2023 Artists in Residence
2024 full Artist in Residence lineup is coming soon!
This year we welcome two artists-in-residence who will share their work in a variety of ways throughout the week. Vincent Crotty, Irish plein air painter, will capture live scenes of the festival with on-site paintings of concerts, classes, and jam sessions. Maine luthier Jonathan Cooper will be at work building a violin, in a dedicated space where everyone is invited to drop in to watch the process unfold. Vincent and Jon will each teach an afternoon enrichment class to demonstrate some of their creative processes and techniques. In addition, each artist will donate one of their creations to the festival to benefit the scholarship fund.
Vincent Crotty

Vincent Crotty is an Irish-born artist from Kanturk, County Cork, who immigrated to Boston in 1990. Regarded for his landscapes and nocturnes, streetscapes and figurative paintings, he paints with bold and fluid brushstrokes, balanced by sensitive color. His paintings reveal a remarkable understanding of light — transforming everyday subject matter into images that are memorable and moving.
Vincent has been exhibiting his paintings in solo and group shows for more than 35 years — at galleries in Ireland and throughout the US. His work has been recognized with awards from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the John Stobart Foundation, the Charitable Irish Society, Plein Air Magazine, and juried art competitions internationally.
Vincent has given workshops and painting demonstrations in the US, Canada, and Ireland, and he currently teaches weekly classes at the New Art Center in Newton, Mass. As a long-time faculty member at the Catskills Irish Arts Week in New York, he developed a specialty in the live painting of traditional music and dance events. Together with his wife, dancer Kieran Jordan, he has brought this vision to many festivals, céilís, and music gatherings — capturing a sense of energy, place, and time, with the here-and-now excitement of music and dance in motion.
Also a portrait artist, he has given portrait demonstrations at the Harvard University Art Museums, and his portraiture has been commissioned by the Boston College Burns Library, the Irish Cultural Center of New England, and the Michael J. Quill Cultural Centre in New York. In addition, Vincent has created set designs for theater companies and touring productions including Atlantic Steps, Cork City Ballet, the Huntington Theater Company, Kieran Jordan Dance, A Christmas Celtic Sojourn, and his paintings were used on the set of the movie Mystic River.
Jon Cooper

Jon grew up in New York during the 1950s and 60s. He moved to Maine for college and eventually decided to call it home. Taking a break from playing guitar at a rehearsal one day, Jon picked up a friend’s viola and was intrigued. He went out the next day and bought a fiddle. Jon taught himself to play by ear, and became an accomplished fiddler, winning competitions throughout Maine and New Hampshire.
Jon’s curiosity led him to investigate creating instruments, which he pursued in Cremona, Italy with luthier Gregg Alf for three years. Twenty five years later he continues to develop his craft, carving in his shop overlooking Presumpscot Pond.
Jon has now made over 400 instruments. He has a variety of models for violins, violas and cellos, an extensive tone wood selection and attractive varnishing techniques. Jon has mastered the perfect blend of tradition and today by applying his knowledge of sound production with the needs of modern players. His instruments are very popular among professional musicians in every setting; orchestral performers, fiddlers, chamber musicians, and educators.
The Acadia Festival of Traditional Music & Dance is governed by Friends of the Acadia Trad Festival, a Maine nonprofit corporation, and supported by Fractured Atlas, a national 501(c)(3) non-profit devoted to empowering arts organizations. Website art by Anabelle Keimach and Annelise Papinsick.