The Mountain School of Arts

[2][3] The development of the school and its program have been written about as "follow[ing] a poetic of the gesture, of the instant, and of actions recalling Fluxus, Gino de Dominicis’ or Paul McCarthy’s works.

[6] The idea of "a free, bare-bones, yet ambitious graduate school— no tuition, no degree, but a vigorous curriculum— centered on talks and seminars led by visiting artists and curators" was the result of a conversation between Golia and Wesley.

[7] The program began in 2005 and initially took place over three months a year (from mid-January to mid-April), with participants convening at the Mountain Bar in addition to several off-site field trips across the city.

[11] Over the years, artists and curators who have served as guest faculty for students at the Mountain School of Arts include Myriam Ben Salah, Tacita Dean, Thomas Demand, Simone Forti, Dan Graham, Pierre Huyghe, Richard Jackson, Martin Kersels, Paul McCarthy, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Catherine Opie, Henry Taylor, Jeff Wall, and Andrea Zittel.

Other notable alumni include Wendy Yao, founder of Ooga Booga artist shop and bookstore, as well as Noah Davis, who founded the Underground Museum—a cultural institution based in the Arlington Heights/West Adams neighborhood of Los Angeles that serves not only as an "art destination but a community lifeline.