Stonehouse Residency for the Contemporary Arts

About Us ~ Mission Statement ~ Guidelines ~ Application

47694 Dunlap Road ~ Miramonte, CA 93641

ABOUT THE FOUNDERS

John Huneke has recently retired as a scientist with Evans Analytical Group in Sunnyvale CA and currently consults with government research programs.

Julie Harcos is an elementary school teacher in Hayward CA. Over the last decade, both have become quite entangled in contemporary visual arts.

Julie has been involved in the California Model Arts Program Network, representing the Hayward Unified school District within the larger Alameda County program. She participated in the granting process making Hayward a part of the MAP Network, the goal being to establish an articulated arts program, integrating music, visual and performing arts, and dance, at the K-12 levels. Julie has coordinated presentations through the California Arts Project (East Bay), training teachers to teach art effectively in their classrooms. The primary mission of Stonehouse Residency to provide teachers time for their art practices and to expand their portfolios, fits well with the goals of these programs.

In addition to their personal art collecting activities, Jack has been a docent at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and both Jack and Julie have participated in SFMOMA’s Society for the Encouragement of Contemporary Arts. They were also both regular guides at the diRosa Art and Nature Preserve in Napa’s Carneros region. All of their energies are now focused on the Stonehouse Residency program.

Together, Julie and Jack have amassed a reasonably large collection of contemporary visual art by a number of young emerging and mid-career artists, primarily from Northern California. They also have an ongoing interest in (and collections of) Oaxacan/Mexican art and American art pottery.

A (VERY) BRIEF HISTORY

The Stonehouse Residency was instituted in part to enable the founders to keep in touch with the current art scene. Professional friendships drew them to the area of Miramonte, CA, just outside Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park, as a possible area of retirement. Jack has roots in the nearby San Joaquin valley, and the Miramonte region was very attractive, in spite of the driving distance from either LA or San Francisco art scenes.

Initially the residency was imagined as a few tens of acres with a new home/gallery and outlying studios, only a few miles away from exhilarating National Park settings. The property that became available dramatically changed the picture. Stonehouse Residency is located on a large (173 acres) mountain ranch with oak, chaparral, and Ponderosa pine (at 47694 Dunlap Road, Miramonte, CA 93641). The large, two-story main house of the ranch was built on a knoll with a grand view of both the Sierra high country and the San Joaquin valley below, with the coastal mountain range visible on the far side. The undeveloped portion of the ranch extends a mile back to Burns Flat, which is a large oak meadow with the year around Mill Creek running through it. And still, the National parks are only a few miles distant.

Prior to the settlement in the late 1800’s of the region between Squaw Valley and the National Parks (which includes the towns of Squaw Valley, Dunlap, Miramonte, Badger, and Pinehurst), the area was home to groups of Mono and Yokut Indians. A sign of their use of Burns Flat remains in the large grinding rock used for preparing acorn meal.

The surrounding region was also the home of extensive Sequoia redwood forests, which were the base of local industry at the turn of the century and were seriously over harvested. The founding of the Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks preserved large blocks of the Sequoias, including some of the largest trees in the world, the General Sherman tree and the General Grant tree, the nations Christmas tree. The Clinton administration recently added further protections, including creating the Kings Canyon National Monument within the Sequoia National Forest.

Outside the National Parks, the land has long been settled and put to use for logging, ranching and farming enterprises. The ranch on which the Stonehouse Residency is located includes the remains of apple orchards, a large agricultural pond near the meadow, and the remainder of an extensive complex of old chicken coops.

The previous owner built the main house for retirement, driving up from LA and working on weekends over the course of several years in the late sixties. It is a two-story house. On the second floor are three private bedrooms and communal facilities. On the ground floor are the master bedroom, bathrooms, kitchen, pantry, utility room/office, a dining room, and a great room with a cathedral ceiling and a magnificent fireplace of rock and cobbles from Mill Creek. The chimney, which services three indoor fireplaces and an outside barbecue, is a key feature of the house, riding the ridgeline of the house like the keel of a boat. The outside of the home is faced with the same stone, providing the stolid aspect of a baronial manse on its secluded hill.

The original two-car garage between the house and an adjoining shop is now a library, and the shop has become a gallery/art storage space. The covered patio remains as a communal gathering area. Near the house are two very large, old chicken coops which have been outfitted to become rustic general purpose studios. Near the coops is an older house from the turn of the century.

About Us ~ Mission Statement ~ Guidelines ~ Application

Directions ~ Map ~ Contact Us

47694 Dunlap Road ~ Miramonte, CA 93641