Let Me Tell You About the Art Scene in Serenbe

Specifically, The Art Farm. We've got something in these woods just south of ATL most towns would kill for.

Okay, come here a sec. Whether you just found Serenbe last week and can’t stop poking around, or you’ve been here long enough to have a favorite farm stand or artist and strong opinions about it, this one’s for you. I want to talk about the arts. Specifically, the Art Farm at Serenbe, because I don’t think half of us really know what we’ve got sitting out here in the woods just south of Atlanta.

Let’s start with the legend. Years ago, one of several programs under what was then the Serenbe Institute was called Serenbe Playhouse, and it was a big freakin’ deal. Like written up in Playbill, people flying in from other states deal. And these weren’t just shows, they were spectacles. They sank an actual ship. In the lake at The Serenbe Inn. For Titanic. They landed a real helicopter, EVERY single night, for Miss Saigon (a helicopter, in little Chatt Hills, I still can’t). That one swept our regional theater awards, the Suzi Basses, and walked off with Best Musical. They used vintage 1950s cars as the seats for Grease. And during Hair somebody streaked clean across the stage, so fast that I just sat there, jaw on the ground, thinking, wait, did that actually just happen? (Yes, I was at that one. It did.) And that might just be the moment I fell head over heels in love with this place.

This is an Around Here post, my local section for what’s happening around Serenbe and Chatt Hills. If you’re here for the main Life at Play stories and local isn’t your thing, you can switch Around Here off anytime in your subscription settings and keep the rest. But if you’ve ever been curious about this unique little pocket of Georgia, stick around. This one’s a good one.

The Sleepy Hollow Experience. That’s the one that even got my husband, Greg.

Seven years later and he still brings it up every single fall. One evening we rolled up to a little field at the edge of the woods, someone pressed a hot spiked cider into our hands, and then a small group of I’d say 25 of us followed a total stranger with a flashlight straight into the pitch black of the woods (a bit like what I imagine it felt like for Harry Potter the night he walked into the Forbidden Forest). No phones. Just one bobbing light and a pile of us shuffling, trying not to eat it on a tree root. We stood there in the dark, in silence, and then suddenly a light flicked onto a face in the trees, and another and another. Singing, telling the story in pieces, and you’d shuffle to the next little set built right into the forest, till it ended with a live horse and a headless man and a whole crowd gasping like school kids.

And this week I heard there might be plans to bring it back!
(pause for squeal)

I scrolled through the photos and somehow found this photo from 2019 of Greg, my mother in law and I with the cast of Sleepy Hollow.

Yes. You read that right. So I’m thinking if we make enough noise, maybe we can help nudge it from whisper to reality?

Okay, quick poll, and it counts.

(Tap your pick. I’m walking the results straight over to Art Farm.)

And while I’ve got you: what has been your favorite show? Or what show would make you completely lose it if Art Farm brought it to Serenbe? Tell me in the comments. Consider this our little group text to the Art Farm team.

That chapter eventually wound down. But Serenbe’s love of the arts didn’t. Today there’s a whole new organization carrying it forward, the Art Farm at Serenbe, and it’s very much alive and loved.

Here is a taste of a few things happening and the people behind it: Sheri Salata, who ran Oprah’s entire world for years, is behind the new film program (I wrote about that last year, here). And Rebecca Walker, yes, the bestselling author Time Magazine named one of the most influential leaders in America, has been quietly reviving the Artist in Residence Program (+ the cottages these artists stay in just got a cute zhuzh from local designer Well Made Interiors). And Ali Spain, Executive Director, Microsoft Alumni Network, is heading up the new Deer Hollow Art Park (more on that in a moment).

Dinner with the filmmakers of the Oscar-nominated VIVA VERDI! and Sheri Salata, at Soul Barn.

People still come in from ALL over to experience the arts in Serenbe. And what makes the arts here special hasn't changed: where it happens. It just pops up. In the woods. In the wildflower meadows. Under the trees, at the pavilion at the Inn. And the intimacy. Not thousands of people, a couple hundred, sometimes way less.

There’s no bad seat because there’s barely a seat at all. You’re right on top of it.

There’s this one moment in almost every outdoor show, a little pocket of quiet between songs, where you look up and it’s just sky and treetops and wind, and I swear it feels like a different century. Next time you are at a show, look for that moment. Take it in, take a deep breath and let it wash over you. It’s an instant nervous system regulator ;)

My kids have grown up in this (I know, it’s unreal. So fortunate, I try not to forget that). Every December we go to The Nutcracker at the Inn pavilion, heaters cranking because, you know, December, and they flop on their bellies right at the edge of the stage, chins in their hands, close enough to poke a ballerina. It’s where my son, without knowing the word for it yet, leaned over and told me he really liked one of the girls (we went and found her after, obviously, to tell her we were big fans). We go every year.

Things like this don’t just stick around on their own. We’re all being trained to want everything faster, cheaper, shorter, done for us before we’ve finished asking. A live show in a dark forest is the whole opposite of that. You can’t speed it up. You can’t stream it later. It just asks you to show up, feel something. Most small towns have nothing like this. A lot of big cities don’t either. We are so lucky, and I think we often forget (at least I know i do).

This, being among the arts and artists in nature, is not normal. And it’s not guaranteed.

“It’s not normal. And it’s not guaranteed.”

Which brings me to the part I went digging on, because I had questions and figured you might too. Wait, so is the Art Farm the same thing as the old Playhouse? And how does this whole thing run now? If I donate, where exactly does my money go?

Short version: not the same.. The Playhouse was its own thing, one program under the old Serenbe Institute, and that era wound down around 2020 (during COVID). The Art Farm is a brand-new organization, built to carry the arts forward here with its own structure and its own approach, same belief that art belongs at the center of a place like this.

So I sat down with a couple Art Farm board members and volunteers to get the nuts and bolts. And wow, I was astonished by the number of people and talent quietly pouring their time, skills, and resources into this thing. This year’s Soirée alone is chaired by Sara Griffen and Christine Sipple, with a whole committee of 15 volunteers behind them. And I have to call out Joe Luckett and Justin Oates-Marable because none of this would happen without them. Thank you, all of you!!!!!!

Here’s the gist on how it runs. First, it’s a nonprofit. And a big chunk of the money comes from something kind of wild: 1% of every home sale in Serenbe funnels into the Art Farm (which I love love love). That’s about 60% of their budget. Ticket sales? ~18%. And most of these shows barely break even because they keep prices low so people and families of all types can walk in the door. The rest, that last 22% (often more depending on home sales that year), comes from sponsors and donors.

So what are they after? One of the board members put it like this: “we want people to recognize this as an art center you travel to. That’s the prize we’re always working toward.” And they’re partway there, more than half the ticket buyers already drive in from somewhere else. But they’re dreaming bigger.

The big fundraiser this year is a whole new art park out at Deer Hollow (that’s on your right when you drive in the community entrance), think trails winding through meadows, giant sculptures you just stumble onto, space for kids and adults to play and just be.

So how do I support? Helping is easy, and it’s not all writing checks. It can be as small as buying a ticket and bringing a friend. It can be a free Sunday concert with your friends or kids. It can be getting your company to sponsor a night, or raising your hand to volunteer. Every one of those keeps the lights on and the shows coming. If you do want to write a check you can do so anytime here.

And if you want one thing to put on your calendar, make it this. The 2026 Casino Royale Soirée is their big fundraiser, the night that keeps all of it breathing, and this year it’s Saturday, September 26, held right out at the future Deer Hollow park (so you’re literally standing in the spot that’s about to become the new art park). Themed food stations and specialty drinks, a lively band, a live and silent auction, poker and gaming tables, and a “raise the paddle” moment. They even thought of the kids, with babysitting the night of, so the parents can let loose. Tickets are $300, Tables of 8 are $2,400. If you’ve ever wanted to support this place while eating great food and losing fake money in a great outfit (and practical shoes bc we are partying in a field), congratulations, this is your night. Tickets here. Can’t make it but want to throw in anyway? Right here.

(And I hear our local boutique, Levie Merci, is crowning a best-dressed winner who takes home a gift card to the shop. So yes, wear the thing.)

Mostly though? I just want you to go to something this year. Anything. Pick a show, grab a friend, drag the kids, lie in a meadow and look up. My two year old daughter, who cannot sit still for a haircut, sat stone still at the last one, chin tipped up, completely gone (yes, I brought snacks). I have no clue what she’ll remember. I just know that in a world moving faster and faster, this is the whole point. To stop, and let the arts catch you, inspire you.

And before you go, to show the Art Farm team how thankful we are, share your favorite Art Farm moment in the comments. The show, the memory, the one you still bring up. Let’s remind each other (and everyone who’s never come) exactly what this place can do.

And i’ll leave you with this… the one I hear that’s not to miss in the next few months is A Hill Country Holiday ft Margot Bingham + friends.

If this made you want to go to something, tap the little heart. It helps more people find it.

xx, Gina

P.S. I keep a running calendar of everything going on around here, not just the Art Farm, over at the Around Here Event Calendar. There’s so much more, Soul Barn, The Music Farm, Porchfest all of it. I’m also building out the local directory with our local artists and the public art you can wander on your own. If you’re an artist or maker nearby, add yourself here.