SUGGESTED STARTING SET OF WORKSHOPS

AMAZING GRACE explores ballet as a mindful practice. Ballet teaches us how to move beautifully, to act and navigate deftly: the language of Swans, Jaguars and Giselles. Grace is a practice of moving with beauty, resisting the cultural imperative to power through life. Whereas power - traditionally expressed as speed and force - is an expression of *want*, grace is an expression of that which we possess but do not own, of *embodying* the beauty of movement, being in the moment.

COMPOSE YOURSELF explores songs, lyrics, music, and the language of songwriting. We discuss the structure of songs, connections between rhythms and sounds, patterns, shapes, color, and line. We look at artists whose works express the many synergies between music, art, the external world, and the internal self: songwriting as a way of life-sharing, connecting, accessing memory, actualizing imagination, and sharing through the narrative experience.

DRAW THE LINE explores drawing as self-determining, chance-taking gesture, expressing the idea that when we embrace pure feeling, spontaneity, and uncertainty, we unburden ourselves from the need to understand, make sense, or draw any conclusions. Through mark-making, we increase the radius of what we are capable of with each decisively drawn line, and, in the process, what was once doubtful becomes what is now possible.

FIND THE WORDS explores the uniquely human capacity to recognize the poetic moment: when we identify - and beyond that, - articulate in metaphor what we cannot express in factual ways, we approach understanding. The aim is to facilitate the distillation and expression of experience through various dynamic and engaging processes, such as haiku, black-out-poetry, picture-inspired poetry, and word collages.

SELECTED ONGOING WORKSHOPS

AFTER HOURS

AFTER HOURS explores the American Songbook, Upright Bass, Piano, melody, and lyrics as social connector, and memory stimulator. Music is a universal language and motivator, as it stimulates in an immediate, multi-sensory way: reminding us of places we’ve been, as well as sounds we remember.

HOW ART WORKS

HOW ART WORKS explores the countless ways in which how art works, by observing, discussing, and expressing the ways art makes us feel. This dynamic exchange and interplay becomes the jump-off point for creative explorations and investigations involving self-awareness, self-empathy, and self-identity.

LET IT GROW

LET IT GROW explores gardening as meditative practice, grounded in the concept of mindfulness. The focus is on the idea of cultivating, opening, rooted in the idea of potential. Here, the seed serves a metaphor, representing the of possibility, hope, and creation.

MAKE YOUR MARK

MAKE YOUR MARK explores mark-making as self-expressive, transformational tool, emphasizing observation from nature, drawing from life, and the importance of inquiry. Participants are encouraged to look behind the visible and see the poetic poetic potential in everyday objects.

MEMORY KITCHEN

MEMORY KITCHEN explores the planning, preparation, and pleasure of food-as-social-connector, mind-body stimulator, and emotional nourisher. Food is a universal motivator, as it acts upon each one of our senses in a holistic, full-sensory way: smell, taste, touch, sight, and sound.

OUTSIDE THE BOX

OUTSIDE THE BOX explores self-expression through the creative act, bringing participants from conception to formalization of idea. Here, a caregiver has has shaped fallen petals from flowers on the dining room table into a heart shape, a symbol of both care and giving.

POETREE

POETREE explores the power of the written word, the value of community engagement, and finding meaning in times of crisis. Viewers are encouraged to write on paper leaves, literally and figuratively, each participant *leaves* their words on the imagined tree, and, forever, on the world.

WELLNESS WEDNESDAY

WELLNESS WEDNESDAY explores scent as multi-sensory, immersive experience, focused on self-awareness, self-care, and self-discovery. Each scent is a virtual as well as real-world journey, transforming the ordinary into wonderment: a distillation of fragrance into *experience*. 

WRITE ON

WRITE ON explores the importance of being understood, and how language serves to both clarify and confuse. We delve into the many beneficial effects of writing, including improving: interpersonal connections, learning new perspectives, empathy, and cognitive function.

TESTIMONIALS

coming soon