Tag: Healing Arts

This event has been postponed until the Spring 2020 season. Please check back for new dates in the spring!

Participants are expected to attend both classes, beginning on Saturday, October 26th. Please click here to register for this series.

with Kay Chernush

A 2-day photography immersion designed to help participants see with new eyes and in new ways, and to improve their picture-taking skills.
The course is designed for people living with cancer and facing the chaos, uncertainty and fear that that disease or any life-threatening disease brings. Armed with cameras, participants will begin a process of learning “how to see,” gaining new understandings of themselves and the possibilities around them. The workshop will help you discover your “inner eye,” tap into your own creativity and to look at things from different perspectives. Subjects for discussion, reflection and shooting might include:
• Point of View
• Facing Another
• Stop Action, Pan and Blur
• Shallow and Deep
• Shadows and Reflections
• Beauty and the Unbeautiful

Participants are asked to bring their own lunches. Digital point-and-shoot camera will be provided if you do not have one.

About Kay Chernush

Kay Chernush is an award-winning photographer with more than 30 years experience in commercial and fine art photography.  Based in the Washington, DC area, her assignments have taken her all over the world   for major magazines, Fortune 500 corporations, and both nonprofit and governmental agencies. Her fine art work includes an exploration of prejudice and empathy, “The Us & The They,” and a series of self-portraits entitled “Self-Examination,” a meditation in words and images of her experience with breast cancer.

Kay earned a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and was the recipient of a Fulbright grant to India. Prior to becoming a professional photographer, she worked for the New Yorker Magazine, the New York Times Paris bureau, the Peace Corps and the US Agency for International Development.  It was while on an assignment for the Peace Corps in West Africa that she fell in love with photography.  Self-taught, she considers her career an on-going process of learning how to see.

In 2005 an assignment for the U.S. State Department brought her face to face with the evils of human trafficking and modern slavery. Challenged and appalled by this gross human rights atrocity, Kay began working with individual survivors and anti-trafficking organizations in cities around the world. The innovative approach she developed uses collaged and constructed imagery to dignify trafficked persons and re-frame how their stories are portrayed.

Kay founded ArtWorks for Freedom in July 2011. A unique non-profit organization that uses the power of art in the fight against human trafficking, ArtWorks for Freedom builds awareness, amplifies the voices of survivors, and inspires anti-trafficking activism against this worldwide crime against humanity.

Her fine art work is included in the permanent collections of the World Bank, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, and the National Institutes of Health, private collections both in this country and abroad, and has been exhibited widely in solo and juried group shows.

Kay’s images can be viewed at www.kaychernush.com and www.artworksforfreedom.org

 

Participants are encouraged to attend all 4 classes, beginning on Wednesday, October 2nd.

Please click here to register for this series.

with Stacie Marinelli

October 30, 6:30-8:00pm – Poetry Performance!

Please join us in hearing and supporting the poetry developed throughout this month-long workshop by our fantastic participants. All are welcome. Free to attend.

Having cancer brings up so many new emotions and its trials test our stamina and strength. Writing about what we go through can release some of the trauma and allow us to view our path with new eyes. This is a four-session writing workshop for writers at all levels that will culminate in a reading of our work. Together we will share what we have to say about living with cancer from diagnosis to survivorship and generate new work through spontaneous writing using various prompts. Bring a notebook or laptop to the sessions.

Suggested Donation: $30 (includes all 4 classes)

Our programs are open to the community, and tailored to meet the needs of people affected by cancer. Classes and workshops are free or low cost on a pay-as-you-can basis, ensuring that our programs are accessible to everyone.

About Stacie Marinelli

Stacie Marinelli is a local writer, researcher and storyteller who became involved with the Smith Center after her diagnosis of tongue & neck cancer in 2012. Words about the experience tumbled out in journal entries and poems which allowed her to better accept her cancer. She has blogged about her sense of community during cancer treatment and on being a peer mentor for the cancer-support group Imerman Angels. In Boston and DC, she led workshops on writing practice based on the books of Natalie Goldberg, on writing about one’s life as a heroic journey, and on creative memoir. She served as the managing editor of a New England storytelling newsletter for many years and her writing and editing work includes poems and articles published in anthologies and magazines.

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.