Salmon
Creek
Arts
Come to Salmon Creek...
- SCHOOL: applications open through March 4th for the 2026 session of Schools of Salmon Creek, now *FREE*.
- RETREATS: one or two week stays through April 5th, and one month + stays from June 1, 2026 onward.
- WORKSHOPS: Land Project Skillshare and four week Wood Fire Ceramics workshops (filled and on waitlist).
- EMAIL office(at)salmoncreekarts(dot)org.
Salmon Creek Arts runs the year round arts community at Salmon Creek Farm, a sanctuary of precious riparian and coast redwood habitat on Central Pomo land established as a counterculture commune in 1971, now a long term living art project shaped by many hands.
We cultivate expanding communities of artists, each coming with something to offer the commune, learning from each other and the land. There is time to slow down, space to take a step back, the chance to live close to the land, to participate in its cycles, dwelling in modest hand-crafted spaces within a communal free-range wild wooded environment.
Our central program Schools of Salmon Creek is a free two month land-based student-run school focused on the living arts related to body, craft, food, land, shelter, and stewardship.
Salmon Creek Farm is located on 33 acres of second and third growth redwoods two miles from California’s Mendocino Coast. Old logging roads and foot trails criss-cross south facing slopes from sunny meadows, gardens, orchards, communal outdoor kitchen, and dance deck on top, to eight original commune cabins each nestled in their own nook of the terrain, across a ravine that bisects the land to abandoned off-grid cabins, and finally down to Big Salmon Creek in the valley. It is an especially good spot to feel your small place in the big cycles of life on earth.
Salmon Creek Farm has been informally offering arts programs in a similar spirit since 2014, and now as an independent self-sustaining 501(c)3 non-profit organization, SCA takes over year-round operations - and eventually ownership - of Salmon Creek Farm.
Check out the Salmon Creek Collection at Heath Ceramics with a portion of the proceeds go to Salmon Creek Arts.
Check out the Salmon Creek Collection at Heath Ceramics with a portion of the proceeds go to Salmon Creek Arts.
Salmon Creek
RETREATS 🌲
This is a time to slow down, become familiar with the place and it's rhythms, to quiet the mind, and really be present on the land. This may be a time to take a step back for some critical distance from your daily life, a chance to create something new, or even a pause from projects and productivity altogether.
![]()
Once on the land we put everyone on a whatsapp party line, where the community can be directly in touch with each other, to announce meals, invite each other over, ask for help with something, organize an event, say “hey I’m going to town if anyone needs anything,” etc. On Tuesday mornings we lead a comprehensive tour of the entire property, including visits to all cabins and a hike down to the creek. This is also a chance to meet the group and a critical orientation to life on the land (outhouses, compost, wood stoves, etc). The resident host makes everyone feel safe, welcome, and at home.
If you’ve stayed with us before you’ll see some improvements every year, including: new roofs, hot water at the OK, new wood stoves & water heaters, plus rebuilt orchard gates that still say “hippie commune” but actually work!
Our seven self-sufficient modest homespun guest cabins are reached by foot trails across 33 acres of south-facing coastal redwoods. Each occupies a unique secluded nook in our south-facing wooded slope. They were lovingly built, rebuilt, repaired, furnished, and embellished by many hands over the years with scavenged local materials. They are cute, cozy, comfortable, well appointed, and pretty rustic (ie. an occasional mouse may find it’s way in and something will have to be done). All feature equipped kitchenettes, new wood stoves, bedding/towels, hot outdoor showers, outhouses, and yes fast wifi.
If you haven’t stayed with us before, read about our cabins and life with the land at Salmon Creek.
- One or two week stays.
- Arrivals exclusively Mondays 1:30-4:30pm. Full SCF tour/orientation Tuesdays 10:30am. Departures by 11am Sundays.
- You'll need a car to reach us and for the duration of your stay.
- Accessibility issues with all cabins, remote from cars and reached on foot.
- We are unable to host children under 10 or pets (except ADA Service Animals).
- Wood burning stoves are the only source of cabin heat. We are in a mild coastal climate with occasional frosts, but tending your fire is a big part of daily life.
- Also open for communal use: Dance Deck, Outdoor Kitchen, and trail down to Salmon Creek.
- All cabins have wood stoves, bedding/towels, hot outdoor showers, outhouses, fast wifi, and equipped kitchens with small fridge, sink, and cook stove, but most do not have ovens.
- Guests pack out their own refuse and prepare beds for next guests.
- Meals not included.
Price is total for one/two weeks:
- Solo at Salmon ($1000/$1600)
- Solo or couple in 1 bed at Moonlight, Walden or River ($1200/$2000)
- Solo, couple, or 2 friends in 2 beds at Rainbow ($1750/$2800)
- Solo, couple, or 2 friends in 2 beds at Cedar ($1900/$3000)
- Up to 3, in 3 beds at Dawn, with upstairs bedroom plus separate loft ($2500/$4000)
* Full payment to book. Non-transferable. Cancel with full refund within 48 hours. 50% refund up to 8 weeks before arrival and none thereafter. Reschedule within the season if alternate date/cabin available up to 8 weeks before arrival for 15% fee.
These retreats are a critical source of support for Salmon Creek Arts, work-trade arrangements are not available. Email office (at) salmoncreekarts (dot) org any time.
SCHOOLS
of Salmon
Creek 🎏
The 2026 session is *FREE* September 1st to October 26th. Applications close March 4th. Early application fee expires end of day (midnight PST) Wed, Jan 14th.
Schools of Salmon Creek is an annual land-based student-run free school for artists *of all kinds* at Salmon Creek Farm. We carry on the legacy of the original counter-culture commune to this next chapter on the land by considering abundance, care-taking, climate, community, ecology, embodiment, habitat, inter-dependence, mystery, resilience, resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, sensuality, shelter, sustenance, and stewardship; getting off screens and out of doors; where the teachers are the land and each other.
For artists seeking a deeper connection to the natural world as a context for their work while engaging with other artists - we offer time, space, community, and the opportunity to participate in the daily life of the Salmon Creek Farm sanctuary on the Mendocino Coast. It is a good place to step away from daily routines and surrender to the cycles of life close to the land as part of an improvised artist community.
This is a space for active engagement, with the land and each other, not a residency to bring work in process, nor a conventional school where artists produce work alone in a studio. There are no typical indoor facilities or production spaces, just a desk in your private cabin, the triangle Dance Deck, the Outdoor Kitchen, the orchards & gardens, the riparian valley of Salmon Creek, and 33 acres of coast redwoods.
How can we awaken all of our senses and be attentive artists in the world today?
For artists seeking a deeper connection to the natural world as a context for their work while engaging with other artists - we offer time, space, community, and the opportunity to participate in the daily life of the Salmon Creek Farm sanctuary on the Mendocino Coast. It is a good place to step away from daily routines and surrender to the cycles of life close to the land as part of an improvised artist community.
This is a space for active engagement, with the land and each other, not a residency to bring work in process, nor a conventional school where artists produce work alone in a studio. There are no typical indoor facilities or production spaces, just a desk in your private cabin, the triangle Dance Deck, the Outdoor Kitchen, the orchards & gardens, the riparian valley of Salmon Creek, and 33 acres of coast redwoods.
How can we awaken all of our senses and be attentive artists in the world today?
In some ways, you’re just another creature on the land, as soon as you arrive and as long as you stay, in communion with other creatures and the past and future humans: warmed by wood from the land that those before you may have chopped, sowing a garden and tending an orchard that may feed those coming after you, using water from the spring, contributing to the richness of the soil with your compost, while honoring and learning from indigenous knowledge.
It is a unique chance to expand your art practice while cultivating fundamental life and survival skills - that can provide a sense of agency and security to the precarious life of an artist - and who knows, they might even find their way into your art practice some day. Come with an open mind, the willingness to improvise, a spirit of generosity, the capacity to respond to the environment in adaptive ways, and a sense of adventure.
