For artists & creative facilitators
A Barn Studio for Multi-Day Art & Creative Retreats
Sixty-five square metres of working space, twelve hundred trees we planted, a sculpture garden five minutes away. A base camp that handles the bedding and the meals so you can spend the day teaching the work.
In short
A studio for the morning, a horizon for the afternoon, a long table for the evening critique.
Built for cohorts of six to twelve, three to seven days, residential.
A barn that becomes your studio for the week
The Hay House practice barn is sixty-five square metres of heated wooden floor with dimmable light, a sound system, and room for a circle of twelve to spread out at their own easels or tables. Big doors and windows mean generous daylight — though it shifts through the day, so this is a working barn rather than a fixed north-light studio.
It is a wooden floor, so we are honest about mess: dust sheets and floor covering come standard, and the messiest or solvent-heavy work moves to the courtyard or outdoors in good weather. Tell us your medium at booking and we set the room up for it.
Subjects and inspiration outside the door
On the farm itself: twelve hundred planted trees, a swimming pond, a thatched teahouse, the long Salland horizon. Five minutes away: the IJssel river and Kasteel Nijenhuis, a 17th-century castle with a sculpture garden that draws painters and drawing groups year-round.
Within thirty minutes: the Sallandse Heuvelrug national park for landscape work and three Hanseatic towns for urban sketching. For plein-air retreats, the subject changes with the weather and the season — and the studio is a five-minute walk back when the light goes.
A long table for the evening critique
After dinner the long table becomes the place to pin work up, talk it through, and look at the day together. We handle the meals — local, generous, and timed around your studio hours rather than a hotel service window — so the evening stays about the work.
Most art retreats run a morning studio session, an afternoon out with the subject or back at the easel, and an evening share. Whatever the rhythm, the kitchen opens when you tell us and the barn stays yours for the whole stay.
Why The Makers Barn
6–12
Cohort size — small enough for one-to-one feedback per day
65 m²
Heated barn studio with dimmable light and room for twelve
5 min
To the IJssel river and the Kasteel Nijenhuis sculpture park
Questions worth asking
Can we paint indoors with oils, solvents, or fixatives — is there ventilation?
The barn has big doors and windows that open for airflow, which is fine for most water-based and light studio work. There is no mechanical extraction, so heavy solvent work, oil painting in volume, and spray fixing are outdoor or courtyard activities here — easy in good weather, which is most of the season.
What about the floor and mess — and damage?
The studio is a heated wooden floor, so we cover it. Dust sheets and floor protection come standard, we ask that solvent and wet-clay work happens on covered surfaces or outdoors, and we take a refundable damage deposit for art retreats. Tell us your medium when you book and we will agree the set-up in advance.
Where do we wash brushes and dispose of solvent waste?
Utility and kitchen sinks handle water-based clean-up. Solvent waste cannot go into the farm’s septic system, so please bring sealable containers and take spent solvent and oil-paint waste away with you. We can point you to the local recycling point if you need one.
Can drying or wet work be stored safely overnight?
Yes. There is flat and rack space in the barn that locks overnight. The barn is cool after dark, which slows oil drying — most retreats plan their canvas schedule around that. Tell us how much drying space you need and we will set it aside.
Do you supply materials, easels, or a kiln?
Bring your own kit. We provide the space, long work tables, and storage — but no kiln, printing press, or specialist studio equipment, so it is air-dry or unfired clay only. For life-drawing, we do not provide models but have local contacts; tell us at booking and we will see what we can arrange.
Planning the timeline?
Use our free 12-month launch calendar to plan phases, milestones, and the realistic timeline that actually works.
Open the launch calendarSpot the mistakes before you sign
Run the 25 most common retreat-host mistakes against your plan. 5 minutes, no signup, personalised risk report.
Take the 5-minute auditBring your art retreat to a place with light and time
Tell us your dates, your cohort size, and the medium the retreat is built around — painting, drawing, mixed media, printmaking, or hands-on craft. We will come back with availability and a quote.