Located in Bandon, on the Southern Oregon Coast, this hand-built driftwood fishing shack, artist studio & flower garden was lovingly restored and reimagined by artist Topher Sinkinson from 2021–2025. In addition to being Topher’s residence and studio, the South Jetty Cottage was home to an Artist Residency program that housed creatives from around the world. In the Summer of 2024 it was featured on HBO’s Beach Cottage Chronicles. The cottage, studio and flower garden were passed on to new owners in Summer 2025, but the four-year project has been documented here.
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Artist Residencies
An Artist Residency at the South Jetty Cottage gave working artists, filmmakers & writers the opportunity to live and work outside of their everyday places, providing them with time to reflect, research, or create work.
Artist Residencies at the South Jetty Cottage were seasonal and by invitation only.
The South Jetty Cottage resident artists included Wayne Koestenbaum (F22), Niki Ford (S23) & Sam Ashby (F23).
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Artist Retreats
An Artist Retreat at the South Jetty Cottage provided working artists, filmmakers & writers a special discounted nightly rate, which gave them an opportunity to step back from their everyday and reflect, research and develop conceptual ideas for future work in the peace and quiet of this oceanfront cottage.
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Vacation Stays
South Jetty Cottage was available to rent for short-term Vacation Stays which were what make the Artist Residency program possible - all profits from Cottage rentals funded this multi-disciplinary, site-specific program.
“I feel powerfully the presence of the aesthetic philosophy underlying this cottage, studio and garden. I’m reading, reflecting, walking, sitting, writing, photographing, filming.”
— Wayne Koestenbaum, Fall 2022 Artist-in-Residence
Inspired by Derek Jarman’s epic garden-by-the-sea at Prospect Cottage, the garden at the South Jetty Cottage is permeable and ever changing. Located in Zone 9b, and in an area nicknamed “The Banana Belt”, a wide range of plants can be grown here, as long as they are OK with wind and and the salty air it pushes inland. Protea, Leucadendron, Poppies (Danish Flag, Icelandic, California, Oriental), Sea Holly, Anemone, Aliums, Snapdragons, Kniphofia, Cardoon, Gunnera, Scabiosa, Agave, Foxglove, Lavender, Rock Rose and a Succulent Rock Garden are the highlights alongside native Manzanita and Mullien — all set amongst gravel paths and a raised deck seating area to take it all in.
