JAM DATES: August 24-29

PRIORITY DEADLINE: June 29

FINAL DEADLINE: July 20th

Apply Today!

Calling creatives, genre-crossers, people for whom the title “artist” rings the bell of recognition. How deep is your creative well? And could you use some company?

As artists we know that our gifts as dreamers, creators, visionaries, healers, clowns, conveners and provocateurs are urgently needed. Paradoxically, we also know that urgent times require slowing down. Nonlinearity. Making room for the unexpected. Tending that nervous system.

You are invited to the 2026 Arts for Social Change Jam. For over 10 years we’ve held nurturing containers where artists can decompartmentalize and exist beyond our bios. With an emphasis on belonging and moving at the speed of trust, we’ll play, witness, dream, create, and rest.

That is the intention and the dream of the 2026 Arts for Social Change Jam. We are here as fellow artist-activists, committed to a vibrantly just future and enjoying our lives along the way – and we can’t do it without your particular brand of magic. Come and fill your cup. 

August 24-29th, 2026

Hosted at Wild Heart Center in Wallkill, New York

What is the Arts for Social Change Jam?

YES! Jams have been happening since 1999. YES! collaborates with other like-hearted peers around the world to co-create Jams where diverse visionaries and social change-makers combine their inspirations and skills to create something greater than the sum of their parts. Jams are not “retreats” in the typical sense. 

The Jam works on 3 three levels:

1. On the personal level, it is an open space for participants to reflect on our life journeys and what makes us who we are today. It is an opportunity to deepen our purpose, ask meaningful questions, eat nourishing food, unlearn our fears and blocks, access our hearts, and open our minds to move more boldly in the world.
2. On the interpersonal level, we come together to share our cultures, our creativity, our collaborative spirits, our stories and our struggles so we can deepen our understanding of, and connection to, each other.
3. On the systemic level, we become clearer about the importance of our work in the world and its potential for even deeper, more meaningful impact.

 Apply Today!

Every Jam is an open space for the gifts and needs of the people that show up to emerge. We literally build the agenda based on questions participants put in their application.Over the past 12 years of the Arts for Social Change Jam, here are some questions we’ve explored.

• How does my art or can my art be a force for social or environmental justice? 
• How are we to be sustainable and valued for our artistic gifts?
• How do we collaborate as artivists across mediums, modalities, and issue focuses?
• How do we create an enduring support network of people using their creative passions for social change?
• How do our diverse identities relate to us as artists and as activists, and how do we build bridges across those identities with each other?
• What feels like the purpose and value of artist-activists in these particular times?

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Who comes to the Arts Jam?

Because we seek to bring together as diverse a group of people as possible we are looking for a range in:

• Artistic Modalities: Musicians, Dancers, Visual Artists, Filmmakers, Creative Facilitators, Writers, etc.
• “Artist-ship” (leadership, from ‘person on the ground’ to ‘director’ and ‘founder’)
• Years of experience (from ‘a year into the journey’ to ‘been at it for a good part of your life’);
• Issue or work-focus (i.e. community media, local economies and globalization, indigenous issues, education, food sovereignty, cultural regeneration, interfaith, health and well-being, ecology, youth, sustainable living, human rights, etc.)
• Identity (i.e. class, ethnicity, race, religion, culture, sexuality, gender, age, etc.)

I STILL DON’T GET IT. WHAT WILL WE BE DOING?

A Jam is a co-creative container. It’s going to be built and shaped by all of us with the support of a facilitant team (facilitators who are also participants).  A Jam is not a conference, it is not a training, it is not group therapy, and it is not a typical gathering.  

Our community will not have a rigid agenda. Instead, the team of organizers and facilitators will draw from all of your applications and from what’s alive in them, put all of it in a big pot, stir them around and come up with a draft flow of experiential activities and see what comes out!  None of us come with all of the answers. Instead, we will co-create the space together — using circles, conversations, embodiment, time in nature, explorations of interconnectedness, artistic expression, silence, and play — to explore our questions, bring more of our whole selves, and live into our answers, and new questions (!), using the depth and power of the experiences and knowledge in the room and beyond. 

Location, Travel and Costs of Attending

Retreat Location

WildHeart is located on 46+ beautiful acres in the Hudson Valley. Retreatants will have the option to stay in a single room, double room, dorm, or camping in either our main retreat center or in private two-bedroom cabins. All options have access to shared kitchens and bathrooms. Daily events will take place in the studio, shared common spaces, and outdoors. Retreatants are welcome to enjoy the lawns, walk in the forest, and swim and boat in the lake during their stay!

A Note on Food

We pour a lot of love into every aspect of our food system, and pride ourselves on being able to accommodate a wide range of dietary needs. We serve meat and dairy daily, and always have vegan and gluten-free options available. If you send us your dietary preferences in advance, we will do our best to make sure there is good food for you at each meal! All living accommodations have access to a full kitchen (separate from the main/commercial kitchen). We will provide breakfast groceries for you to prepare and eat on your own. Lunches and dinners are communal shared meals with participants helping 1 hour per day either with meal prep or clean. Drinks include: coffee and tea, dairy and non-dairy milk, lemon and lime juice for water, red and white wine.

Getting to the Jam

Trains and buses travel between New York City and close to the Jam.  More info about directions and transportation options HERE. Travel costs are the responsibility of the participants, though we will help in arranging logistics from New York City.

Costs of Attending

The actual cost of the Jam is $1,300 per person, which covers lodging, food, materials, programming and organizing.

We use a tiered model for this gathering. This is not like many typical for-profit “retreats,” in that the facilitators are paid a small honorarium and almost all of your tuition goes directly to the cost of your stay. This is how we keep the cost accessible and maintain the spirit of the Jam as a peer-held, co-created space.

We never want money to be a barrier to participating in a Jam. If the cost is a barrier to you, contact us, and we will do our best to find a way. We can also create a flexible monthly payment plan for all the options below. If you have more resources, additional donations above the event price will help us provide scholarships to support the broad spectrum of participation. All contributions above the at-cost tuition are tax deductible. It is the diversity of the Jams that make them thrive! We value having a broad socioeconomic spectrum.

We suggest the following tuition based on the Green Bottle Method by Alexis J. Cunningfolk):

A little more ~ $1600: Please consider paying this amount if you are comfortably able to meet your basic needs*, own the home you live in or rent a higher end property, have access to financial savings and/or investments, have paid or pay for private education, have reliable work or do not need to work to meet your needs, have inherited wealth, and/or can afford to travel every year. This is a pay-it-forward rate and anything above $1100 is tax-deductible. Having three or more participants contribute this rate is what makes our reparative rate possible. This is not just a gift; it’s solidarity economy in action.

True cost ~ $1300: Consider paying this amount if doing so would be an investment, but not create hardship for you. You might choose this rate if you are regularly able to meet your basic needs*, have some expendable income, you can travel occasionally without burden, and you have some debt but are able to pay it regularly. This is the true cost of the Jam; it’s what we need in order to make the jam happen.

A little less ~ $1000: Consider paying this rate if it is sometimes a stretch to meet your basic needs*, if you have little savings, if your expendable income is tight, if you have experienced housing insecurity in the past but are currently in stable housing, and if investing in personal development and/or leisure travel is an occasional treat. This is a discounted rate.

Reparative (5 spots total) ~ $600: Consider this rate if you come from generational poverty, if you currently struggle to meet your basic needs*, have little to no savings, significant debt, and if you have little to no financial safety net or housing stability from family. We recognize the vast inequities that exist in our communities due to the realities of racism, neoliberalism, colonialism, and patriarchy and more! Our intention is to redistribute resources, and we consider the Jam to be a community resource that we wish to make available regardless of money.

*Basic needs are defined here as food, housing, healthcare, transportation, childcare.

NOTE: Given that we plan this gathering in advance, we ask that you honor your commitment for your full agreed upon tuition if you cancel within two weeks of the Jam.

Illness/Covid Protocols

To protect the group, please don’t come if you have any symptoms of any kind of illness. We ask all participants to take a covid test within 24 hours of arriving at the Jam. If you test positive, please do not come to the Jam. 

To minimize the possible transmission of COVID-19, we ask that you plan for your attendance mindfully. Especially in the week prior to the Jam, please take precautions, including limiting outings and masking in public spaces. We encourage masking on all public transportation and public spaces including airports, airplanes, trains, ride shares etc. 

 What previous participants have said…

“I love the dear friendships and network of support that have been with me since the first Jam I attended in 2001. The people I met at Jams have become advisors, board members, funders, collaborative partners, and among my closest friends… I appreciate the safe space created at Jams that allows each person to take risks at their own pace and in doing so empower one another to take greater risks in our own lives and work.”

– Kavitha Rao, 35, Cofounder of Common Fire Foundation, Tivoli, New York

“Because art might be the most powerful healing force we have, along with its partner, love, I am massively grateful as an artist to have had this chance to discover, network, brainstorm new work, heal old wounds, meet amazing talent who shared their big brains, courageous hearts and powerful gifts every day.”

– Ruth Kirschner, 69, Playwright, San Francisco, CA

“I could not have asked for a more nurturing and inspiring group… Thank you for creating a safe space for so many voices to speak their hopes, passions, struggles, pain and shame… I believe the Jam was a micro example of what should be possible at a macro level: nurturing, slow pace, warmth, abundant love and affection.”

– Shanti Ganesh, 41, PhD, research on creativity and resilience, UC Berkeley, California

“I attended my first Jam in 2006 and my life was changed… This Arts Jam was just as transformational. I feel like I’ve been to the mountaintop. Once again I had the honor of meeting diverse souls who shared my calling – Artivism! I leave this experience rejuvenated and grounded. I was given space to think, to plan, to question, to create and release.”

– Monica Raye Simpson, 34, Executive Director, Sister Song, Atlanta, Georgia

“Thank you for bringing together such a diverse and thoughtful group of souls with so much to give and so willing to receive. This experience has allowed me to open up and release years of gunky emotions that were consuming energy and getting in the way of my growth. To be given the opportunity to build such a community was new to me and I will never forget the time I spent here.” 

– Jose Cortez, 21, Multi-Disciplinary artist, Boston, MA