“We can’t get people into private studios, but we could could create a community,” he said.

MacDowell will try to import at least some of the atmosphere of its longtime setting. It will pay for food ordered by fellows for the first and last virtual dinners and will send picnic baskets like the kind used when meals are brought to cabins on the MacDowell grounds in Peterborough.

“I love the idea of the package! So thoughtful,” says Shaughnessy, who lives in Verona, New Jersey.

Another leading retreat, Yaddo, has no plans for a virtual residency. Based in Saratoga Springs, New York, Yaddo has been shut down since March and no physical residencies are planned before 2021. Yaddo president Elaina Richardson said that the residency continues to have online events such as dinners and educational discussions but was skeptical about a virtual fellowship.

“I’m intrigued by the idea, but I’m not sure how it would work,” she says. “You’re not in the protective bubble that Yaddo exists to provide you with.”

Takasugi, who lives in Newton, Massachusetts, had planned to use his MacDowell residency to work on music and arrangements for a festival in Germany this fall. But the festival has been postponed, leaving him more time to finish. Meanwhile, he continues to write at home and looks forward to sharing ideas with the other virtual fellows.

“Everything here is closed down here, and there’s very little socializing, so this is a chance to let people hear what I’m doing,” he said. “I just like the idea of not letting the virus stop us from these kinds of programs. I want to try and help make this work. That’s why I’m going to do this.”