Our 2026 Session will be held: May 16-24

✨Applications are now open✨
for our annual spring session

SotA is more than an artist residency; it’s a living model of mutual care, shared knowledge, and creative liberation that gives us room to practice the kind of world we wish to live in.

At SotA you will live communally, learn collaboratively, and you will be a part of sustaining our community in real time. You'll have the chance to teach what you're excited about, and you will learn firsthand the joy of sharing your knowledge vs guarding it. You will experience the pleasure of living in a creative, non-competitive, wildly affirming space. 

SotA is forever an experiment. Each year, we adapt to best meet the needs of our community and our volunteer organizers. One change this year: we are offering early admissions for paying students. This option is intended for people who are confident they want to attend before the full class list is released, or who need more time to plan than our usual deadlines allow. We encourage applicants to apply early for the best chance of joining our 2026 session. Our deadlines are below. Visit the other tabs for full info about all of our applications!

Faculty Deadline:
Tuesday, January 27th

Scholarship deadline:
February 26th

Early Admission paying student deadline:
January 7th

Final day to apply as
a paying student:
March 5th

Location:

We are so happy to share that we are returning to the YMCA Blue Ridge Assembly for this year’s session. This land has held our project since 2016, and due to extensive damage from Hurricane Helene, we weren’t able to gather there last year. Located in Black Mountain, North Carolina, this campus was the original campus for Black Mountain College. We will have use of the entire campus during our time there.

Today we’re launching our final fundraising initiative, one that we hope will be iterative for years to come! Recipes straight from the SotA kitchen! • Gathered + compiled by Kitchen all-star Maggie in Austin, TX • Printed + assemble
RAFFLE ENDS TUES 10/28🌀! Have you shopped out cutie cutie raffle yet!? For as little as $5, you could win one of 20 incredible items, from handmade pottery and wearable art to creative coaching and even a custom song written just for you👀. All priz
This month we’re raising $8,000 to support our next session. These funds will ensure that we can hold a session, that we can offer need based and Black equity scholarships, that we can offer small travel stipends to our faculty and staff, and t
🎟️Raffle post 2 of 2! 🎟️ We’re excited to launch our very first fundraising raffle! This is a great way to support our work: for as little as a $5 raffle ticket, you’ll have the chance to win some very rad items. There are 20 total offe
🎟️Raffle post 1 of 2! 🎟️ We’re excited to launch our very first fundraising raffle! This is a great way to support our work: for as little as a $5 raffle ticket, you’ll have the chance to win some very rad items. There are 20 total offe
Nurturing communities like SotA turns our eyes towards each other - and away from the empire of distraction that convinces us to give up hope and keep our imagination small. SotA is a space where we can let our creativity stretch and move and go wi
Our annual fundraiser has launched! 🌸We need your support to make our next session happen.🌸 Your donation funds scholarships and operational costs and stipends for creative labor and the kind of radical experimentation and organizing that we need