We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little.
Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator
Past Appearances
WORX Summer Camp, Fairview, NC, Day One of Two, July 20, 2026
RAD Farmers Market at New Belgium, June 24, 2026Therapeutic Boarding School "Creative Incubator"
Mayday 2026 Teacher-Strike "Letter Factory"
To make a donation by Zelle, scan this QR code:
To make a donation via any other method, email Elliot Reed at [email protected]
Upcoming Appearances
Haywood Community College, Waynesville, NC: multiple appearances in September of 2026
Asheville Middle School: IRL After-School Analog Arts Club: September through October, 2026
Rainbow Community School, Asheville, NC: appearances TBD
Asheville City Schools, Various: TAPAS (Teaching Artists Presenting in Asheville Schools): Residency Dates TBD
Our Programs
In Fall of 2026, Offline Arts Institute will be conducting pop-up workshops for students and educators across Western North Carolina and beyond. In Spring of 2027, Offline Arts Institute (O.A.I.) will be an after-school space in Asheville offering teens a place to study and practice multimedia arts in an analog environment. O.A.I. is grounded in the basic beliefs that (1) human beings are happiest when making physical things, (2) art has a therapeutic function, and (3) offline time with peers, and without phones, is key to healthy development of executive function and even sense of self. We’ll offer instruction in the following tracks of study: [literature and publishing] ; [sound design and audio storytelling] ; [documentary film] ; [fiber arts and costume].
Where We Are
Coming soon
Youth Advisory Council
O.A.I. is currently accepting applications for the Youth Advisory Council. Councilors will steer programming, evaluate instruction, plan special events, and design a marketing strategy.
Community Partnerships
Coming soon
Board of Directors
Elliot Reed, founder of Offline Arts Institute, is a writer and educator living in Asheville, NC with his wife and child. He is the author of A Key to Treehouse Living.
Trevor Crown is a fiction writer and the Senior Manager of Volunteer Innovation & Assessment for 826LA, a nonprofit empowering under-resourced students in Los Angeles through free creative writing education. His stories have appeared in The Panacea Review, The Threepenny Review, The Southern Humanities Review, Glimmer Train, Hobart, and more.
John Gholston Moran is the founding editor of The Panacea Review. His writing has appeared in Subtropics, Southern Cultures, and Little Star, among other journals. He holds a PhD in anthropology from Stanford and an MFA in fiction from Brown.
Arthur Thuot is the facilitator at StoryCorp, a company that delivers storytelling workshops to business and government. Previously, he served as a project director for a media agency in Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific. He holds an MFA from the University of Florida and an HBA from the Ivey Business School at Western University.
Marie McGrath is a poet, fundraiser, and educator from Miami. Marie holds an MFA from the University of Florida and has worked for the last decade in literary arts, youth empowerment, and digital wellness nonprofits. She is currently the Director of Events at Solid State Books in Washington, DC, where she lives with her wife.
Information for Supporters
Offline Arts Institute is registered with the IRS as Create Space for the Analog Arts. Create Space for the Analog Arts is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code so that your donation will be 100% tax deductible as a charitable contribution under IRS Section 170. We are located in Asheville NC and our Federal Tax EID number is 41-4739367.
Contact
Elliot Reed, Program Director
Offline Arts Institute
email: <[email protected]>