Nurturing Community: Ensuring SotA's Future

In October of 2015, eighteen artists, writers, creatives, and educators gathered in Black Mountain North Carolina to build the foundation for a new school. Together, they constructed the framework for the first session and the foundation for SotA’s future. Every spring, we build and sustain a school of experimental learning where artists work and live communally.

SotA models the world we long for. Each year, we come to the community to raise money to support our next session. This year, we're raising eight thousand dollars to sustain our current model, which allows 40% of students to attend for free.

We hold our sessions on the original BMC campus, and it is powerful to be on that land, in their classrooms, dancing across the same lawn they danced across. While this project grew from that seed, we are responding to the very different needs of our current world. Much of SotA’s shape and pace has formed in relief of the oppressive tendencies we’ve all experienced in institutional learning. We create an alternative experience.

Our 2025 session will offer seven classes, which are proposed by volunteer faculty through our open application process. The session will be run by ten volunteer staff members who support the kitchen, garden, operations, and general care. We have roles, but all of us teach; all of us cook and clean; all of us lead in a community that is imaginative, open, caring, and adaptive.

Your Donation Will Support:

Our goal with this fundraiser is to sustain our current programming. Income from 27 students paying $575 each will cover 65% of our budget. We are fundraising to cover the other 35%. Your donation will support 12 full scholarships, and 17 stipends for our volunteer faculty and staff.

Show your love to SotA. Your donation helps sustain this radical, life-affirming space.