2024

SUMMER ADVENTURES

in CREATIVITY

Write…Read…Explore…

Walk & Sketch in Nature…

Create Art…

Perform…

Learn from Professional Authors, Artists, and Actors…

Celebrate & Share with Families & Friends

Storytree Theatre: Adventure on Shipwreck Island is FULL.

Space is available in Storytree Theatre: A Space Odyssey, July 8-12.

Two spaces are available in Imaginary Worlds and Fantastical Characters, July 22-26. Two spaces have opened in Imaginary Worlds and Fantastical Characters, July 29-August 2.

After filling out the registration form, pay online (www.merrybarn.com/store) or send a check, payable to Merry Barn, 417 River Road, Edgecomb 04556

The Sounding Board

Calling all Midcoast Writers!

March 28 with Ellen Baker

5:30 p.m. - Gathering and refreshments

6-8 p.m. - Readings and feedback

The Sounding Board is a new monthly forum for Midcoast writers of all abilities to share brief pieces, receive supportive feedback, and hear new work from a published author.

Writers will submit a piece, for approval, of up to 750 words in length by March 4 to merrybarnwritersretreat@gmail.com


Tuesday, March 12

5:30-7:30p.m. 

Together we’ll settle into an embodiment exercise, write into prompts, share our voice, and play in the creative process. We’ll write for process instead of product, for exploration and empathy, to see the world with new eyes, and to know what is deeply true for us. We’ll allow curiosity and a wide mind to guide our exploration. These gatherings are a means to begin telling a story, or collection of stories, that only we can tell. Sliding scale $15.00-$25.00

Save the Dates:

  • Tuesday, March 12, 5:30-7:30 p.m. 

  • Tuesday, April 16, 5:30-7:30 p.m. 

  • Tuesday, May 7, 5:30-7:30 p.m. 

  • Tuesday, June 11, 5:30-7:30 p.m. 

Community Writes!

Join Kelsy Hartley to explore creative memoir writing prompts, that support incorporating our own stories into their most “true” form, using exaggeration, mixing of characters, and elaboration. Each session begins with an embodiment exercise to bring the whole body into a writing experience. From this fully engaged place, stories and memories flow freely. We’ll explore “memory snapshots” and continue to opening up themes and stories behind these images. In each monthly gathering we will read, write, and share together. Kelsy is a writer and healer, and believes that creative embodiment returns us to health and vibrancy.

Flow Circles

with Morgan Mitchell

Creative Flow Circles invite you to drop into a more imaginative, relaxed state of being and explore your own creative power. You will be gently guided through a combination of meditation, moving color and poetry. Accompanied by instrumental music, you will have the opportunity to move color across a circuit of standing easels, each participant co-creating seamlessly in community. You're invited inward, to explore color, sound and rest in your own rhythm. There is nothing to do right and nothing to do wrong. No artistic, creative, or meditation experience necessary.

 
 
 

Past Community Literacy Events

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Stephanie Noyes McSherry

Executive Director

Retreats



At Merry Barn, we are committed to helping all community members discover a love of words and tap into creativity in all its forms. It is through writing, reading, and the arts that we come to know and express ourselves, connect with one another, and build supportive communities. The creative arts represent acts of freedom, power, and joy.

Nestled in the woods of Midcoast Maine, once a working barn and a storied dance hall, the Merry Barn is the perfect setting to explore the power of words and art, create and share with others, and send our voices into the world.

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“I write to make sense of the world -- both the world around me, and my own internal landscape. Writing peels back the hardened layers to reveal the true self, the child’s heart. This is one of the reasons I love writing with children: their words are genuine, they speak in truths.” - Stephanie Noyes McSherry



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Community Partnerships

The Merry Barn Writers’ Retreat welcomes partnerships with community members and businesses in the form of individual donations and corporate sponsorships. Be part of the Vision!