Summer Sessions

Welcome

Demonstrations are an essential part of the workshops.

Last June after the fifth graders from Deer Isle-Stonington Elementary School (15 students in all) came for their end-of-the-year field trip, we received a large envelope full of thank you notes from them. This was a small class—about half the average size for Island schools—and they were very enthusiastic about their visit.

This field trip to Haystack is an annual event where kids get to visit the studios and sometimes see demonstrations too. It’s thrilling for them to see how materials are transformed and how makers from all around the world come to work day and night. At the end of the morning, the class has a picnic by the shore, and we supply cookies from our kitchen for dessert. In one the most memorable of the thank you notes, one of the girls described what she had experienced and learned in the studios, concluding her letter by saying she couldn’t wait until she was 18 so she could enroll in a workshop. “Remind me when it’s time…” she wrote.

Sometime all of us need to be reminded when its time. For you, it might be this catalog arriving in the mail, or seeing it in someone else’s studio. It’s like a call to adventure—when you realize that it’s time to be part of a creative community at Haystack, where makers from beginners to advanced professionals can investigate and experiment. This year, in addition to our workshop sessions and conference, we are adding a new open studio residency. Whatever program you attend, you will find an institution where studio work and creative process are central.

Who wouldn’t want to be reminded of that opportunity? Come join us this summer.

Stuart Kestenbaum, Director

Haystack's core summer workshops include one- and two-week sessions in blacksmithing, clay, fibers, glass, graphics, metals, and wood. Classes are open to adults 18 years or older of all skill levels - from beginners to advanced professionals. Studios are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with classes scheduled Monday through Friday. The Haystack community is made up of approximately 85 participants, including staff, students, and internationally known faculty artists. Instructors determine the format of their workshops, as described in the course catalog and on our Summer Sessions by Workshop page.

Breakfast and lunch are buffet-style.

Haystack's Evening Program Series runs throughout the summer and includes slide lectures by the faculty, as well as presentations and performances by visiting artists and writers. The school also sponsors programs in the spring and fall for the local community and Maine residents.

If you would like to receive a catalog or be added to our eNewsletter mailing list for notifications, please contact us at haystack@haystack-mtn.org or (207) 348-2306.

Sharing meals together is another way to meet session participants and get to know one another outside of the studios.

“The experience is extraordinarily different, very intense. You know that you are on a voyage with other people for a defined time. This gives you the freedom to take risks.”

~ Cynthia Schira, Weaver, Haystack Life Trustee