, celebrate our tropical and Caribbean influences, and seek out artists and cultural leaders wanting to do the same—and gain the benefit of exile in the Conch Republic.
A limited selection of short length (4′ or less) specialty hardwoods (mostly Cuban Mahogany) can be purchased from the Woodshop. Email woodshop@tskw.org for inquiries.
For a wider variety in wood types and length, we recommend our friend on Big Coppitt, Mike. He has a great selection and is nearby. His phone number is (305) 797-5747.
Address: 6810 Front Street, Key West, FL 33040
We’re located in Safe Harbor Marina on Stock Island, just down the docks from Hogfish Bar & Grill.
Shop Time Rates
Payments
Cancellations
With one of the tallest buildings – and most spectacular views – in town, the Hugh’s View rooftop terrace serves as The Studios’ creative space in the sky. The terrace sits four stories above street level and offers panoramic views of the island. The Kitwald Stage glows in the golden twilight of our sunset performances.
Hugh’s View offers:
—Smaller audience sizes
—Outdoor environment
—Intimate experiences
—A rooftop bar that opens one hour prior to show time
With original seating from its days as a Masonic temple, the Helmerich Theater has been updated to also include floor seating. As a black box theater, the set up is intimate but professional, and sets the stage for concerts and performances that leave guests feeling like they really got to know the performer.
Helmerich Theater offers:
—More space and comfortable chairs
—Indoor comforts
—Intimate experiences
—A walk-up counter bar that opens one hour prior to show time
The period for applying to 2021/22 residencies is now closed. We will begin accepting residencies for the 2022/23 season, which runs from September 2022-August 2023, in January 2022. If you would like to be notified by email when the application period opens again, please fill out this form.
test