Initiative / A regenerative commons
Shope Creek / The proving ground
Give first.Hollow Bone brings artists, families, founders and curious people together through music, film and time on the land. It began with Stephen and Mary Sedmak’s open door at Shope Creek, and Craig Rose’s invitations. The idea is simple: give people room to explore, create and carry something meaningful into the world.
What the name means
A hollow bone makes room for something greater to move through. You don’t have to be the source—just open enough to listen, receive and carry it forward.
Hollow Bone creates both: space for people to hear themselves, and structure to help their wisdom and creativity reach the world. No single founder, property or method defines it.
01 / From Asheville, outward
Shope Creek gave the philosophy a room to be seen. Asheville brings the musicians, the makers, the mountains and the people who know how to turn a gathering into something that stays with you. Our next step is a permanent home here—a place to make work that can travel far beyond it.
The ambition is worldwide. The work starts here.
03 / The two questions
Hollow Bone began with two questions Stephen Sedmak had spent years living into:
Can we create places where people feel safe enough to release inherited fear, reconnect with themselves and experience what becomes possible beyond survival?
Can healing, wisdom, land, creativity and technology circulate through a system based on participation, stewardship and reciprocity—not only transaction?
He no longer speaks about those ideas as possibilities. He believes the shift is already happening. Hollow Bone became a way to participate in it.
The proving ground / Shope Creek
The idea did not begin at Shope Creek. It began earlier—in California, in Stephen's experience room, in moments where he started giving without expectation and watching what came back.
Shope Creek became the place where that philosophy could become observable. On 131 acres outside Asheville, Stephen and Mary Sedmak opened their family land to children, teachers, artists, musicians, founders and seekers. Forest Floor brought children into relationship with the land. Camp Mary brought different worlds into the same room.
"It wasn't born here. It was proven here."
The land creates conditions. The guides create encounters. The people decide whether to walk through.
The ecosystem / Many ways in
The land creates conditions. The guides create encounters. The invitation creates possibility. The participant does the rest. Hollow Bone connects the work so one good thing can make the next one possible.
01 / The gathering
Artists, elders, founders, families. Different worlds around the same table. The conversations matter as much as the performances.
02 / The music & Episode One
Kenny McCormick IV’s journey, filmed by Jackson Averett. Years of making music, and the people who believed before they knew what would happen.
03 / The living library
Wisdom doesn’t retire. Books, songs, films and oral histories carry it forward—one generation in conversation with the next.
04 / The living experiment
Sound, light, emerging technology and room to explore. Personal experience and thoughtful inquiry—not a clinic or a promise of medical outcomes.
05 / Give first. Keep giving.
Gifts can support work now. Proposed contributions of founder equity and creative assets may support what comes after. Legal and governance structures remain in development.
06 / A place to come together
Shope Creek is Stephen and Mary’s home and the proving ground—not a commercial retreat center. The land creates conditions; the people do the rest. Asheville is where we’re seeking the next permanent home.
The founding circle / Different frequencies. Same room.
01 / Founding director / Culture & connection
The wild catalyst.
Twenty-five years of walking into rooms that weren’t supposed to belong together. He sees something, believes in it, invites the person into the room and helps give it form—before knowing what happens next. That’s not talent management. That’s give first.
Watch Craig / Faith over fear
02 / Originating founder / Story & possibility
The sound pioneer. The doorman.
He co-founded SRS Labs and helped give sound another dimension. Then came the books, the forest, the dragons and a very different kind of listening. Wizard energy; “doorman” by his own description. Stephen and Mary opened Shope Creek. The rest of us walked in.
Watch / Stephen and Mary Sedmak
03 / Founding steward / Whole-person support
The mystic. The steady hands.
Divine-feminine energy with the grounded warmth of grandma wisdom. Joda brings intuition, decades of integrative-health and coaching experience, and attention to the person behind the project. Big possibilities, with someone making sure the people are cared for.
The founding council and formal governance are still taking shape. We’re seeking three founding board members to help hold the mission—not just put their names on it.
Help build thisGive first / Fill the Reservoir
Founding support moves Hollow Bone from formation into public life. This is not an investment in a property. It is a founding commitment to build the structure that can carry the work.
Give now
At this stage, donations will be received by Shope Creek Wilderness, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Initial funds will be used to launch the Hollow Bone Initiative and establish a new independent nonprofit.
Make checks payable to
Shope Creek Wilderness
Mail checks to
Hollow Bone InitiativeFor wire instructions or stock gifts, contact craig@spiritualplants.com.
Stay in the field
New music. Docuseries updates. Gatherings. The next chapter, straight from the people making it.