75 Years of Connecting People Through Craft: Haystack Closes 2026 Season

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Issued: October 29, 2026
CONTACT: Kate Lochner, [email protected]
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75 Years of Connecting People Through Craft: Haystack Closes 2026 Season

Deer Isle, Maine - Haystack Mountain School of Crafts closes its 2026 season in October, marking the end of its 75th anniversary season. This year, the School welcomed 1,050 participants from 42 states and 11 countries to its campus, approximately 25% of which were supported by a Fellowship. Additionally, the School hosted more than 1,300 visitors during its Public Programs series. The campus location at 89 Haystack School Drive is now closed for the season, reopening to the public in May 2027.

As part of the 75th anniversary celebrations, the School added the Distinguished Speaker Series to its roster of programs. The event series highlighted leading voices from Haystack's faculty, alumni, and craft community, and took place throughout the year on the Deer Isle campus and at craft venues across the country, including The Clay Studio (Philadelphia, PA), the Museum of Art and Design (New York, NY), and the UW-Madison Art Department (Madison, WI). Thanks to a sponsorship from the Center for Craft, video recordings of the on-campus presentations featuring Syd Carpenter, Stuart Kestenbaum, and Rosanne Somerson will be available on Haystack's YouTube channel in November.

Haystack received $824,000 in received and committed grants during the fiscal year, including Fellowship support from the Maxwell-Hanrahan Foundation, support for community programs for teens and adults from the Onion Foundation and Bar Harbor Bank & Trust, a three-year commitment for fundraising capacity from an anonymous foundation as well as a three-year commitment for operational capacity building from the Windgate Foundation, and a grant from Maine Preservation and the 1772 Foundation for roof repairs to cabins and the Haystack Fab Lab.

Thanks to additional and major support from the Windgate Foundation, Haystack again waived application fees for its summer workshops in 2026 and awarded the second year of the Artist Grant Initiative, which provides financial support and mentorship for three annual cohorts of emerging and early-career artists that include past participants in Haystack's endowed and partner Fellowships since 2018. Haystack's 2026 programs were also supported in part by Haystack's Program Endowment, with additional funding provided by the Maine Community Foundation's Belvedere Traditional Handicrafts grant program.

In addition to summer workshop sessions and residencies, the School will revive its conference program in 2027, now called the Haystack Convening. Open Studio Residency applications will open on Monday, November 16. The 2027 Summer Session faculty and Visiting Artists will be announced on Monday, November 2, and workshop descriptions will be available on Haystack's website starting on Tuesday, December 15. Applications will open on Tuesday, January 5, 2027.

Image Credits

Download images: https://adobe.ly/48lp7py

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Participants employ handbuilding skills in the Ceramics studio during the Session 1 workshop, The Language of Form + Color, with Lynn Duryea and Holly Walker. Photo by Nikolai Fox, 2026. Image courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine.

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Two volunteers replace deck boards during Pre-Session, a long-running Haystack tradition to prepare the campus for the coming season, 2026. Image courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine.

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A Blacksmithing participant tends the forge in the Hotshop during the Session 1 workshop, Slammers + Tongs: Toolmaking for Blacksmiths, with Anna Koplik. Photo by Nikolai Fox, 2026. Image courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine.

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Haystack staff lead visitors to the Fab Lab during a weekly Campus Tour. Photo by Nikolai Fox, 2026. Image courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine.

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Session 3 Wood participants steam-bend wood with guidance from faculty instructor Yuri Kobayashi during the workshop, Bending Wood, Shaping Design, 2026. Image courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine.

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Participants prepare plaster on the Graphics deck during the Session 3 workshop, Making a Fresco Painting, with Daniela Rivera, 2026. Image courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine.

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Visitors gather in the Haystack dining hall for Rosanne Somerson's Distinguished Speaker Series lecture, Practice Makes Practice, 2026. Image courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine.

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Looms come out of storage and onto the Fiber deck during the Session 4 workshop, Weaving the Space Between, with Angie YooJin Kim, 2026. Image courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine.

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Session 4 Glass faculty Cedric Mitchell (standing, back right) and Studio Assistants Lucian Rambharose (left) and Jess See (right) lead an evening demonstration in the Hotshop. Photo by Nicole Nalazek, 2026. Image courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine.

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The crowd bids during the live auction at an end-of-session studio walk-through. Photo by Dan Rajter, 2026. Image courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine.

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The second Artist Grant Initiative cohort meets virtually along with their mentors, Malene Djenaba Barnett and Susie Ganch, 2026. Image courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine.

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State Representative Holly Eaton (right) presents Haystack Executive Director Perry Price (left) with a legislative sentiment acknowledging the School's 75th anniversary milestone, which was co-sponsored by State Senator Nicole Grohoski, 2026. Image courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, Maine.

About Haystack Mountain School of Crafts | haystack-mtn.org

Haystack Mountain School of Crafts is an international craft school located on the Atlantic Ocean in Deer Isle, Maine. For 75 years, Haystack has connected people through craft, providing the freedom to engage with materials and develop new ideas in a supportive and inclusive community. When Haystack was founded in 1950, it was truly an experiment in education and community, with no permanent faculty or full-time students-a School that awarded no certificates or degrees. Haystack serves an ever-changing group of makers and thinkers of all skill levels-we are dedicated to working and learning alongside one another, while exploring the intersections of craft, art, and design in wide-ranging and expansive ways.

For three-quarters of a century, Haystack has offered intensive studio workshops and has functioned as a think-tank to explore craft in broad contexts. The School's award-winning campus, designed by noted American architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, opened in 1961 when the School relocated to Deer Isle from its original location in Montville, Maine. The buildings and secluded, natural setting have provided steadfast support for convening an intergenerational community of makers from around the world to share ideas, materials, and techniques, and make discoveries alongside one another in a creative and generative environment. While Haystack has grown in ways that could never have been imagined-offering residencies, programs for Maine youth and adults, conferences, publications, and more-the core of our work and the ideas we adhere to have stayed very much the same.

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