Mount Sequoyah is a welcoming space to celebrate and connect with people, land, and spirit. Creative Spaces is the programming arm of Mount Sequoyah which aims to support art and artists through workshops, studio spaces, opportunities, and residency programs.

Mount Sequoyah and The Alternative Arts School (TAAS) are partnering to launch a two-week artistic residency program for the summer of 2026. This collaboration will bring together TAAS’s global pedagogical model and Mount Sequoyah’s unique regional setting to foster exchange between local and international artists. This place-based program that merges the intimacy of an in-person gathering with the global reach of TAAS’s year-round virtual school. Rooted in Ozark storytelling traditions, the residency brings together 12 artists for immersive workshops, field experiences, and deep studio time, alongside a full year of continued online community through TAAS membership.

The residency centers storytelling as a living, regional practice—one shaped by the Ozark landscape and the deep Southern traditions of oral history, song, craft, and survival. Artists will explore how stories are carried through land, bodies, and materials, and how art becomes a vessel for telling what has often been held quietly, passed down, or coded over time.

Rooted through a Ozark perspective, the program invites artists to examine how stories move through their work—how meaning is formed through process, gesture, memory, and making.

The program provides time, space, and community for artists to deepen their practice while engaging the Ozark landscape and one another. Programming will include visits to regional art spaces, conversations with invited guest speakers rooted in local creative communities, and guided story-writing workshops and discussions. Participants will also take part in field experiences connected to seasonal cultural events, offering opportunities to observe how storytelling circulates through public gathering, celebration, and place. Storytelling is approached as a shared process of listening, exchange, and presence.

This 2-week in-person residency will take place at Mount Sequoyah (lodging in Yancy Lodge) and will include a one-year membership to The Alternative Art School (full access to online classes, lectures, and community spaces).

Included in the residency:

Lodging provided in Yancey Lodge on Mount Sequoyah
One daily meal provided
Shared community kitchen for lit meal preparation
Access to Mount Sequoyah’s facilities: clay studio, trails, pool, fire pit, overlook, collaborative meeting or studio space, open park space
12 artists selected through open call
2-week in-person residency at Mount Sequoyah (lodging in Yancy Lodge)
One-year membership to The Alternative Art School (full access to online classes, lectures, and community spaces)
Field trips to Pride events, regional art spaces, and nature sites
Guided story-writing workshops and guest speaker sessions
Daily meal provided + shared kitchen access
Access to trails, pool, clay studio, and outdoor gathering spaces