Bamboo House Residency
QCAF Residency Site 002
The Paul McGregor – Bamboo House Residency is an interdisciplinary, invite-only program that honors queer legacy, design, and storytelling. Located on Coastguard Walk in Fire Island Pines, the home was built in 1966 by legendary hairstylist and cultural figure Paul McGregor, and designed by iconic queer architect Horace Gifford. Today, it is stewarded by McGregor’s granddaughter, August, and a chosen family of SCAD-trained artists.
This residency centers rest, research, and creation within a living archive — a space where memory and making converge. Artists are invited not only to create, but to contribute to a broader cultural lineage rooted in care and historical reverence.
Residency Structure
Season: September through May
Length: 4–12 weeks, flexible based on artist proposal
Capacity: 5 residents at a time (private bedrooms, shared common spaces)
Format: Interdisciplinary and site-responsive
Access: Invite-only; current residents include August West and her collaborators, Grace Brese, Fiona Gorman, Lærke Lillelund, Blayne Planit, and Hana Hart, along with QCAF founder Marc R. Christensen.
Program Focus
This residency doubles as a long-term archival initiative. Residents engage in storytelling, design, performance, and cultural documentation — producing works that explore both personal and collective queer histories tied to Fire Island.
A Living Archive in Real Time
All work produced — whether writing, visual art, performance, or objects — will be documented and preserved through QCAF’s Living Archive. Select works will be available for public view and purchase at the Visitors Center, with proceeds supporting both artists and QCAF’s ongoing mission.
Residents share their work through:
On-site activations at Bamboo House
Gallery exhibitions at the Visitors Center
Site-specific performances or presentations
Contributions to future QCAF publications and archival projects
Exhibitions
Some homes are more than homes — they are portals to legacy.
Paul McGregor and Horace Gifford shaped not just a house, but a language of queer beauty. Fire Island deserves to be remembered by those who lived, dreamed, and created here. The past still echoes in these rooms, and the future is being designed in real time. These SCAD-trained artists made a choice to return, to remember, and to create in reverence. Queer memory is fragile — and this house knows how to hold it. Design is not decoration, it’s documentation — and the Bamboo House is proof.