Visitors 27
11 photos, 4 videos
Stony Vista is a scenic mountain top overlook only a few minutes from US Route 50 in Hampshire County, West Virginia. This extraordinary view of Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania with a 260 degree panorama has uncommon beauty. LDBrownArts made this remote location available to groups of artists, musicians, writers and others seeking seclusion in nature for creative and/or spiritual inspiration.
Stony Vista – Story & Mission Statement
In 1971 artist and choreographer, LD Brown, conceptualized a fine art facility that would serve as an incubator for the artistically creative from novice to professional. The idea was to create a venue for visual, performing and literary artists desiring a meeting place to interact with other artists, perform and/or display their work to the public. While this concept predated the Internet, it retained relevance in the digital age because the inherent efficiencies of online interaction cannot provide tactile experiences, which feed and inspire the creative mind. Unlike a community arts council, which seeks to promote local art consumption, LD Brown’s focus was to create an “arts environment” devoted to stimulating artists via face-to-face interaction for instructional collaboration or simple supportive socializing.
The name LD Brown Arts was founded in 2001 to accomplish this mission and in 2003 launched it’s first live performance venue called Performer’s Studio (see gallery on this website) in Romney, West Virginia. The project was possible only due to low production costs in a small town setting. LD Brown Arts Photography subsidized this project for years.
In 2012, LD Brown Arts installed a double-wide classroom building on this extraordinary mountain top parcel two hours from the Washington DC Beltway. Named Stony Vista, this private retreat had no utilities but held studio events. Due to poor health, the project was postponed indefinitely.
