The Haystack Mountain School of Crafts announced Tuesday that it cancelled its 2020 program because of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The decision will prevent the annual influx of about 1,200 people from all over the world who ordinarily live and work together on Haystack’s remote 35-building campus.
Haystack made the announcement public Tuesday afternoon, March 31, just hours before Maine Gov. Janet Mills ordered all Maine people to stay at home (see story on page 7 of this issue).
“It was a devastating decision to make,” Paul Sacaridiz, Haystack’s executive director, said in a phone interview. But, he said, they decided to suspend the program to keep people safe. “And I’m incredibly proud of that,” he said.
It’s a decision that will cost Haystack about $1 million, Sacaridiz said.
“We believe it is the most socially responsible step we can take with the information available to us at this time,” he wrote in a letter posted on Haystack’s website.
Haystack’s summer session, its 70th, would have started in late May and ended in late October. Now there will be no residency program, no Island Workshop Day, no partnerships, and no one- and two-week sessions in crafts from blacksmithing to wood.
Sacaridiz said they couldn’t just delay the season because of the long lead time needed to open the campus. Haystack wanted to avoid causing problems for staff, faculty and students if they had to delay programming further or cancel it altogether, he wrote.
And even if Haystack just delayed its programs, the school would run the risk of high cancellation rates, potential travel restrictions and changing government guidelines as a result of the COVID-19 virus, the letter said.
The school generally employs 27 people during the summer and won’t be able to employ some of the seasonal workers such as kitchen staff, Sacaridiz said.
The campus will be closed to the public for the summer, but the school’s core staff will work on deferred maintenance and strengthening administration during the year. “I think the organization will emerge from this unprecedented time stronger,” Sacaridiz said.
Instead of a physical exhibit in the Deer Isle gallery, Haystack will hold a virtual exhibit. The Public Access Fab Lab may offer community programming, however, if the pandemic stabilizes and people can congregate safely, he said.
Haystack will try to reschedule as many of the faculty as it can for 2021. The school will refund scholarship and general application fees. Open Studio residencies will carry over until the next year, though scholarships won’t. Haystack promised to give priority consideration to 2020 scholarship recipients in 2021.