According to a book about the center, The First Decade, it was dreamed up and founded in 1977 by Doris Leeper, a distinguished illumagist (i.e., painter/sculptor, in my special lingo), its purpose being to give "talented artists at mid-career the opportunity to work with outstanding Master Artists . . . (in) a uniquely open workshop atmosphere unencumbered by preconceived boundaries or expectations." So, starting in 1982 with poet James Dickey, sculptor Duane Hanson and composer David Del Tredici, two or three "Master Artists" have conducted residency programs at the center every two or three months--with up to ten "associate artists" (the artists considered to be in mid-career) working with each master artist (and getting free room and board). Many well-known poets have done stints as master artists at the center such as Dickey, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Allen Ginsberg, William Stafford, Philip Whalen, John Ashbery, Amy Clampitt, Robert Creeley and Jonathan Williams.

So far as I know, Williams was the only otherstream poet invited to the center as a master artist until my master artist, Richard Kostelanetz (and even Kostelanetz, however still under- recognized by the powers-that-be in the surface of American Culture, has had an immense number of books published, many of them by establishment publishers, and has gotten previous grants). It would be pleasant if there were some organization in this country that identified rather than merely re-identified (or, in the case of most of them, misidentified) master artists. But, the ACA must be commended for bringing in the likes of Kostelanetz. The scuttlebutt is that Edward Albee, second master artist at the center, and now chairman of its national council, was instrumental in allowing Richard to scoot in. Be that as it may, Albee seems to be equaling James Michener in helping out other artists, the center being only one of many enterprises with that aim that he's a consequential part of. So, if he weren't already on my list of Important Cultural Figures for his incontestably major accomplishments as a playwright, he'd be on it for his nurturing of the arts.

For the most part, Kostelanetz, understandably, chose friends in visual poetry as his associates: me, Kathy Ernst, Scott Helmes and John M. Bennett; the younger associates--Josh Carr, Pat Greene, Fred Young, Hesse McGraw and Michael Peters were mostly people recommended to him by friends. In short, it was the standard who you know game. We had to fill out application forms, though. Still, Richard did pick one or two associates from among submitters he didn't know, and Kerry James Marshall, did likewise, I'm fairly certain. (He's the excellent illumagist who was the only other master artist present during my stay (a composer having disappointingly dropped out for some reason). So it's worth writing the center or going to its website, to find out how to apply for either a residency or an associateship.

Physically, the center consists of interestingly blend-with- nature buildings emerging out of dense palmettoey Florida vegetation, planked walkways of the kind associated with beaches connecting them. It includes a library (with computers and Internet-access), field house (which was the Kostelanetz group's work room), painters' studio, sculptors' studio, theatre, dance studio, recording studio, computer room, administration building and dining hall, plus clumps of very nice motel-like rooms for associates, and three cottages for master artists.

I spent the best part of my ACA time in the field house or at a computer (Kostelanetz supervising me and the rest of his charges beautifully, via encouragement only). While in the field house, I worked on poems. I spent my time at computers learning Photo Shop from Ernst (with lots of help from other associates) and applying what I learned to turning out new visio-mathematical poems, and--later--finding out how to make computer videos from Young, which enabled me to make a crude short on what I'm trying to do in my long division poems. This I presented at a show&tell thing at the end of our stay that was open to the public (in conjunction with an exhibit of our work). An unprolific poet generally lucky to do three new poems in a year, I got ten new ones done in my three weeks at ACA, three or four of them major (for me), plus three collaborations with Bennett (no one escaped collaborating with him!) that I also deem important, and parts of some quite intriguing group efforts.

I spent a lot of near-best time gabbing with and viewing the work of fellow artists, including those in the very talented, if not as wacked-out as we, Marshall group. The food was super-good, too, though not fancy. And we even had a field trip; it was to the Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive in Miami, which had lots of terrific visual poems and related matter not there when I last was. The only negative of my stay was that no bigtime arts patron took a gander at my work and decided, on the spot, to become my Prince Ludwig II. But, hey, visibility is starting to seem more and more not totally impossible for us visual poets! So, watch out, world!