About Us

MISSION STATEMENT

Sky Mountain Institute is a nonprofit educational, research, and training center founded in 1981, dedicated to exploring the relationship between the creative arts and the healing of self, family, community, and planet. We work directly with groups, children, and communities to build learning environments that realign us with a sustainable human-earth presence. As an institute, we develop programs and materials to assist in this process.

VISION

The vision that guides our work is a belief in the deep innate intelligence and natural healing capacities inherent in human-earth relatedness. With a focus on practical application and hands-on learning, Sky Mountain Institute serves as a bridge between this vision of the human person and a growing wealth of biosocial and ecological research. In our programs and materials, we model and help preserve the essential sensitivity, aliveness, and beauty embedded in these relationships.

PHILOSOPHY

Sky Mountain Institute views the needs of the planet, society, and the person as a continuum. What is inside us is also in the universe. When we delve into our own nature and humanness, we touch the shared rhythm, cycles, images, and wisdom that guide a responsive, vital relationship with life and with each other. As we find our own voice, we also find the voice of the earth.

SUPPORTERS

Special thanks to:

To The Charles H. Stout Foundation for its generous support of our Programs & Trainings and for our scholarship fund at Sky Mountain Institute. Many trainees have been able to bring this important work out into their communities and workplace.
To all of you who have donated your time and work in making our trainings and water-harvesting/permaculture projects so successful.
To our eco-arts participants who have taken this work into your communities and schools or created new offerings and workshops based on Sky Mountain’s trainings.

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HISTORY

Sky Mountain Institute was founded in 1981 as a nonprofit corporation. The present programs have grown out of many years of experience in working with families and children in experiential learning programs and in mental health settings. Its first project, Sky Mountain Life School, was an elementary school based on creativity, bonding with nature, and supporting the child's emerging Self. The program was further refined and articulated through the 15 years of experience, research, and teaching in Developmental Psychology, Child and Adolescent Psychology, Expressive Arts, and Creativity Studies at the post-graduate level. We continue to pursue educational avenues for combining the creative arts, depth psychology, and ecological community work.