Why the Art of Retreat?

The Parkour Community has a community of leaders and dedicated practitioners going above and beyond to create positive and memorable experiences for people interested in learning parkour—gifting hours upon hours of time, talent, and treasure through running classes, organizing events, and building creative environments for play.

While we all love what we do, sometimes we face challenges and problems we don’t know how to solve. Sometimes we have great ideas but don’t have somewhere to share it with the world. And frankly, sometimes we just feel a little burnt-out and alone in our efforts and just want someone who could relate.

The Art of Retreat was created because:

  • Space where you can meet and share with others who are facing similar challenges is radically impactful.

  • Dedicated time where you can reconnect to your ‘why’ for doing what you do and celebrate what you’ve achieved is critical to ensuring you don’t burn out.

  • Sharing and being inspired by the work of others helps us stay energized and excited for what comes next.

Will you join us this year?

Created by You & Me

Volunteer Lead

Art of Retreat is 100% volunteer-fueled and co-created by those who attend.

Together, we pool our resources, skills, ideas and imagination to create the funding, the presentations, the activities, and the experience itself. During the event, we also take care of our needs, each other, and the environment. Food and lodging is included in a ticket, we encourage folks to bring & share their ideas/snacks/hobbies, and when we leave, we leave no trace.

Nonprofit

The Art of Retreat is a non-profit* event supported by a mixture of individual donations, gym partners, and ticketing.

Thanks to the generosity of our donors & partners, we are able to

(1) keep ticket prices wildly low and inclusive of all housing and food

(2) offer a sliding scale, and

(3) give scholarship tickets to anyone in need.

This is awesome! Thank you. If the Art of Retreat has meaningfully impacted you, consider become a donor this year :)

*We are fiscally sponsored by Parkour Visions, a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit. If the event has any excess revenue, it is set aside and used for future events. All donations are tax-deductible.

The Impact

Since 2015, over 250 coaches, gym owners, community leaders, passionate students, and friends of parkour, representing over 40 countries, have participated in the Art of Retreat. Life long friendships have been formed, creative projects have been conceived and launched, new partnerships forged, and online peer-support groups started.

  • Supports the sharing of research, best practices, and educational resources within the parkour discipline through presentations, skill swaps, facilitated conversation, and more. Apply to talk.

  • Promote a culture of positive, constructive critique through discussion-based activities and feedback.

  • Bring together diverse perspectives, with participants from all dimensions of diversity, gender, age, and areas of talent and expertise. Apply to attend.

  • Forge a more resilient and connected international leadership community by increasing face-time, providing space for networking, and inviting attendees from as many geographic regions as possible to participate. Join our network.

  • Distribute accessible educational content to coaches, community builders, educators, researchers, and business professionals via recording and releasing interviews with our speakers and facilitating public Q&A sessions. Check out or Podcast here.

  • Celebrate and provide recognition to the achievements within our community