Finding that Clara Schumann was away, Nevins asked for advice in getting another teacher and was referred to Edward MacDowell, a young American composer.

[2] During their life together, Marian MacDowell realized that quietness and tranquility of the rural settings would positively affect her husband's work.

[2] In 1904, Edward MacDowell began to show evidence of a nervous disorder with bouts of dementia that ended his composing and teaching career.

She conceived of ways to support both artists' need for solitude and for interaction, and transferred the deed of property for Hillcrest Farm to the Edward MacDowell Association.

[7] During twenty-five years she performed more than 400 recitals in the United States and Canada raising money for the endowment of MacDowell Colony of Peterborough.

These clubs, a total of 400 at the peak of their popularity,[9] became to serve as significant donors to the MacDowell Colony and, in turn, brought the arts to their local communities.

Through her unceasing efforts to support both female and male artists in all disciplines, Marian MacDowell became a leading figure for the arts in the United States.

"[11] It was counted in 1997 that, "more 1,300 visual artists (besides lots of writers, composers, film makers and architects) have put in quality time at MacDowell, the country's oldest and largest cultural retreat.

"[6] Among the nationally known artists who were MacDowell fellows are: composers Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, and Amy Beach; printmakers Benny Andrews, Tomei Arai, Milton Avery, Cynthia Back, Robert Cottingham, Janet Fish, and Sandy Gellis; photographers Marion Belanger and Rosalind Solomon; poets Galway Kinnell, Kay Boyle and Edwin Arlington Robinson; novelists Willa Cather, James Baldwin, and Spalding Gray; and playwrights Thornton Wilder, Dorothy and DuBose Heyward, to name a few.

[12] Such American classics as Thornton Wilder's Our Town, Aaron Copland's ballet Billy the Kid, and Dorothy and DuBose Heyward's play Porgy are directly connected to the MacDowell Colony.