About Haystack

Located on Stinson Neck in Deer Isle, ME, the award-winning campus, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes, was added to the National Historic Register in February 2006.

Built on a cliff overlooking Jericho Bay in the Atlantic Ocean, Haystack’s campus has served as a muse to many who have come here to create. The school is located on 40 quiet, wooded acres in the small island community of Deer Isle. The campus was designed in 1960 by noted architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, and in 1994 was awarded the American Institute of Architects Twenty-Five Year Award.

The dramatic central stairway, cascading down to the swirling waters below, grabs your attention first. It is flanked on either side by weathered cedar-shingled studios, a spacious dining hall, and the student and faculty cabins. Standing at the top, one can view the white and pink granite shores along Merchants Row, an archipelago of 30 or 40 islands peppering the horizon. The 100-seat Gateway Auditorium is a central gathering place for lectures, performances and end-of-session auctions. Haystack’s library, rebuilt in 1997, holds over 1000 titles, including fine craft books, exhibition catalogs, art journals and scholarly monographs. Also on site is a well-equipped store that provides artists’ supplies and quality books.

Between June and August, please consider joining us for a Wednesday tour of the Haystack campus if you are in the area.

“Haystack is like a marina that floats over land instead of water, a village of shingled pavilions – workshops and dormitory cabins – all lifted up a couple of feet on posts and connected by a network of decks and walkways… The building was instantly accepted as a classic and became a major influence on the American architecture of the 1960’s.”

~ Robert Campbell, The Boston Globe