The Living Art of Learning at SOLA

Sanctuary of Living Arts, or SOLA, is a learning environment located in the ancient and pristine Western North Carolina mountains, just west of the bustling, culturally vibrant town of Asheville.  Surrounded by Pisgah National Forest, our campus is a 200 acre nature preserve that includes biodynamically tended orchards, gardens and sylvaculture as well as old growth forests, pristine springs and a variety of farm animals and wildlife. Our classroom structures and activities are nested within this vibrant community of life, and function as a ‘learning ecology’, supporting meaningful study, presence and practices with Living Earth that are essential to the lives and wellbeing of our own and the greater community.

SOLA’s faculty and curriculum are agile enough to meet a diverse community of learners through a truly holistic engagement of each child’s unique physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual relationships with learning. SOLA’s approach develops thinking through thematically presented, inherently relevant academic studies; cultivates feeling through compassionate and contemplative participation in Earth’s living community; and engages the will through active learning and meaningful, practical work or service.  We define Living Arts as enlivened pathways for learning that emphasize the cultivation of learning relationships through cognitive, intellectual, embodied, intuitive, artistic and imaginal pathways.

SOLA’s curriculum is inspired by the developmental, pedagogical indications of Rudolf Steiner and the spiritual and physical ecologies that comprise a divinely designed, Living Cosmos. Our reverence for the sanctity of childhood and recognition of the sacredness of each child’s unique relationships with self, others and the wider world around are expressed through our daily rhythm of activities - our Living Curriculum.

The formative essence of SOLA’s learning culture is the nurturance of one’s authentic human identity, true freedom, and sense of belonging through living thinking, feeling and willing…head, heart, hands.

The Living Art of teaching, one that rests on a true understanding of the human being, has a thread of strength running through it that inspires individuals to participate so that it is not necessary to keep their attention through force. ~ Rudolf Steiner

LORE- SOLA’s adolescent learning experience for ages 13-18, provides a truly holistic ‘heart-hands-head’ learning experience. LORE- school students are invited into deep inquiry and understanding of themselves and the world around them through thematic Liberal Arts, Living Arts, Relational Arts, Open Source Learning, internships, and domestic & international expeditions. Click here to learn more.

In addition to offering programs for SOLA students, Sanctuary of Living Arts provides Living Arts Discovery Days. These seasonal workshops invite students and adults to explore farm, food & folkways, 2 & 3d fine art, healing & wellness arts, and more.  SOLA also offers these experiences to other programs or educational organizations who are aligned with the SOLA vision and mission. Click here to learn more.

SOLA's Vision & Mission

Our Vision
To create a sanctuary for learning in which we support learners of all ages and abilities to:
 ~cultivate a love for learning~
 ~collaborate with others~
~connect with one’s own inner guidance~
~commune with the natural world~
Our Mission
The illumination and refinement of each individual's innate gifts through enlivened education for the whole being.

What makes SOLA unique?

SOLA provides learning experiences that nourish life through artfully presented, deeply meaningful learning experiences.  We strive to offer a truly holistic learning journey that allows each learner to discover the the truth of who they are and to confidently carry that essential truth with them into a complex, ever-changing world. Essential elements of our approach include, but are not limited to:

• Enlivened and thematic presentation of subjects by passionate and gifted teachers who view their work with children as a sacred endeavour, and carry an abiding love for teaching.

• A focus on relational learning and life skills that nourish physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing; class time devoted to the relational arts, personal and interpersonal development, and mentored individual and group contemplative activities

• A deep and expansive understanding of child development within the context of cosmogenesis, as indicated by Rudolf Steiner, Thomas Berry, and other luminaries, that informs what we bring to learners, when we introduce new concepts, and how we meet each learner’s unique approach to learning.

• An emphasis on active, embodied learning through the presentation of practical, fine, and performing arts; outdoor activities, games, movement, domestic and international learning adventures.

• A holistic presentation and experience of the sciences that honors the integral, sacred qualities of the living universe through reverence, observation, direct experience, practice, and phenomenological understanding.

• The cultivation of wonder and reverence for Earth’s community of life- our fellow humans, animals, plants, water, soil, the mineral kingdom, and the visible and invisible threads of vitality within and around us.

• Internships and meaningful service learning opportunities for adolescent learners.

How is SOLA organized?

SOLA Fellowship is the ‘parent’ organization of SOLA. SOLA Fellowship is a non-profit, interfaith, diverse Fellowship Community comprised of families and educators who mutually, commonly recognize the Sacredness of Nature as a primary context for learning. SOLA views learning as a life-long endeavor of participation in the co-evolutory, creative processes of Earth and Cosmos. SOLA collectively cultivates a sacred space where the truth, beauty and goodness of the natural world are integral to the learning experience.  This, in tandem with SOLA’s devotion to the sanctity and development of human consciousness, are expressed in every learning activity.

Click here to learn more about micro-schooling, homeschooling, and co-operative learning in NC.

SOLA Fellowship is also one part of a larger impulse, Sacred Mountain Sanctuary.

Founded in 2010, Sacred Mountain Sanctuary, non profit, is the steward of a conserved, pristine Appalachian wilderness, that also includes biodynamically tended fields, orchards, and pure springs & streams. The founding of Sacred Mountain Sanctuary was inspired by a great need to preserve spaces of Natural Beauty, Respite and Vibrancy in our changing, uncertain world. Much like the monastic settlements of yore, Sacred Mountain Sanctuary serves as a repository for Living Earth Wisdoms, Practices, and Presence, and is devoted to nurturing a vibrant, humane and living future for human beings. In addition to SOLA, Sacred Mountain Sanctuary also hosts 3 Hares Biodynamic Farm; The Living Library for Contemplative Research; Sanctum Wellness, an eco-contemplative residential community, and several other developing impulses.

 “In reality there is a single integral community of the Earth that includes all its component members whether human or other than human. In this community every being has its own role to fulfill, its own dignity, its inner spontaneity. Every being has its own voice. Every being declares itself to the entire Universe. Every being enters into communion with other beings. This capacity for relatedness, for presence to other beings, for spontaneity in action, is a capacity possessed by every mode of being throughout the Universe.”- Thomas Berry