Haystack opens season with Island Workshop Day

May 12, 2026

By Staff

DEER ISLE—Haystack Mountain School of Crafts opened its 75th season by hosting the annual Island Workshop Day on May 2, welcoming residents of Deer Isle, Stonington, and the greater Blue Hill peninsula for a special day-long creative arts program. According to a press release, the program is designed to accommodate participants of “all skill levels and backgrounds.”

Support for the 2026 Island Workshop Day participants came from the Deer Isle Artists Association, the release said.

Priscilla Scott (Stonington) breaks open a mold in the Ceramics studio during Alginate Mold Making with Kristy Summers, 2026. Image courtesy of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. 

“The Deer Isle Artists Association is pleased to underwrite Island Workshop Day and to make this beloved Haystack tradition completely free for all participants in 2026,” said David McBeth, DIAA board president. “DIAA is deeply aligned with Haystack's mission of connecting people through craft — providing the freedom to explore materials, art, and design in a supportive and inclusive community for the neighbors, friends, and families who call this island community home.

“Together [...] we are engaging the creators, and nurturing the creative life of coastal Maine — one workshop, one shared table, one act of creativity, and one handmade piece of arts and craft at a time,” he said. 

This year’s workshop provided an “opportunity for friends and neighbors to reconnect and learn alongside one another,” the release said. Instructors included Jeff Toman in blacksmithing, Amy Tingle in fiber, Chris Pinchbeck in graphics, Shelby Goldsmith in metals, Kristy Summers in sculpture and Ned Merrick in wood. The release said that all of this year’s instructors were based in Maine.

Island Workshop Day is also supported in part by Haystack’s Program Endowment with additional funding provided by individual donors and granting agencies, the release said, and is presented in partnership with the Healthy Island Project.

The Rising Tide welcomes artistic endeavors from our community, and showcases them here in our “Create” section. If you have something you’d like to submit—a poem, a picture of a painting, a photograph, a music recording—send it to info@risingtide.media. We’d love to publish it and give you an audience for your creativity.