Make Room for Growth
Ziggy Attias, Founder, Chateau d’Orquevaux Residency, Chateauorquevaux@gmail.com
Alyssa Maurer, Interdisciplinary Artist, Attends French Artist Residency
Pittsburgh artist Alyssa Maurer has been attending the Chateau d’Orquevaux Artist Residency in Orquevaux, France, a program for visual artists, writers, and musicians.
Maurer was selected for the juried residency from nearly 500 applicants from over 30 countries. The residency runs from March 9th to 29th, 2026.
Chateau d’Orquevaux, located three hours southeast of Paris, was built in 1897 as a hunting lodge in the architectural style of Napoleon III. It was home to the Saint-Exupère family, whose most famous member—Antoine de Saint-Exupery—was the author of “The Little Prince.”
Maurer is an interdisciplinary artist. She has been working since 2013 and works in photographic mediums, written and spoken word, collage, and mixed media integration.
“The experience was self-driven with ample guidance and support from other residents while staying in the inspiring and quiet landscape of rural France. I can’t believe the amount of work I did there, let alone the feedback I received,” Maurer said. “The residency’s atmosphere encourages experimentation and supports an international group of artists with a broad range of styles. You have the option to stay quiet and alone or to walk into the living room of the chateau and have philosophical or playful conversations. It was mind-altering and refreshing. Phones were rarely in view, presence to precedence, and polar plunging in the cold was exhilarating.”
Maurer is a self-taught photographer and artist hailing from rural Pennsylvania. She attended Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA, for her undergraduate studies. After receiving her degrees, she moved on to pursue a master's degree fully funded at the University of Cincinnati School of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning. There, she received the Beverly Helmbold Erschell Endowed Scholarship for exceptional academic and creative excellence. Following her graduation during the Covid pandemic, resources to continue pursuing the arts were limited. She garnered a wide range of experiences to fund her artistic prowess including but not limited to gas station cashier, Chipotle manager, stand-up comedian, bartender, and welder. She has worked in various media, including painting, collage, performance art, installation art, assemblage, and photography. After a hiatus of several years, she is currently working to combine cameraless, analog photography with mixed media and hot work, focusing on themes of presence, temporality, femininity, and nature vs. industry. She has gone back to Pittsburgh area colleges to teach as an adjunct professor in communications studies, specializing in teaching analogous photographic practices, visual media studies, and independent practice.
“The Chateau provided all the answers I was aimlessly looking for back home,” Maurer said. “I needed a break from hustling to survive and was fortunate to find what I needed to live and work as an artist while being in the presence of so many talented people. This experience brought me peace of mind and the confidence to continue pursuing art as a mode of observing life. I think it retrained my brain to trust people again and be open to collaboration at any turn.”
Artist-in-residence programs provide artists a time of reflection, exploration, and production away from their usual environment and obligations. They enable participants to meet other practicing artists. Some, like the Chateau d’Orquevaux residency, also emphasize a multi-layered cultural experience.
“I want to be certain that this residency empowers creativity and enables artists to work in new ways or on a specific body of work,” said Ziggy Attias, the owner and artistic director of the residency. We strive to create an atmosphere where artists can work unencumbered, can bounce ideas off other artists from other continents, share experiences, and bond as a community,” Attias said.
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