What is it?

A mash-up experience that mixes conference with vacation, festival, and community jam.

About the Art of Retreat

Parkour 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?

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.

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 the United States Parkour Association (USPK), 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.

Guiding Principles

At Art of Retreat, our guiding principles reflect the ethos and culture of our community. They are not mandates but shared values that shape our interactions and collective growth.

> Radical Participation

We are all leaders. Every participant is encouraged to create, teach, and engage fully. By sharing our time, skills, and ideas without expectation of reciprocation, we foster a vibrant and collaborative environment where no one is merely a spectator.

> Curiosity

We bring a love for new things, an attitude of openness, and a beginner’s mind to exploring new ideas and possibilities. We value challenging conversations and the willingness to adapt and evolve our understanding.

> Leave No Trace

We respect the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavors, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

> Inclusion

We welcome and respect the stranger. We grow most in environments of diversity. The Art of Retreat creates a safe space where folks of all identities and ideologies can enrich one another.

> Collective Effort

Our strength lies in creative cooperation and collaboration. We commit to acting with respect, self-awareness, and a balance of reason and emotion, recognizing that our collective efforts drive our shared success.

> Free Sharing

We are the caretakers of our culture. As a community grown through free sharing, we believe the responsibility of spreading our culture lies with each and every one of us. All of us are caretakers of our culture – when the opportunity presents itself, we pass knowledge on.

The Art of Retreat gathers remarkable parkour leaders from across the world for a 4-day gathering where we share ideas and best practices, relax and reenergize, and get into (a little) mischief together. We are a global, collaborative leadership community centered around the culture of parkour.