accommodations

camping

We have a beautiful landscape for tent-camping, with cleared paths and campsites tucked in the trees, up on the hill, or back by the pond. Bring your own tent with a rain fly, tarp, sleeping bag, and any other camping gear that you need. We do allow van-campers! Vans must stay in the camp parking lot near the road.

We can get heavy rainstorms and chilly nights here during camp, so be prepared! Seal your seams, and bring quality tarps and rain-flies, personal rain gear and boots, and extra warm layers. Residents will be given a detailed list of suggestions.

MEALS

The food here will blow you away, and it’s always a memorable part of camp. We provide three delicious, creative vegetarian meals each day. Snacks, coffee, and tea are made available all day.

Breakfast is a rotation of eggs or potatoes, loaded oatmeal, yogurt/granola, or maybe something special! Lunches and dinners are a wide variety of veggies, beans, rice, potatoes, pastas, soups, and wraps. We provide lots of fresh fruit and we have fresh veggie salads with greens growing right in the garden at camp. Meals are planned and prepared by our kitchen staff, and served buffet-style in our large outdoor Picnic Pavilion.

There is also a grocery store in town and some snack storage at camp, if you need anything extra for yourself. There is no cooking of meat at camp, but you can store your own jerky, get fried chicken at the deli in town, or a burger at the bar.

BATH & toilet FACILITIES

Water comes from a well and runs to taps at the Water Grove in the center of camp, as well as in the kitchen, and at the studio barn. The Water Grove has running water at a utility sink for washing clothes, filling water jugs, or brushing your teeth. There is a solar-heated shower and a curtained-off space with a mirror for changing. We also take frequent trips to the lake to swim and bathe, and there is a coin laundry in town.

Toilets are either in outhouses or in open-air outdoor privies. We use a composting toilet system, layering with sawdust in the toilets, and then layering with hay in a composting corral. The sawdust keeps it from smelling, and it’s truly a pleasurable way to poop in the woods. All privies and outhouses have a hand washing station nearby.

Shared Daily Chores

Resident artists and staff all come together in our picnic pavilion for three hearty, delicious meals each day, prepared by our kitchen staff in our outdoor kitchen. After lunch, we all work together to complete the simple daily chores that keep camp running. Chores are assigned on a rotating basis, and only take about 30 minutes to one hour each day. Chores might include helping the kitchen staff wash dishes or prep for dinner, filling and hauling water jugs, collecting firewood, helping to clear a trail, or maintaining the composting toilets (we call it “poop patrol” and it’s really not that bad, we promise!)

STUDIO SPACE

For the Clay Workshop, we share the Studio Barn and the covered “Clay Cathedral” and Kiln Sheds, along with outdoor space. For Independent Residents we share the A-frame, the rustic Grillikota or “Witches Hut,” the large covered Picnic Pavilion (between meals), plenty of outdoor space to set up, and the “Oak Tree Theater” stage in the woods for performances. Electricity is available in our Studio Barn and A-frame, and Wifi is available under the crab apple tree, or in town at the Ewen Library.

All residents have access to indoor and outdoor shared studio spaces, use of shop tools, electricity, and assorted hardware. Local transportation is also provided for field trips, touring local workshops, and going to the lake. See Projects pages (Clay, Independent) for details.

collaborative Sustainable building projects

Staff and Residents may work on collaborative sustainable building projects during the residency, such as fixing up discarded Forest Service picnic tables, constructing a lumber rack for donated wood storage, or welding burner brackets from scrap metal for our converted gas kiln.

We value being as sustainable and low-impact on the environment as possible, and in using our creativity to build what we need with what we already have at hand. This is a remote area far from many resources, but the community here is cooperative, skilled and resourceful. We use reclaimed, salvaged, and local materials whenever possible, and we have had so much help from our local UP friends!

These projects are either directly related to your workshop or are optional, but if you want to join in and help out, you might learn some new skills!

CAMPY Fun

Breakfast bells ring to welcome the day, trombones sound to lead you on adventures, and the croaking of frogs and coyote calls will lull you to sleep at night.

Gather on the deck of the A-frame for afternoon music circles and beautiful sunsets, convene in the picnic pavilion before dinner for “camptail hour” drinks and presentations by your fellow residents, and cluster around the campfire for songs and s’mores at night.

It stays light outside until almost 10pm here in summer…but once those stars come out, wow! The Perseid Meteor shower happens each year in August for extraordinary star-gazing. We’ve even seen the Northern Lights! There are miles of maintained and marked hiking trails through the woods and meadows, with spaces to explore, relax, and experience this gorgeous environment along the way.