SotA aims to provide a learning space that is equitable and caring and radical in response to a world that is not.
Our 2025 Session will be held May 10-18
We will open applications in late October
Every May we build and sustain a community of experimental learning where artists learn, work, and live communally in Black Mountain, NC, on the historic first site of Black Mountain College. Faculty, staff, and students live communally in one lodge, and we all help sustain the community through some kind of work service. Instead of a traditional classroom environment, we support a collectively built and self-directed approach to learning which gives opportunity for all participants to learn and teach, where faculty and staff attend classes, and students teach pop-up classes.
Much of SotA’s shape and pace has formed in relief of the restrictive and oppressive tendencies we’ve all experienced in institutional learning, and we create a different kind of experience. We are hosting a community that aims to be equitable and safe(r) for those most marginalized in institutional learning spaces. We work to foster a community free of traditional hierarchies, where we can collectively nurture our imaginations, and learn, teach, and grow together.