A place where world-renowned artists reside.

Druid Heights, California (USA)

The quirky Druid Heights homes were built in 1954 on the southwestern slopes of Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California, by a carpenter named Roger Sommers and a lesbian poet named Elsa Gidlow. The land was formerly a five-acre chicken farm, later transformed into a large vegetable farm supplying the surrounding area.

Druid Heights was also a refuge for many big names such as poets Kenneth Rexroth and Gary Snyder, writer Catharine MacKinnon, and the bands Eagles and Doobie Brothers. A total of 16 structures were built there, most notably a library, meditation area, gardens, and a reservoir. Druid Heights is now a ruin, with very few remnants of what was once a secluded retreat for artists and writers.

Yaddo, New York (USA)

Financial expert Spencer Trask, the first owner of Yaddo, was the one who named the mansion. Yaddo is a word often pronounced by children, meaning "shadow." To comfort his wife, writer Katrina Trask, after the deaths of four unborn children, Spencer Trask decided to transform Yaddo into a residence and creative space for artists of all artistic fields.

Yaddo is located within a 1.6 square kilometer property.²Yaddo boasts a stunning rose garden and remains a popular tourist attraction. Many renowned figures in the arts have resided and created at Yaddo, and the site has collectively received 66 Pulitzer Prizes, 61 National Book Awards, and one Nobel Prize (awarded to Saul Bellow in 1975)...

Max Gate, Dorset (United Kingdom)

The great English poet Thomas Hardy was born in Higher Bockhampton, Dorset, near Dorchester, but spent his youth in London. At the age of 34, due to health reasons, he returned to Dorset, living in the small house he designed from 1885 to 1928. There, he wrote *Tess of the d'Urbervilles*, *Jude the Obscure*, *The Mayor of Casterbridge*, as well as many other beautiful poems.

Max Gate is now owned by the National Trust, a cultural preservation organization. It still houses many original pieces of furniture from the Thomas Hardy era, while others have been transferred to the Dorset County Museum for study.

Taos, New Mexico (USA)

Taos has long been a haven for Western artists. Its fame stems from the early 20th-century efforts of Mabel Dodge Luhan, a prominent art patron. Taos boasts three art museums and approximately 80 art galleries. Mabel Dodge Luhan's former home, now a hotel, was once occupied by renowned figures such as DH Lawrence, Georgia O'Keefe, and Willa Cather.

Pollock-Krasner House, New York (USA)

The Pollock-Krasner House is known as artists' land. Jackson Pollock, a famous American painter, and his wife, Lee Krasner, also a renowned abstract painter, once lived in this log cabin. The artist couple owned the $5,000 house with the help of collector Peggy Guggenheim, who lent them $2,000 in 1945 and planned it as an ideal workspace.

Jackson Pollock died in 1956 in this house with fewer than six bedrooms. Lee Krasner continued to live and work there until his death in 1984. The house is now managed by the Stony Brook Foundation in New York. In 1994, it was designated a National Historic Landmark.

Dove Cottage (United Kingdom)

Dove Cottage, located in the beautiful Lake District of England, was also the home of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth and his sister Dorothy, where he wrote many of his famous poems in the early 19th century. The siblings lived there from December 1799 to May 1808, a period they considered "simple but intellectually fulfilling."

When William Wordsworth married Mary Hutchinson, Dorothy's childhood friend, in 1802, the house became too small for their three children, and they left the beautiful garden residence to find a more spacious home. After a period of occupation and rental, an admirer of William Wordsworth's talent purchased the house in 1890 and opened it to the public in 1891. The house remains largely unchanged and attracts up to 70,000 visitors annually.

Huong Thao