Barbara Sullivan (left) works with a student in her fresco workshop, July 2021
Intensive Summer Workshops
Each summer, Monson Arts programs a variety of short intensive workshops in our studios which provide an ideal environment to focus on learning and creative work. Taught by instructors renown in their field, these classes are designed to give participants unhindered time where they don’t have to think about anything other than making. Monson Arts provides all meals and the option of housing right in town within walking distance to all of our facilities. The studios are open 24 hours.
A typical workshop includes 10-15 participants and we are able to host two workshops at a time in our facilities. Sessions begin with dinner on arrival night and conclude before lunch on the final day. Workshops are open to anyone 18 or older and working at any level from beginners to advanced professionals. Enrollment is on a first-come first-served basis.
Painting workshop with Alan Bray, 2018
2024 Summer Workshops
Our lineup of Summer Workshops for 2024 offers many exciting opportunities to work alongside professional artists, writers, and media producers while engaging directly with the North Woods. We will be offering 4-6 day courses in writing and visual arts. New this year, we will be hosting the Conference of Poetry and Learning.
Michael Stasiuk giving a demo during his mixed media workshop, July 2021
The cost to take a workshop includes tuition, room & board, and materials fees. We offer on-campus housing in a private (single) or double (shared with one other person) room. Room availability is limited and filled on a first-come, first-served basis. If you do not need housing, you may register as a day student at a reduced rate. Whether staying on campus or off, all meals are included and prepared by the Quarry Fine Dining restaurant. Fees for materials and supplies will vary for each studio and can range from $25-$100.
REGISTRATION IS CLOSED FOR SUMMER 2024
TUITION, ROOM & BOARD
Varies for each program due to length.
If you are unable to register below because a workshop is full, please contact our office about being on the waitlist. We will let you if space becomes available.
More workshops will be added soon!
Summer 2024 Workshops
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Exploring Borestone’s Mountains, Ponds, and Old Growth Forests through nature journaling, storytelling, and artistic expression
June 16 – 19 (at Borestone)
Would you like to deepen your creative engagement with the Maine woods? This special three-day retreat will immerse participants in the older forests and crystalline ponds of Borestone Mountain. With nature journaling as our foundation, this retreat is open to artists, writers, and creatives. This workshop is offered in partnership with Maine Audubon.
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Building a Painting
$250.00June 21 – June 24
This painting workshop will deal with the progression of making a painting from the initial impulse to the final execution of the work. We will examine the process of thinking, editing, refining, and developing a strategy and process for building a painting. This will include clarification of the intent of the work, preliminary studies (thumb nail sketches) and the final execution of the painting.
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Foreground, Middle Ground, Background: Artist’s Books and the Monson Landscape
$250.00July 19 – July 22
We will explore the beauty around us and add to it our imaginations as we design and make star books, flags books, theater books and dioramas. These books will become a suite of keepsakes marking our time together at Monson Arts.
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Writing in the Wild
$250.00July 19 – July 22
Lewis Robinson and Sarah Holman lead a three-day generative workshop that celebrates the profound effect nature has on the creative process. Numerous studies point to evidence of improved focus, enhanced creativity, and more flexible thinking in people who spend a significant amount of time outside. Beautiful Monson, Maine, is the ideal place to practice this art and produce some wildly powerful new writing!
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Conference on Poetry and Learning
$800.00July 5 – July 11
The Conference on Poetry & Learning invites educators, teaching artists, and other poetry advocates to work intensely with their colleagues and a faculty of distinguished poets who are experts in both teaching poetry and creating community.
Latest News > Workshops at Monson Arts
Preview our 2024 Residency Schedule
Monson Arts plans to welcome a total of 100 residents in 2023. Check out our complete lineup of residency dates for next year. Winter applications will be open August 1 – Sep 15.
Q&A WITH TEACHER ỌMỌLARÁ WILLIAMS MCCALLISTER ON UPCOMING WEAVING CLASS @ MONSON ARTS
Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Ọmọlará Williams McCallister is based in Baltimore, where Ọmọlará earned a Masters of Fine Arts at the Maryland Institute College Of Art and co-founded the Baltimore Community Weaving Studio. Ọmọlará’s practice is to cultivate...
Q&A WITH TEACHER ROBERT SMITH ON UPCOMING STORY EDITING FOR AUDIO CLASS @ MONSON ARTS
Robert Smith is a Professor at Columbia Journalism School and a long-time host of NPR’s Planet Money where he tells stories about the global economy. With a microphone in hand, Robert has drilled for oil, harvested cotton, launched a satellite into space, and created...
Q&A WITH TEACHER Peggy Yocom ON UPCOMING FOLKLORE WRITING CLASS @ MONSON ARTS
For five decades, Peggy Yocom has been listening to the stories of people who live in the mountains of western Maine. In academia, she founded the Folklore Studies Program of George Mason University where she taught for 36 years and twice received the University...
Q&A WITH TEACHER ED NADEAU ON UPCOMING PAINTING CLASS @ MONSON ARTS
A native Mainer, Ed Nadeau is an Associate Professor at the University of Maine in Orono teaching advanced courses in painting and drawing. His area of research is the history, manufacture and use of traditional artists materials along with current advancements of new...
Q&A WITH TEACHER ROBERLEY BELL ON UPCOMING SCULPTURE CLASS @ MONSON ARTS
Roberley Bell is the recipient of numerous fellowships including awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts, a Pollock Krasner Fellowship, and a Senior Scholar Fulbright to Turkey. Most recently she was a research fellow in the department of Urban Planning at...
Q&A With Teacher Lisa Houck On Upcoming Mosaic Class @ Monson Arts
Lisa Houck studied printmaking and graduated at the Rhode Island School of Design and shortly after joined the Experimental Etching Studio in Boston where she taught etching and monoprinting before going on to get an MFA in 1989 from Tufts University in painting....
Preview our 2023 Residency Schedule
Monson Arts plans to welcome a total of 100 residents in 2023. Check out our complete lineup of residency dates for next year. Winter applications will be open August 1 – Sep 15.
Preview our 2022 Residency Schedule
Monson Arts hopes to bring a total of 100 residents in 2022 making it our busiest year yet. Check out our complete lineup of residency dates for next year. Apply now for Spring sessions!
Summer 2019 Public Programs
See our lineup of fee public programs being offered this summer including evening talks by artist/ instructors, exhibits, demonstrations, and film screenings.