✦ Shope Creek Wilderness
THE
VILLAGE
A Creative Colony in the Making
Shope Creek Wilderness · Asheville, North Carolina
The Story
For nearly fifty years, Craig Rose has been building
places where culture gets made.
Venice Beach. Carmel. Rainbow Ridge. Mexico. Creative houses. Artist gatherings. Founder circles. The locations changed. The people changed. The mission never did.
Bring the right people together and watch what happens.
Then Shope Creek Wilderness appeared.
131 acres in Asheville, North Carolina. A place quietly serving children and families for years. A place that felt like possibility.
What began as a visit became a question: What wants to emerge here?
The answer arrived through people. A musician. A filmmaker. An artist. A healer. A steward. Each person carrying a different piece of the puzzle.
The land started doing what it had always done. Bringing people together.
Stephen Sedmak has spent nearly three decades cultivating and exploring the Field, including 12 years stewarding Shope Creek Wilderness.
Stephen calls it: Fill the Well.
Bring the right people. Create the right experiences. Let the stories emerge.
The land has always done this — bringing people together.
✦ The Vision
A creative colony discovering itself — where artists, makers, and visionaries live, work, and create together.
Shope Creek Wilderness is a 131-acre nonprofit property in Asheville, North Carolina. The land already serves families, artists, filmmakers, musicians, writers, and community gatherings.
People don't come for the building. They come for the people.
A creative ecosystem
Artists discover creative homes.
Shope Creek Wilderness allows the land to express itself.
Partners participate in a living community.
Every resident contributes to the whole.
✦ The First Three Stewards — The Anchors
They resonate the energy that attracts everyone else — becoming channels for what moves through them.
The Deer Trail
Kenny McCormick IV
Post It Pat Studio
Patricc Reed AKA Post It Pat
The Healing
Joda
These aren't renters.
These are anchors.
Why Kenny Matters
Kenny McCormick IV already has over a million followers. His music resonates with the conscious music community — fans of Trevor Hall, Nahko, Rising Appalachia, and Rufus Du Sol.
When an artist with this kind of audience chooses a place as their creative home, people pay attention.
✦ Every song recorded at the Deer Trail Residency becomes marketing for the space.
✦ Every music video filmed there becomes a showcase for the structure.
✦ Over a million fans are already watching.
What wants to emerge here.
THE DEER TRAIL RESIDENCY
Artist Retreat · Shope Creek Wilderness · Asheville, NC
The first creative residency at Shope Creek Wilderness. A place for artists, musicians, writers, and visionaries to disconnect from the noise and reconnect to what matters.
PHASE ONE
THE DEER TRAIL CABIN
The first build. The first story. A collaboration between Shope Creek Wilderness and HÍT.
MUSIC
NATURE
CREATIVITY
COMMUNITY
LEGACY
Deer Trail Residency
Shope Creek Wilderness
THE VISION
A network of artist residencies, retreats, and gathering spaces — built for creators, dreamers, and doers.
THE FUTURE
- • Camp Mary Cabin
- • The Anti-Artist Cabin
- • Forest Floor Cabin
- • Fire Wizard Cabin
- • And more to come...
SHOPE CREEK WILDERNESS
The Complete Vision
Part of the Shope Creek Wilderness Collection
The Deer Trail is one of the founding residencies in the Shope Creek Wilderness Collection. Together, they form a creative wilderness village where artists, creators, and visionaries gather to make work that matters.
Part of the Shope Creek Wilderness Collection
✦ The Docuseries
Jackson is not simply filming a project. He's documenting the birth of an ecosystem.
Every docuseries viewer becomes a potential visitor.
Every visitor becomes a potential retreat participant.
Every retreat participant becomes part of the community.
Every community member contributes to the whole.
✦ Why This Matters
Because every person who visits
experiences something real.
Not in a showroom.
Not in a brochure.
Not in a presentation.
In real life. With artists. With creators. With founders. With community. With emergence.
The spaces emerge as part of the story.
✦ The Long Game
The first three residencies are not the destination.
They are the emergence.
The village is revealing itself:
Artists gather.
Stories are documented.
Films are made.
Music is recorded.
Retreats are hosted.
Contributions are invited.
Future stewards visit.
"I want to be part of this."
What every person says when they leave.
Come play with us in the field of infinite possibility.
✦ The Vision
This is not about buildings.
This is about community.
Shope Creek Wilderness has the land, story, artists, audience, nonprofit mission, and media.
Together, we can allow a creative wilderness village to emerge where culture gets made.
The Dragons of Shope Creek Wilderness
Shope Creek Wilderness