Upcoming Events
Home School Retreat
We often hear that homeschooling families would like to participate in the programming enjoyed by our residential schools - here is your chance! Homeschool Field Days offers the same immersive experiences - meals, lodging, and programming! Families will participate in educational workshops centered around environmental literacy, Appalachian arts, and sustainable agriculture.
The pricing for this program includes Kentucky standards based programming, 6 meals for each child and parent, and lodging for each child and parent. (Children and parents will share a room in our historic dorms.)
Not wanting to stay in our dorms? Alternate lodging options are available, please reach out if interested to madison@pinemountainsettlementschool.com.
Heritage in Hand: A Traditional Arts Week
A week of Appalachian craft, taught by the people who still do it by hand — stained glass, blacksmithing, wild basketry, and natural dye, in small classes led by working artists and educators
Week at a glance
Instructional days per workshopQuilting with Natural Dyes from the Garden
Join Jessamine Michler for a two-day workshop at Pine Mountain Settlement School. Together we'll harvest flowers from the garden to dye fabric, then sew pinwheel quilt blocks from what we've colored by hand.
Participants don't need to bring any materials — everything is provided.
About the instructor
Jessamine Michler is a textile artist, educator, and curator of sustainable art practices. Her work with plant-dyed textiles explores how growing and harvesting materials for contemporary art and craft provides a unique place-based color palette, while connecting us to landscape, agricultural heritage, and community.
Approximate itinerary
| 9 AM – 12 PM | Harvest flowers in the garden and prepare dye pots (Draper) |
| 1 – 3 PM | Dye the fabric and hang it to dry overnight (Draper) |
| 9 AM – 12 PM | Sew quilt blocks (Sewing Room, Draper) |
| 1 – 3 PM | Finish quilt blocks (Sewing Room, Draper) |
Monday Night Arts Jam
Monday Night Arts Jam
Looking for a creative way to spend your Monday evenings? Join us for Monday Night Arts Jam, a free after-school program where young people can explore visual art, learn traditional Appalachian music, share a meal, and build community.
Participants ages 8-18 will enjoy hands-on art classes, a free dinner, and beginner-friendly music instruction in a welcoming environment. Whether you've never picked up an instrument or you're ready to build your skills, everyone is welcome.
Mondays | September 14 - December 7
4:30 to 7:00 p.m.
Schedule
4:30 to 5:30 p.m. - Art Class
5:30 to 6:00 p.m. - Dinner
6:00 to 7:00 p.m. - Music Class
Students can learn:
Banjo
Guitar
Fiddle
Ukulele
All instruments, art supplies, and dinner are provided at no cost.
Monday Night Arts Jam is made possible through a partnership between Pine Mountain Settlement School, the Kentucky Arts Council, and Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAM).
Space is limited, so register today to reserve your spot!
The Gloaming
The Gloaming
Join us for an evening of art, music, and magic in the woods. Wander through the outdoor art exhibits during our free art walk, from 8-9 PM.
A $60 ticket gets you a farm-to-table dinner at 7 PM followed by a night walk through the illuminated art exhibits as dusk settles over the mountain.
Free admission (8–9 PM art walk) | $60 dinner + night art walk (6-9ish PM)
Now accepting artists!
Apply below!
Call for Art: The Gloaming - A Light and Art Trail at Pine Mountain Settlement School
We invite artists, makers, and creative practitioners to submit proposals for The Gloaming, a temporary light and art trail at the historic grounds of Pine Mountain Settlement School, a designated National Historic Site in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. “The gloaming” describes the transformation of dusk and twilight. This exhibition will unfold along an outdoor trail, activating the landscape with site-responsive works that engage light, shadow, and atmosphere.
We are seeking works that respond to the land and its sensory dimensions at twilight. Projects that are immersive, and attuned to place are the highlights of what we are looking for. Installations will be experienced on foot as visitors move through the trail during dusk hours. We are especially welcome to proposals in, but not limited to:
light-based installation, sculpture, performance-based work, land art, and interdisciplinary practices. Selected artists will have the opportunity to exhibit work in a rare, historically significant Appalachian landscape with layered cultural and ecological narratives.
Guidelines:
Works must be suitable for outdoor installation and low-light conditions.
Installations should be safe and durable for the exhibition period.
Artists should consider environmental impact and accessibility in their proposals.
We are seeking thoughtful, resonant works that do not simply occupy space, but listen to it.
We look forward to your vision for The Gloaming.
The event date for The Gloaming is the 26th (Saturday) of September, expect to bring your artwork on the day of 25th (Friday) and assist with install of your piece. You are expected to stay for the day of assemble and disassemble. Housing and lodging are provided from the 25th to the 27th.
Hearth & Holler- Photography
Photography with Malcom Wilson
This workshop assumes you know the basics of shutter speed, aperture and ISO. This workshop concentrates on the art and power of photography. Requirements are that you understand the basics and have an adjustable camera, either mirrorless or DSLR with interchangeable lenses. Feel free to ask any additional questions you might have.
Hearth and Holler: A Traditional Arts Weekend
Join us for a weekend of arts!!
Schedule for each class coming soon!
The Joy Regime: A Writing Workshop
The Joy Regime
At such a joy-stealing—even joy-crushing—time, how might we cultivate joy, especially as many of us are overwhelmed, unable to write from emotions other than grief and rage? How might we reclaim joy without guilt or shame, much less write from such an "inappropriate" emotion when joy might be seen as betrayal of pain given the state of the world? How might you give yourself permission not only to experience joy but to write it onto the page? In our time together guided by award-winning poet Nickole Brown, we'll explore how a number of poets face this dilemma to find their joy and delight, despite (and even because of) the news. Our time together will be dedicated to sharing pragmatic, achievable steps you can take, and then we'll try our hand at writing and sharing words that proclaim joy as necessary, because it is. Because joy—like poetry—can be an act of resistance, can be a way to move towards solidarity and survival and justice, and ultimately, may well be a refusal to surrender what might make life worth the fight to keep living.
Nickole Brown received her MFA from the Vermont College of Fine Arts, studied literature at Oxford University, and was the editorial assistant for the late Hunter S. Thompson. She worked at Sarabande Books for ten years. She’s the author of Sister, first published in 2007 with a new edition reissued in 2018. Her second book, Fanny Says (BOA Editions), won the Weatherford Award for Appalachian Poetry in 2015. Currently, she lives in Asheville, NC, where she volunteers at several different animal sanctuaries. Since 2016, she’s been writing about these animals, resisting the kind of pastorals that made her (and many of the working-class folks from the Kentucky that raised her) feel shut out of nature and the writing about it. To Those Who Were Our First Gods, a chapbook of these first nine poems, won the 2018 Rattle Prize, and her essay-in-poems, The Donkey Elegies, was published by Sibling Rivalry Press in 2020. Her poem “Parable” won the 2024 Treehouse Climate Action Poem Prize and was published as part of the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day initiative. Every summer, she teaches as part of the low-residency MFA Program at the Sewanee School of Letters in Tennessee. She’s a proud Fellow of the Black Earth Institute and is President of the Hellbender Gathering of Poets, a nonprofit organization that aims to nurture a community hellbent on finding the words that protect and repair our climate-changed world.
Pass it On Natural Dyes Workshop
Join us for a free class on natural dyes! Tour our dye garden, learn how to make a dye bath, and take home naturally dyed samples.
The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, provides support for programs and services to Pine Mountain Settlement School with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Pass it On- Flower Hammering Workshop
Join Maggie Bowling for a unique and fascinating Flower Hammering workshop! In this hands-on, interactive class, participants will dive into the world of natural crafting, using an array of flowers, leaves, and other organic materials to create one-of-a-kind greeting cards that perfectly capture the essence of summer. This workshop is the perfect opportunity to unwind, get creative, and tap into your artistic side. And the best part? It's absolutely free! Materials are provided, so all you need to bring is your imagination and enthusiasm.
Limited spots are available, so be sure to sign up quickly.
Don't miss out on this amazing chance to explore your creativity and take home a beautiful, handmade piece of art!
The Kentucky Arts Council, the state arts agency, provides support for programs and services to Pine Mountain Settlement School with state tax dollars and federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Pass It On: Plantain Oil and Salve Workshop
Please join us for a free workshop to learn how to use plantain- a plant that many consider a weed! In this workshop, participants will learn how to identify plantain, how to make an infused oil, and how to make a salve with the infused oil.
Foraging Weekend
Foraging Weekend at Pine Mountain Settlement School
Spend a weekend learning to see the mountain differently — forage wild edibles, dig into mountain medicinals with Clare, and explore plants & potions with Sydney. Add in bonfires, s'mores, live music from Ben Fugate, and good food all weekend long, and you've got a retreat you won't want to miss.
Spots are limited — come learn what the land has to teach.
