Escapes that feed your creative side

Inside a 1930s stone schoolhouse near the tip of Wisconsin's Door County peninsula, a group of women gently stroked blues and greens onto dense watercolor paper. Forest-filtered light flowed through windows and settled over the group, hushed with concentration.

Such scenes are common at the Clearing Folk School, a 128-acre historic retreat nestled above Lake Michigan's Green Bay and founded in 1935 by park planner/conservationist Jens Jensen. He was 75 at the time and understood the profound, soothing power of nature.

"I couldn't believe such a place was available in this modern, mechanical age," said Carole Kastiger of Minneapolis, who has taken poetry and journaling classes since discovering the Clearing a few years ago. One peek at the property and Kastiger was "enchanted," she said.

The Midwest offers several schools where you can escape for a weekend or a week, sinking into the scenery and laid-back pace of small towns. The hundreds of roll-up-your-sleeves classes cover everything from painting wildflowers and Nordic silversmithing to intricate knitting and building wooden boats. Most schools offer classes year-round, but May through October, the high season, is the best time to find inspiration in the rich landscapes.

Read on to learn about our correspondent's favorite artistic discoveries.

A wide variety of classes is taught in this bucolic setting. Among the offerings: quilting, digital photography, carving canes and walking sticks, and American Indian spirituality.

Where: Northern Door County, seven hours east of the Twin Cities.

When to go: May to October.

Tuition: From $825 to $1,195. Includes family-style, homemade meals, often using local ingredients such as Door County cherries or apples.

Get a sample: Stroll through the site's dense woods and stone buildings on the National Register of Historic Places during open houses 1 to 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. The visitor center, open daily, includes interpretive displays and video about the Clearing.

Accommodations: Tuck under homemade quilts and admire local artwork in simple dorms and single or double cabins.

While you're there: Thursday nights are free for visiting local galleries and restaurants. Stop at Seaquist Orchard for cherries or grab a beer and watch the sun set over Green Bay before taking your seat inside for a show at the Peninsula Players Theatre in Fish Creek.

With white Lutheran churches advertising Swedish meatball suppers along prairie roads, it makes sense that this vibrantly painted folk school founded in 1988 focuses on Nordic folk crafts. Internationally known artists teach everything from knife-making and woodcarving to rosemaling and silversmithing.

Where: Northwest of Montevideo, three hours west of the Twin Cities.

Contact: 1-320-734-4807; www.milanvillageartsschool.org.

Tuition: From $65 for a one-day bracelet class to $265 for a five-day workshop in ornate Acanthus carving.

Get a sample: Visit the Meander Upper Minnesota River Arts Crawl the first weekend in October to tour the school, meet instructors and visit local artists.

While you're there: Drive the Minnesota River Scenic Byway. Visit Historic Chippewa City, a 24-building replica of an 1880s village, and the Swensson Farm Museum, for a peek at life on the prairie circa 1900, including a well-restored timber-frame barn.

For more information: 1-866-866-5432; www.milanmn.com or www.prairiewaters.com.

With a gorgeous harbor and backdrop of sweeping hills, Grand Marais has long been an artistic escape and favorite come-as-you-are small town. Painters with the Grand Marais Arts Colony, begun in 1947, can be found along the shore or with other visual artists in the colony's 1916 church.

On the harbor, North House Folk School, now in its 11th year, focuses on local heritage and seasonal, practical arts from timber-frame building and constructing a brick bread oven to foraging for mushrooms or weaving intricate baskets. There also are several classes on sustainable living.

Where: Five hours north of the Twin Cities on the North Shore.

Tuition: From $70 for a day of knitting or cooking to $3,300 for North House's 11-day workshop and the materials to build a cedar-strip canoe or kayak with a friend or two.

Get a sample: North House hosts its annual Wooden Boat Show and Summer Solstice Festival June 19-21. Guests are welcome on sailing trips aboard the school's six-person boat Hjordis June 15-Oct. 15. Reservations recommended, especially for full-moon sails. The Arts Colony hosts the annual juried Grand Marais Arts Festival along the harbor July 11-12.

Accommodations: At least 10 resorts, hotels, cottages or bed-and-breakfasts are within walking distance (1-888-922-5000; www.grandmarais.com).

While you're there: Stroll through local galleries, hike out to Artists Point, a small peninsula in Lake Superior, or drive up the historic Gunflint Trail toward the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

More information: 1-888-922-5000; www.grandmarais.com.

Where: Near Lac du Flambeau, Wis., about five hours northeast of the Twin Cities.

Contact: 1-715-588-3143; www.dillmans.com.

When to go: Classes offered May-October.

Tuition: Most classes run for five days with tuition averaging $100-$110 a day, and lodging at $56 a night per person.

Get a sample: Resort guests can prearrange to sit in on a morning session to get a feel for classes.

While you're there: Grab a kayak, take a swim or find a sunny spot on the shore. Fifteen to 20 miles east of Lac du Flambeau, you can find specialty shopping, dining, biking, fishing and even gangster history in the resort towns Minocqua, Boulder Junction and Manitowish Waters.

For more information: 1-800-446-6784; www.minocqua.org.