North House Folk School

North House’s Craft Education Internship is dedicated to advancing the future of traditional craft. For 10 months, interns live in community on campus while taking courses and engaging in the day-to-day operations of the school. This year’s interns moved to Grand Marais in January, and conclude their internship at Winterers’ Gathering. This is what they had to say about their experience. 

Lauren Dahl

Nearly ten months of the Craft Education Internship have come to pass. All woven together, it is the rich color of each individual thread that has made the tapestry remarkable. It is the good humor of laundry on the doorstep, the invitation to come on over if ever we need to escape the bustle of town, and the promise to let us know when the Northern Lights are dancing overhead. It is the sharing of scrap materials, fresh baked loaves of sourdough, and knowledge of the best swimming spots. These threads have passed along stories, songs, and crafting traditions of all kinds; and someday, they will lead me back to this place.

Gracee Hurley-Brown

So there I was, first day on the job, smiling at a soap dispenser. There’s birch bark cut and pasted on top of the labels around campus. Sometime in early spring, I found myself swept into the Red Building by the sound of stringed instruments. A group of humans singing around the woodstove. It felt like I had stumbled into the whole point of this place. Now I walk into the newly opened Loft Classroom and see a row of freshly forged hooks. I know that Phil made these, and also that most people coming through that room won’t. He put care into them anyway, just like the person who put bark on the hand soap. Magic seeps out of this place through the people who put their energy into it. How special to be a part of it all.

Julia Nellessen

I’m so grateful for the magic of living near the lake. This year at North House has held many different ways to connect with people. So much of this connection has happened over a shared love of craft, the boreal forest, or wood-fired pizza. But my favorite way has been at the water. My most frequented spot in town is just through the campground, up over the rocks, down where the waves come crashing in on a windy day, and rolling by you on the easy ones. This spot feels sacred to me and I know I’m not the only one who feels it. I’ve watched the moonrise there, seen more sunsets than I can count, and swam in the gullies all throughout the summer. And every time I meet someone there, our eyes feel softer, words more genuine, and spirits so clearly held in awe by the powerful beauty of the lake.

Phil Stephens

A friend once posed the question, “Do we move to a place to tell our story? Or are we called to a place to tell its story?” The greatest work of an artist is not the tangible, but the life that they live. The work they leave behind—a recording of this life. 

So for lake swimming, sailing, or fika; losing yourself in a drawknife…do we live out our values? Carrying them with us to places we feel they can flourish? Or are these ways of being, something more intrinsic to the respondent movements of life and place? Either way, my time here at North House has been steeped in ways of being that pulse with intentionality, and dance with values. The life I’ve been afforded here will resonate with me for a long time to come, as I continue to craft this life. 

Join us in celebrating our 2024 Interns for Portfolio Night on Thursday, November 21 from 5-7pm in the Blue Building.