Connecticut Creative Retreats & Artists-,Writers-, & Researchers-in-Residence
Manor House Inn · Norfolk, Connecticut · Litchfield Hills
Norfolk has been a gathering place for artists, musicians, writers, and thinkers for more than a century. The Battell-Stoeckel Estate has hosted artists, composers, and performers since the 1890s. The Yale Summer School of Music has trained generations of emerging musicians within walking distance of our front door. Infinity Music Hall draws world-class performers to a village of fewer than two thousand people. The tradition of serious creative work happening in this particular corner of Connecticut is not incidental — it is the character of the place.
The Manor House Inn is a natural extension of that tradition.
Residencies at a glance
Artists, Writers, Researchers in Residence program · Expressions of interest now welcome
Disciplines: writing, visual art, music, composition, positive psychology research, conservation research
Residency includes: private room and breakfast · up to seven days · community exchange
Sponsored solo retreats available now · Hosted group creative retreats available now
Eight rooms · Private estate · Norfolk, Connecticut · Litchfield Hills
Artists, Writers, Researchers in Residence
The Manor House Inn offers both informal and formal residencies for creative practitioners and well-being researchers — writers, visual artists, composers, musicians, researchers in positive psychology and conservation — who are engaged in meaningful work and would benefit from time, space, and the particular quality of attention that Norfolk tends to produce.
A Manor House residency includes a private room and daily breakfast for up to seven days. In the spirit of philoxenia — the ancient ethic of generous hospitality between host and guest — we ask one thing in return: that residents share their time or talent with the Norfolk community in a form that fits their work. A reading, a performance, a conversation, a workshop, a walk with a naturalist. The exchange is flexible. The commitment to community is not.
Informal residencies are awarded as availability allows. Simply inquire to express your interest.
Formal residencies, in which you'll be on-site with other creators, are awarded through an application process. Applications for the formal residency program in 2027 will open in March. In the meantime, we welcome expressions of interest from artists, writers, composers, musicians, and researchers who feel drawn to this place and this work.
What Norfolk offers a working artist
Five private acres on a quiet residential street. A library stocked with books that reward slow reading. Trails into the surrounding forests of Connecticut's Northwest Corner. The Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and Yale Summer School of Music as neighbors. The Battell-Stoeckel Estate — one of New England's most storied cultural campuses — a short walk away. Great Mountain Forest, 6,000 acres of protected land, accessible from town.
Norfolk has always been a town that ignites inspiration.
Sponsored Solo Creative Retreats
For creative practitioners who are not yet ready to apply for a formal residency — or whose work doesn't fit the residency model — Manor House offers sponsored solo retreats. A quiet room, breakfast each morning, and the freedom to work without interruption.
In exchange for overnight accommodations, we ask that residents contribute their time or talent to the Norfolk community in some form during their stay. The specifics are arranged in conversation with each guest.
If you are a composer, musician, visual artist, writer, or researcher whose work aligns with Manor House's commitment to culture, conservation, and human flourishing, we'd welcome a conversation.
Inquire about a sponsored retreat →
Hosted Creative Retreats
Manor House is also available for small group creative retreats — gatherings of collaborators, creative teams, or interdisciplinary practitioners who want to work together in a setting that takes their work seriously.
Our property accommodates up to eight overnight guests (or 16 with double-occupancy), with common spaces well-suited to working sessions, critique, and the kind of conversation that only happens when people are finally in the same room without an agenda controlling them. Meals, guided nature experiences, and optional facilitation can be woven into the schedule.
Inquire about a hosted creative retreat →
A note on Norfolk
Norfolk is a village that has chosen, generation after generation, to invest in culture as infrastructure rather than amenity. It is home to one of the oldest continuously operating chamber music festivals in the United States, a library of unusual depth for a town of its size, and land conservation efforts that have preserved the surrounding landscape. Manor House Inn was built in this tradition and operates within it — not as a cultural consumer, but as a contributor.
We are in active partnership with Yale's Cultural Innovation Lab, Infinity Music Hall, and the Battell-Stoeckel Estate as part of a broader effort to establish Norfolk as a designated Cultural District and a prototyping hub for creative innovation in rural Connecticut.
Artists who come here tend to find that Norfolk gets into their work. We think that's the point.
