After many changes, over 150 residents from 16 countries, and lots of wonderful moments over our ten years, the Rensing Center closed as a non-profit organization on June 30, 2022.
Despite closing the non-profit organization, we are still committed to the arts, the environment and building community. Book your stay with us using Airbnb to experience the Rensing Center for yourself.
Thank you for all of your support.
The Rensing Center nourishes imagination. It fosters individual renewal, community connection, and interdisciplinary interaction among people in creative, environmental, and entrepreneurial fields.
On twenty-seven acres in the beautiful southern Appalachian foothills near Pickens, SC, the Rensing Center is more than just the land, the people, the gardens and the buildings. Here we model a way of life less addicted to cheap energy, and more blessed by what actually fulfills us.
Formerly a residency program, we have provided living and work space to self-directed artists looking for an isolated rural, creative landscape. Residents have stayed with us for periods ranging from three weeks to three months. Residents have focused on creative, professional, environmental, endeavors, or a combination of all three. Other aspects of Rensing are:
Retreats: Overnight or longer retreats at the Rensing Center can be a time of growth and renewal. The land includes pastures, waterfalls, forest, nature trails and gardens (flower and vegetable), set in beautiful Pickens County. Expert facilitation is available.
Library: Several programs have been held in this gracious space, including focused readings on history, environment, and generational memory. We also host movie nights and evenings to highlight visitor works. Additionally we host Healing Conversations, a monthly potluck where we include members of the local community. A 4000 volume library has been catalogued.
Nature trail: Our Alder Creek Trail and the 80′ gradual waterfall is a favorite spot for visitors to do “forest bathing”, and has provided much inspiration. The trail was Connor Lehmacher’s eagle scout project. The trail is complete with benches, plant markers and other improvements.
What our past residents are saying:
What I never seem to be able to master, capture, make time for in the ‘outside,’ that quiet space to ponder and delve deep in the hope of creating something worthwhile, became plentiful during my time at the Rensing Center. The beauty and peace of my surroundings no doubt contributed to that — as did the goats.
–Laura Kasinof, Rensing resident, summer 2014
If I thought I was coming for art, I was quickly introduced to a way of life that immediately was added to my list of top five lives to have before I die.”
– Adrienne Antonson, Rensing resident, winter 2003
We applied to the Rensing Center with the goal of maintaining a level of photographic and conceptual openness to the people, the jobs, the mountains, and the art that we would encounter during our stay, with the hope that we would come to better understand both our adult selves and also our transient world. I can say, without hesitation, that we arrived at and surpassed our goal.”
– Augusta Pittman, Rensing resident, winter 2014
It’s the Rensing Center’s.. emphasis on creation, ecology, and entrepreneurial stewardship that makes it unique.. The Rensing Center offers time, and space, and affirmation to artists and writers, yes. But it does so in the context of an explicit connection to, and emphasis on.. humankind’s relationship to the land in which we live, the water we drink, the air we breathe, and the other organisms with which we interact.. A world in which art and artists have a role and a place, as we redefine what it means to be human in a changing world.”
– GC Waldrep, Rensing resident, winter 2014
1165 Mile Creek Rd. Pickens, SC 29671
