family FOLK CAMP 2026
Join us for a fresh take on our summer youth-focused workshops! Family Folk Camp is open to all ages, but recommended for rising 5th-12th grade with an adult guardian 25 +. You’ll choose a major area of focus; art, music, or farming then have plenty of chances to take mini-classes and participate in summer camp classics like hiking, canoeing, and pool time! This event is geared toward parents or guardians bringing a child or children. We also welcome pairings of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and godparents. If you’re unsure how your group fits, contact us!
Register Opening Soon!
Sample Schedule - coming soon.
COST
Cabin Bunk- Bed, Meals, & Tuition Per Camper for 3 Nights: $350
Private Lodge Room, Meals, & Tuition for 2 Campers for 3 Nights: $900
*$100 for each additional camper in lodge room
MAJORS
Adult guardians are welcome, but not required to participate in the major sessions. Regardless of participation, you are responsible for making sure your child gets safely to and from their chosen major location. Participation in optional mini-classes, all extracurricular activities, and meals requires your adult supervision of your child.
MUSIC MAJORS
Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar, or Fiddle
Music students will spend time working with their instructors as well as making music with fellow campers. Our instructors are professional musicians and educators from around the Southeast. Music students will have fun listening to and learning old tunes and styles from before recorded music. This workshop will give campers the tools to go home and continue their musical adventures after the workshop is over.
We're excited to have our returning instructors:
ART MAJORS
Mixed Media Art
Campers will be working with various mediums including collage, clay, sewing textiles, printmaking, painting, and more. Our approach to creativity is low pressure and lots of fun! We hope that you’ll leave with some lovely works of art, some new tools in your creative toolbox, and the confidence and inspiration to keep creating art on your own.
Jamie Alvey will return to lead this crew of creators!
FARMING MAJORS
Campers who participate in farming will learn about the food we eat and how it gets to our plates. Students will participate in sustainable agriculture, teamwork, and hands-on caring for our gardens and farm animals with the McDowell Farm School staff.
Come learn and explore with farmers:
JENNA SHEA MOBLEY
Jenna Shea Mobley is a touring and studio musician based out of Atlanta. She plays mostly fiddle and upright bass these days, though her first instruments were banjo, guitar, and piano. She has been a teacher of each of these instruments to students of all ages over the past 15 years, in both individual lessons and group classes and workshops. While she was trained classically from middle school through college, she now plays more old time and folk styles and teaches primarily ear training, improvisation, and folk/popular repertoire. Her degree in Early Childhood Education and her career as an elementary school teacher strongly influence her pedagogical approach and her deep love for building a community of learners and creatives. Her goal is for her students to be life-long musicians with the skills to learn songs they love and connect with others through music.
BEN AYERS
Ben is a professional musician and school music teacher, based out of southern Middle Tennessee where he grew up. He knew he wanted to pursue music as a career 19 years ago after his first guitar lesson, but it took getting a mandolin at the age of 18 to realize that folk music (old-time, bluegrass, Irish trad, blues, swing, etc) was the stylistic world he wanted to dedicate his life to. Since then Ben has played mandolin in bluegrass, old-time, celtic, and even classical groups over the years (in addition to guitar and upright bass work). Ben taught his first mandolin student within a year of starting the instrument, and is excited to help a new group of future musicians get their start!
AERIN DERUSSY
Aerin started playing Suzuki violin when she was four years old and learned her first fiddle tunes when she was six. Ever since then, Aerin's juggled being a classically trained violinist and a self-taught fiddler. She's won Texas-style fiddle contests throughout the Southeast such as Georgia's Official State Fiddler's Convention and the Smithville Fiddler's Jamboree. While obtaining her Biology degree at Georgia Tech, Aerin paid her rent gigging with multiple Atlanta and North Georgia Bluegrass bands, busking at Farmers Markets, and playing weddings with a classical string quartet. Now based in Birmingham, Aerin is a data scientist during the day but spends her evenings and weekends delving into old-time fiddling, playing violin/fiddle at various churches, viola with various orchestras, and gigging locally with a variety of artists from Trans-Siberian Orchestra to The Yellow Dandies.
BAILEY HILL
Bailey is a multi-instrumentalist and experienced songwriter based out of Fultondale, Alabama. He got his start learning mandolin at The Alabama Folk School at Camp McDowell, and soon expanded his horizons to banjo and guitar. Bailey specializes in American Old Time and Bluegrass music but has a firm grasp on contemporary acoustic styles as well. His experience in the world of teaching includes numerous Alabama Folk School workshops as well as over 10 years teaching private lessons to youth and adults alike.
Bailey is also an experienced performer. He has performed at The Acoustic Cafe, Artwalk Birmingham, The Birmingham Museum of Art, Samford University’s Children Week, FOOTMAD of Birmingham’s Monthly Contra Dances, Bluegrass on the Rim, and many more. Bailey’s passion for teaching and performing comes from a fundamental drive of wanting more music in the world. Bailey views music as not just a great hobby or job, but an excellent way to build community and fellowship.
