Barbara Sullivan (left) works with a student in her fresco workshop, July 2021
Intensive Summer Workshops
REGISTRATION EXTENSION – JUNE 15th
Each summer, Monson Arts programs a variety of one-week 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 Sunday night and conclude before lunch on Saturday. 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
2023 Summer Workshops
Our lineup of Summer Workshops for 2023 offers many exciting opportunities to work alongside professional artists, writers, and media producers. We will be offering six one-week workshops in a variety of media scheduled across three sessions that will take place in June and July, including a special session dedicated to audio production and storytelling planned in collaboration with the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies at Maine College of Art & Design. Other offerings include Folklore Writing, Sculpture, Weaving, Painting, and Mosaic. Browse our complete 2023 Summer Workshop catalog below for details and course descriptions.
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.
TUITION, ROOM & BOARD
Single: $1465
Double: $1240
Day Student: $1015
Day Student Lunch Only: $775
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.
2023 Summer Workshops
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Creating Like A Mountain: Alex Strong and Sally Stockwell
June 19 – 21 (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. This retreat is open to artists, writers, and creatives, broadly construed, who draw inspiration from the more than human world. This workshop is offered in partnership with Maine Audubon.
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Personal Imagery in Mosaics: Lisa Houck
$250.00June 25 – July 1
Lisa Houck will bring her background as a painter and designer to work with students to develop their compositions and personal imagery in mosaics. In this class we will work with Mexican smalti. These tiles are handmade and they have unusual variations of color and texture. Lisa Houck has worked with this medium for her public art installations because it is touchable, durable and groutable, as well as being painterly and subtle in its colors and textures.
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Story Editing for Audio: Robert Smith
$250.00June 25 – July 1 (Salt Session)
This workshop aims to demystify the role of the story editor in creating audio narratives. Sessions will be a mix of lecture, discussion, listening, and hands-on practice with students editing actual work in progress. This workshop is aimed at mid-career audio producers who want to make the leap to editing but are looking for some concrete skills and guidance to do so. This workshop is offered in collaboration with the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.
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Painting the Maine Woods with Egg, Milk and Water: Ed Nadeau
$250.00July 9 – 15
This workshop is for artists who are interested in expanding their repertoire of water medium materials and techniques. It is designed for individuals to advance their own personal creativity, or to share with their students in classroom instruction. In broad terms this is a traditional water medium workshop that will cover the history, process of making and using egg tempera, casein and watercolor. However, with the advent of many new artist materials, we will also explore the latest in brushes, substrates, sizes, glues, grounds, glazes and varnishes that pertain to each medium.
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Living Words, Folklore and Creative Writing: Peggy Yocom
$250.00July 23 – 29
Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. — Eudora Welty
In our workshop, through the gifts of traditional lore, we will listen for stories, for those moments that are worth writing down on the page. We’ll explore the unsuspected depths of everyday cultural forms and practices that are especially relevant for participants’ own poetry, fiction, and non-fiction writing.
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Weave Where You Are: Ọmọlará Williams McCallister
$250.00July 23 – 29
This course is for everyone and anyone! In this introductory course for beginners we will use lap sized portable looms to weave 3 yards of cloth. Each participant will have the option of finishing their cloth into one of the following: a wall hanging, a set of 4 placemats, a table runner, or yardage that can be used for future sewing projects. Participants will be facilitated through the entire weaving process. We will experiment with design processes, measure out the yarn for our designs, set up our looms to weave, weave, wet finish and hem our pieces.
Latest News > Workshops at Monson Arts
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.
Summer Workshop Catalog
Our one-week intensive summer workshops provide an ideal environment to focus on learning and studio work. Register online for one of eight workshop offerings in 2019.