About
Our Mission
To teach, inspire and build community through shared experiences in nature, history, and the arts.
Our Approach
The Ashokan Center’s unique educational approach – hands-on and place-based – is designed to foster inquiry, curiosity, and a love of life-long learning in people of all ages. We lead and host year round residential and day programs for K-12 school students and teachers, colleges and universities, retreat groups, corporations, and not-for-profits. Our trained staff takes full advantage of Ashokan’s unparalleled natural setting to teach science, history, writing, team-building, music, dancing and graphic arts. The rustic elegance of our new campus along with the natural beauty of Ashokan’s forests, fields and streams help to create an unforgettable experience for visitors of all ages.
Our Place
Located in Olivebridge, New York on 374-acres of Catskill forests, streams and farmland, the Ashokan Center is a special blend of geologic, natural and human history. Upon entering our grounds, many people describe “going back in time” leaving the hustle and bustle of the modern world behind. This feeling is confirmed by our 18th and 19th Century buildings and working craft shops: Winchell’s Inn (c. 1780), the 1817 schoolhouse, the Ashokan Barn and Barnyard, Blacksmith Shop, Print Shop, Pewter Shop, and Tin & Broom Shops. Interspersed among these historic structures are our new sustainably-designed facilities: Performance Hall, Classrooms, Residential Lodges and Dining Rooms. The old and the new come together to create the Ashokan village – a place where students, guests and visitors feel at home and inspired to learn.
The Ashokan Center’s trails and outdoor features offer students and guests opportunities to hike to the depths of the 350 million year old Cathedral Gorge and the Turnwood-Ashokan Covered Bridge (1885) or explore the lower Esopus by canoe or foot. Outpost classrooms like the Homestead, Lenape Village, the Writer’s Cabin and the Ropes Course dot the Ashokan landscape creating unique learning opportunities around every bend in the path.
