Register Here

Check out the job postings on our website. JOBS!

If you are a member of Cherokee County Chamber of Commerce and you are hiring, post your job positions with us. Contact info@cherokeecountychamber.com for assistance.

The John C. Campbell Folk School is excited to announce that online registration is now open for all 2023 classes! Browse our new catalog digitally and join us for a weeklong or weekend class in Brasstown.

In our newest catalog, you’ll find classes through the end of the year, dates for upcoming events, and details on our residency programs, including Work Study, Student Host, Artist in Residence, and Traditional Craft Mentorships. You’ll also discover new additions, like stories highlighting our Folk School community, and our cover story about Virginia Webb, a third-generation beekeeper and longtime Folk School instructor.

Help us get the word out about our discount programs – We offer 25% off tuition to residents of 9 counties (Cherokee, Clay, Macon, Swain, Graham, Fannin, Towns, Union, and Polk) and 15% to teachers and young adults (ages 18–25). We also have scholarships available, so we encourage lifelong learners, young adults, craftspeople, or those who have never visited the Folk School and are facing financial hurdles to apply. You can apply for these programs on our website here.

To register for class, visit our website or call the main office at 828-837-2775. We’re encouraging folks to go green and view our digital catalog, but if you’d like paper copies of our catalog and haven’t received them, let us know – We’re happy to get some over to you.

Register for a Class

Everybody has to start somewhere.
Come start with us at Senior Games this year!

The 2023 Senior Games Opening Ceremony & Kickoff
take place at the Clay County Recreation Center
in Hayesville at 10am.
Early bird registration starts March 13 - March 24 for $10
Normal registration starts March 25 for $15
Additional $5 for participants attending Closing Ceremony Banquet, guests $15
Registration forms can be picked up at the Penland Murphy Senior Center starting March 13

Here is the full Sports and SilverArts schedule

Tri-County Community College Small Business Center will cover everything from business plans to capital and marketing. It is completely free with a free lunch as well.

Here is the registration link; https://www.ncsbc.net/workshop.aspx?ekey=520430017

Brothers Ed and Keith Wood have conserved more than 250 acres of their Cherokee

County family farm, passing the halfway point to conserving 400 acres of working

farmland in the Valley River valley.

The Wood family has been farming the land that sits along the Nantahala Scenic Byway

since the early 1900s. “The land has been a farm as long as I have been around,” says

Ed. “Keith and I have made a living from it pretty much all our adult lives, and our father

and grandfather before that.”

The conservation project was made possible through funding from the North Carolina

Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund, which offers

compensation to farmers who choose to not develop their land. Mainspring

Conservation Trust facilitated the process, which took an unusually long time. These

projects don’t often take more than two years, but the Wood farm has a complex history

that includes a highway, unused railroad line, and airport all adjacent to their property.

Visible from Nantahala National Forest lands in the Snowbird and Valley River

Mountains, the property includes more than two miles of named and unnamed streams

that are part of the Valley River Watershed. Additionally, more than 81% of the soil is

considered Prime Farmland soil. “The farm is highly productive compared to other farms

in the state — or even the country for that matter,” Keith Wood says. “It just makes

sense for this farm to remain in food production for future generations. It’s hard to eat a

building or asphalt.”

Mainspring expects to conserve the other 150 acres this year and next, with hopes to

additionally conserve the Wood brothers’ future land purchases. Part of Mainspring’s

mission is protecting the agricultural heritage of Western North Carolina, which is more

important now more than ever as development pressures continue to rise and demands

on farmers intensify.

For more information about the North Carolina Agricultural Development and Farmland

Preservation Trust Fund grants to preserve farmland, contact Emmie Cornell,

Mainspring Land Conservation Manager, at ecornell@mainspringconserves.org.

Sequoyah Fund began as a Revolving Loan Fund (RLF) of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians in 1996. At the time, we were known as the Cherokee Business Development Fund. With funding from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, the board of directors began work to convert The Sequoyah Fund, Inc. into a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI).

CDFIs are chartered by the U.S. Treasury's CDFI Fund, and this designation gives us more access to capital, helping more small businesses in Cherokee and Western North Carolina. The Sequoyah Fund serves the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians on the Qualla Boundary and throughout the seven westernmost counties of NC. We also make loans to non-Cherokee-owned businesses, but these make up a small minority of our outstanding loans.

Find out more about Sequoyah Fund HERE