Initiative / A regenerative commons
Shope Creek / The proving ground
Give first.Hollow Bone is an initiative bringing artists, families, founders and curious people together through music, docuseries and time on the land. STAY CURIOUS is a docuseries from that work. 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 to finish STAY CURIOUS and bring a Founding Council together, with the goal of letting the film seed a shared Reservoir of funds. What takes shape from there will be decided together.
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. We organized the Camp Mary retreats to bring different worlds into the same room and find the people who could form a Founding Council. The gatherings also became the story of STAY CURIOUS.
"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 Founding Council / Different frequencies. Same room.
Stephen Sedmak hired Craig Rose to begin the Hollow Bone Initiative, with initial funding through Shope Creek Wilderness. We hope the STAY CURIOUS docuseries will help bring together a Founding Council to shape the vision. Some people involved in the project have already been invited, and several have expressed interest. There are no formal council members yet.
01 / Initiative / 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 / Initiative / 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
Hollow Bone / The Founding Council
The two Camp Mary gatherings were an invitation to get curious together. The film lets us see what happened. The next invitation is to help form a Founding Council: a group willing to bring its experience, creativity, relationships and judgment to what Hollow Bone becomes.
Stephen Sedmak hired Craig Rose to begin the Hollow Bone Initiative, with initial funding through Shope Creek Wilderness. We hope the STAY CURIOUS docuseries will help bring together a Founding Council to shape what comes next. Some of the people involved in the project have already been invited, and several have expressed interest. The council is still forming; there are no formal members yet.
Expressed interest / Not yet formal appointments
Additional people Craig would like to invite
The first goal is to find the people, agree on a shared vision and decide how the group makes decisions. The Founding Council has not yet been formed, and no legal board appointments have been made. Once formed, the council will identify priorities and plan how to raise initial funds to start the initiative. Whether to form an independent nonprofit remains undecided.
Council participation is an invitation to contribute experience and judgment, not a financial commitment.
The film is taking shape. Invitations to form a council are ongoing. The structure is still an open question. Bring your creativity, experience or support to what comes next.
Help build thisThe invitation / Form the Founding Council
The big ask is to find a Founding Council of people who believe in Hollow Bone Initiative and want to shape what it becomes. Together, that circle will develop the vision, identify priorities and plan how to raise initial funds to get the initiative started. There is no fixed fundraising target or separate goal to finish the docuseries. Whether to establish our own nonprofit remains undecided.
Explore the Founding Council →Where things stand
Hollow Bone has not established its own nonprofit. Whether to do so is undecided. The forming Founding Council will develop the vision and an initial funding plan, including an appropriate way to receive support. No tax-deductibility is being promised.
For now, the invitation is to bring your experience, relationships and belief in the initiative to the conversation, not to make a payment.
Stay in the field
New music. Docuseries updates. Gatherings. The next chapter, straight from the people making it.