Haystack connects people through craft.

The Haystack Mountain School of Crafts is an international craft school located on the Atlantic Ocean in Deer Isle, Maine. Founded in 1950 as a research and studio program in the arts, Haystack offers one and two-week studio workshops to participants of all skill levels as well as the two-week Open Studio Residency program, exhibitions, tours, auctions, artist presentations, and shorter workshops for Maine residents and high school students. In 2026, Haystack celebrates 75 years since the School’s founding.

We support visiting artists and scholars from a variety of fields, including science, literature, music, and the visual arts, who are invited to spend two weeks at the school focusing on their work. Haystack also functions as a ʻthink-tankʼ in looking at craft—publishing annual monographs and organizing a variety of conferences and symposia that examine craft in broader contexts. These include collaborations with other institutions such as the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution. The award-winning campus was designed by noted American architect Edward Larrabee Barnes and opened in 1961 when the school relocated to Deer Isle.