a fellowship
cultivating a whole love
Applications are now up for the 2026-27 Year! Enrollment is open to boys and girls, ages 10-18. We have one boys group and one girls group, each with limited spots.
The Local Academy is a fellowship of students, whose aim is to cultivate a whole, local, and embodied love of God, neighbor, and creation. We are loving neighbors rooted in one another, in the land, and in the divine mystery. In the words of a Kentucky poet, we “practice resurrection.”
Love of God
From mentorship and worshipful solitude and work, to entering into literature that ignites the imagination to reach beyond what is seen, we cultivate the highest love: a love for God himself.
Love of Neighbor
From building a fellowship grounded in prayer, honesty, care, and attention, to serving our place and its people with the work our hands, we cultivate deep friendship and neighborliness.
Love of Creation
Because the health of neighbor and place is one, and because we have been given our rivers, fields, and woods as a gift, we cultivate the health of creation through the practice of agrarian arts.
