Mount Sequoyah X Alterative Art School
Ozark Storytelling Residency
Mount Sequoyah Center x The Alternative Art School
Ozark Storytelling Residency 2026
June 21 – July 5, 2026 • Fayetteville, Arkansas
Get in Touch with Nature
Mount Sequoyah offers residents a retreat in nature without a long drive into the wilderness. Though the 27 acer campus is located just over a mile from downtown Fayetteville, it is surrounded by trees, deer, and birds.
The Mount Sequoyah woods trailhead entrance is on the East side of our campus. It meanders through heavily wooded and occasionally rugged undisturbed forest. Additional information about this hiking area, along with many other nearby hiking, fishing, and swimming destinations visit the City of Fayetteville website.
museums and more in NW ARkansas
Northwest Arkansas has become an arts destination
Since Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened its doors, Northwest Arkansas has become a destination for art lovers from around the globe. With the addition of The Momentary, a new contemporary arts and performance space, there is a constant flux of performance and new art happening. And with the Walton Arts Center under a mile away from Mount Sequoyah, you will find a constant exciting assortment of plays and broadway shows. If you look, you will never lack for something to be inspired by while you are here. Additionally, the residency will carpool and go on field trips together.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Accommodations
Lodging provided in Yancey Lodge on Mount Sequoyah
One daily meal provided
Shared community kitchen for light meal preparation
Access to Mount Sequoyah’s facilities: clay studio, trails, pool, fire pit, overlook, collaborative meeting or studio space, open park space
About the residency
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.
Theme: storytelling—conceptualizing & communicating the story of one’s art.
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.
Program Structure
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)
TAAS-led programming includes:
Artist discussions, critiques, and Q&A sessions
Professional practice and conceptual development workshops
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
Studio/workspace use as available
Dive deeper into the tentative program schedule here.
Application Requirments
There is a $25 application fee. If this fee will prevent you from applying, reach out to Rachel for financial assistance options: rachel@mountsequoyah.org
In order to apply please submit an application. Follow the button below labeled “application.”
The subsidized cost of the residency is: $1,200 per participant
Full and partial scholarships are available and can be discussed if you are approved for the residency.
Applications will be evaluated by our arts committee.
We will announce the 12 artists we have accepted by March 2026