Our Values
The Field School is an intensive in contentment. The program is based on a belief that to be moved by the beauty and strangeness of our world from moment to moment is an indispensable characteristic of well-being.
Children have a predisposition to this kind of awareness. After all, the world is new to them. It commands their attention and awe. For them, the familiar is strange and the natural is otherworldly.
Through children, parents and other caregivers sometimes find themselves drawn into the wonder of the everyday. These bonds of love can serve as ladders to a more deeply-lived experience.
As a landscape, Hvar heightens this naive sensibility. The sky seems bluer, the light purer, the silences deeper here. Rhythms of waves and harvest, the toll of church bells, and melodies passed down from generation to generation. It is one of the world’s beautiful places, but - more than that - it retains a sense of authenticity and enchantment that is unique, even among the Mediterranean’s most celebrated destinations.
Mission
Europe’s heritage, natural beauty, and culture have long attracted visitors. In recent years, the rise of remote work has enabled an increasing number of them to stay in Europe for months or even years, rather than the whirlwind summer sprees of yesteryear.
Now this trend is spreading from foot-loose digital nomads to entire families, giving rise to an emerging cluster of “world-schooling hubs” and other services for children and parents on long-stays abroad.
Could this new breed of slow travelers be the answer to extractive mass tourism on the one hand, and rural depopulation on the other?
What are the principles and practices that remote worker “campuses” and programs should follow in order to strengthen the underlying cultural and natural assets that attract people to Europe in the first place?
The Field School seeks to pioneer responsible answers to these questions, building an “open source” playbook for inter-generational, cross-cultural communities that welcome remote workers while improving the daily lives and living spaces of existing residents.
Through our program, we aim to create a blueprint for children’s education and family balance that sinks deep roots into nature, local folkways, and European creative prowess as the bedrock of a thriving adulthood.
As our seasonal offer grows, we plan to include programs for teenagers and life-long learners, as well as artist residencies.
Ultimately, we strive to grow into a full-time, independent school, serving both local and foreign families.
An Independent School
The Field School aims to grow into an independent school serving children from early childhood onward. Our specific focus will be on nurturing young leaders in the climate movement by cultivating scientific literacy and a practical understanding of how social change takes place, alongside a deep foundation for ethical living and mental health in the humanities and in nature.
Regeneration
Hvar’s landscapes and culture have withstood the rise and fall of empires, centuries of colonialism, intensive agriculture, and terrible civil conflicts. But the tidal wave of mass tourism may be enough to finally destabilize the ecological and social systems upon which the island’s special beauty rests.
The Field School of Hvar aims to serve as a civic institution which safeguards the island’s endowments through applied research, reinvestment, and celebration of its land and people. Driving change through a zero emission, zero waste campus, The Field School will invite a generation of island youth and budding environmentalists from across the world to join in the fight against extinction, locally and globally.
Our goal is to provide an education requiring no or minimal tuition so that we may support all students on an equal footing, based on their desire to serve others. To support this model, we envision that the school will operate a series of regenerative ventures, from an heirloom plant nursery to solar installation, which will fill gaps in the island’s sustainability ecosystem while providing students with a nurturing on-ramp to adult responsibilities and skills.