Tag: Arts and Health

This program series is being offered virtually through Zoom. In order to participate and receive the Zoom link, register by clicking the RSVP button above or by emailing carla@smithcenter.org.

You will receive the Zoom information no later than the morning of your program.

with Jamie Katz

Experiencing Awe Photo by Jamie Katz
Awe in New Zealand by Jamie Katz

Experiencing Awe: 2-part Workshop

Awe is defined by Merriam Webster’s dictionary as “an emotion variously combining dread, veneration, and wonder that is inspired by authority or by the sacred or sublime”. Awe can be broken down into two unique parts: perceived vastness and mental accommodation. Awe has the potential to create positive changes in the way a person experiences the world by making her feel a connection to something greater than herself.
In this workshop, we will watch awe-evoking videos and write about personal awe-inspiring experiences. Since awe is an emotion that can bond groups of people together, reflecting and sharing your experiences is highly encouraged. In the second part of this series, we will reframe our understanding of awe and learn to incorporate these powerful, emotional experiences into our everyday lives.

Experiencing Awe Workshop will be offered in two parts: 

  • Part 1: Thursday, October 14th, 7:00-8:15pm ET
  • Part 2: Thursday, October 28th, 7:00-8:15pm ET

Suggested Donation: $10/session or $15/program (both sessions)

Participants are encouraged to attend both parts to get the most out of the workshop. Please let us know in advance if you are unable to attend both parts.

About Jamie Katz

Jamie Katz
Jamie Katz is an aspiring social psychologist whose past research has focused on the effects of experiencing awe. She is a DC area native who currently works at American University, and she graduated from the University of Richmond in Virginia. Jamie will pursue a graduate degree in psychology so that she can continue to research healing practices and interventions through a deeper understanding of the brain’s processes of experiencing emotions and social connections.

This program is being offered virtually through Zoom. In order to participate and receive the Zoom link, you must register here or by emailing carla@smithcenter.org

with Jodi Kanter

PC: https://spolingamesonline.org/

“Improvising is openness to contact with the environment and each other and willingness to play.”

— Viola Spolin

 

Take a break from your Monday and get in touch with your sense of play through theater games. Very different from “improv” shows designed for entertainment, these simple, structured improvisation sessions will lead us through building environments, creating characters, making images, moving and inventing new languages using nothing but our bodies and our virtually shared space.

The foundation of this workshop will be the theater games and explorations of Viola Spolin, author of the classic Improvisation for the Theatre. These games focus on a wide range of core acting skills including nonverbal communication, concentration, listening, observation, character, relationship, and sensory awareness.

Actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner attested that the principles behind Spolin’s games “have formed the basis of all the work I’ve done.” Elsewhere, another writer described them as “structures designed to almost fool spontaneity into being.” Spolin’s work is taught all over the world to children and adults, professional actors, educators, and community members.

We will apply these skills to storytelling and our individual healing journeys. No previous theater experience required.

Theater Games Workshop will be hosted on the 1st & 3rd Mondays from 2:30-3:45pm ET. 

Upcoming Dates:

  • September 13 & 27
  • October 4 & 18
  • November 1 & 15
  • December 6 & 20

Suggested Donation: $10

About Jodi Kanter

Jodi Kanter

Jodi has been involved in theater since she was ten years old. She grew up acting and studying performance in American theater’s “Second City,” Chicago Illinois.  She is currently a professor of theatre in the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University, where she has been on faculty for nearly fifteen years. Her academic work in theater includes her book, Performing Loss: Strengthening Communities Through Theatre and Writing (2007). Jodi’s focus on performance as a tool for individual and social healing and change has led her to create workshops, events and productions in a wide variety of settings including hospitals, schools, and prisons. Most recently, she co-created a four-month diversity and inclusion program for members of DC’s fourteen Neighborhood Village associations using the methodology of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Jodi holds a PhD. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in dramatherapy at Lesley University.

This program is being offered virtually through Zoom. In order to participate and receive the Zoom link, you must register here or by emailing carla@smithcenter.org

with Jodi Kanter

PC: https://spolingamesonline.org/

“Improvising is openness to contact with the environment and each other and willingness to play.”

— Viola Spolin

 

Take a break from your Monday and get in touch with your sense of play through theater games. Very different from “improv” shows designed for entertainment, these simple, structured improvisation sessions will lead us through building environments, creating characters, making images, moving and inventing new languages using nothing but our bodies and our virtually shared space.

The foundation of this workshop will be the theater games and explorations of Viola Spolin, author of the classic Improvisation for the Theatre. These games focus on a wide range of core acting skills including nonverbal communication, concentration, listening, observation, character, relationship, and sensory awareness.

Actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner attested that the principles behind Spolin’s games “have formed the basis of all the work I’ve done.” Elsewhere, another writer described them as “structures designed to almost fool spontaneity into being.” Spolin’s work is taught all over the world to children and adults, professional actors, educators, and community members.

We will apply these skills to storytelling and our individual healing journeys. No previous theater experience required.

Theater Games Workshop will be hosted on the 1st & 3rd Mondays from 2:30-3:45pm ET. 

Upcoming Dates:

  • September 13 & 27
  • October 4 & 18
  • November 1 & 15
  • December 6 & 20

Suggested Donation: $10

About Jodi Kanter

Jodi Kanter

Jodi has been involved in theater since she was ten years old. She grew up acting and studying performance in American theater’s “Second City,” Chicago Illinois.  She is currently a professor of theatre in the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University, where she has been on faculty for nearly fifteen years. Her academic work in theater includes her book, Performing Loss: Strengthening Communities Through Theatre and Writing (2007). Jodi’s focus on performance as a tool for individual and social healing and change has led her to create workshops, events and productions in a wide variety of settings including hospitals, schools, and prisons. Most recently, she co-created a four-month diversity and inclusion program for members of DC’s fourteen Neighborhood Village associations using the methodology of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed. Jodi holds a PhD. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in dramatherapy at Lesley University.

This program is being offered virtually through Zoom. In order to participate and receive the Zoom link, register by clicking the RSVP button above or by emailing carla@smithcenter.org.

You will receive the Zoom information no later than the morning of your program.

with Gayle Danley, CEO, Poetry Pros and James Pennebaker, PhD (University of Texas, Austin)

Did You Know?

Smith Center is pleased to announce the launch of a special series of talks designed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of the center. Each of the talks will highlight one of eight healing practices that research and practice tell us is important to the health and well-being of cancer patients/survivors, and their loved ones.

The topics include: Eating Well, Moving More, Managing Stress, Sleeping Well, Creating a Healing Environment, Sharing Love and Support, Exploring What Matters Now, and Expressing Oneself.

For each topic, we will have two expert speakers. One will provide a clear and concise review of the science behind the given topic: what we do and do not know about the topic, the impact of this practice on cancer-related quality of life and mortality specifically, and national recommendations for action. The second speaker will “translate” this information into an action plan (e.g., provide user-friendly tips about how to integrate this aspect of healing into your daily life). At the end, there will be time for a question and answer period.

Did You Know? will be hosted Monthly on Wednesdays from 6:00-7:30pm ET.

Upcoming Dates: 

  • October 20 – Expressing Oneself
    • with James Pennebaker, PhD (University of Texas, Austin), and Gayle Danley, CEO, Poetry Pros

In honor of our 25th Anniversary in 2021, we are suggesting donations for this series in fractions or multiples of the number “25.” E.G. $2.50, $12.50, $25, etc.

About Gayle Danley, CEO, Poetry Pros

Gayle Danley

Soon after crushing the competition at Asheville’s National Poetry Slam in 1994, Gayle Danley entered America’s classrooms teaching thousands of children how to access their emotions through the force of words. She performed and taught her way from Maryland Young Audience’s Artist of the Year, to National Young Audience’s Artist of the Year. She’s also both a former national and international poetry slam champion. CBS 60 Minutes profiled her work with middle schoolers as well as the Baltimore Sun, Washington Post and New York Times.

For the past five years, Gayle’s Grieffriend sessions have helped women who are living with AIDS, widows, incarcerated youth and those struggling with drug addiction and recovery use poetry to cope and bravely face life’s challenges.

Gayle was recently named Maryland Library Association Poet of the Year.

About James Pennebaker, PhD

Jamie Pennebaker is the Regents Centennial Professor of Liberal Arts and Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. His early research dealt with physical symptoms and health which eventually merged into the discovery of expressive writing.  He and his students discovered that when people were asked to write about emotional upheavals for 3-4 days for 15-20 minutes a day, their physical and mental health improved compared to controls. Over 1,000 studies on expressive writing labs around the world continue to show the value of this method. For the last 25 years, he has focused on computerized text analysis as a way of understanding and measuring people’s social behaviors and psychological states. His text analysis program, LIWC, is well known in psychology, business, and computer science. 

Pennebaker has been continuously funded by NSF, NIH, and other federal agencies since 1983. He has published over 300 articles and written or edited 12 books. He has received many awards and honors for research (e.g., Honorary Doctorate, Social and Personality Society’s Distinguished Scholar, Health Psychology Distinguished Scholar, APA’s Distinguished Contributions to Applications in Psychology, the Pavlovian Award, APS’s William James Fellow Award) and teaching (UT Austin’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers). He served as Chair of UT’s Psychology Department from 2005-2014 and President of the Society of Personality and Social Psychology in 2014. His most recent books are The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us (Bloomsbury, 2011) and Opening Up by Writing it Down (Guilford, 2016).

This program is being offered virtually through Zoom. In order to participate and receive the Zoom link, register by clicking the RSVP button above or by emailing carla@smithcenter.org.

You will receive the Zoom information no later than the morning of your program.

with Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC, LCPAT

Mandalas for Managing Stress and Increasing Wellbeing

Mandalas – circular designs that communicate symbolic meaning – have been used for centuries as a form of contemplative practice in many spiritual traditions.

In this brief but focused workshop, we will use mandala imagery, writing, and meditative practice to bring creativity, healing, and an increased sense of grounding and balance into our lives. Absolutely no previous art experience is needed. The workshop is designed for all ranges of artistic experience–you need not consider yourself an artist to attend.

 

Suggested Materials:

  • Paper to draw on – can be any size or color that you like; we usually work with something between 6 x 6 to 12 x 12
  • Art supplies to draw or paint with – E.G. colored pencils, magic markers, chalk or oil pastels, watercolor paints, and/or acrylics
  • Plate or circular shape – to draw an outline of a circle on the paper
  • For those of you who do creative or art journaling, you are welcome to use your journal to create your mandala.

Suggested Donation: $10

About Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC, LCPAT

Rebecca Wilkinson

Rebecca Wilkinson, MA, ATR-BC, is a Registered and Board Certified art therapists with twenty years of experience in mental health and in facilitating training and workshops. She serves as adjunct faculty at George Washington University Graduate Art Therapy Program and provide continuing education and development through the Potomac Art Therapy Association. She facilitates supportive workshops for those affected by life threatening illness and the professional providers working with them. Co-founder of Creative Wellbeing Workshops, LLC, which provides training, consultation, and clinical therapy designed to reduce stress, prevent burnout and increase life satisfaction and wellbeing.