Poetry of Place Retreat for Makers: Nature-based Expressive Arts
ONLINE* Three Sessions: Friday, April 30; 3 to 6 p.m. | Saturday, May 1; 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. | Sunday, May 2; 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Instructors: Sally Atkins, Rebecca Caldwell and Susan Patrice
$175 Member | $195 Non-member
The beautiful and ancient landscape that we inhabit also inhabits us. In this retreat, makers can give mindful attention to the power of place with making a simple book and using as a container for the weekend's writing and imaging practice. No previous experience in making books, writing poetry or taking photographs is needed. Recommended text for background is “Nature-based Expressive Arts Therapy” and "Poetry in Expressive Arts." The class will meet both in a hybrid format, both online and onsite at the Arboretum (small group with safety protocols communicated in advance to registrants).
*Instructions for joining via Zoom will be included in your confirmation email following registration. Please add adulteducation@ncarboretum.org to your contacts so our emails do not end up in your spam folder. This is a live, interactive class and will NOT be recorded for later viewing.
Sally Atkins, Ed.D, REAT, REACE, Licensed Psychologist, is a poet, writer, professor, and expressive arts therapist and educator. She is Professor Emerita of Appalachian State University where she was the founding coordinator of the Graduate Program in Expressive Arts Therapy and the Appalachian Expressive Arts Collective. Currently she teaches internationally, and she is Core Faculty of the European Graduate School in Switzerland. Her publications include two books of poetry -- Breath is the First Prayer and Picking Clean the Bones and four textbooks in expressive arts work. Her most recent texts are Poetry in Expressive Arts (2021) (with Margo Fuchs Knill) and Nature-Based Expressive Arts Therapy (2018) (with Melia Snyder) and Presence and Process in Expressive Arts Work (2014) (with Herbert Eberhart).
Rebecca Caldwell is a writer and educator who serves as the adult education programs manager at The North Carolina Arboretum. She has taught literature and writing at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Clemson University and Western Carolina University. She is also trained as a counselor specializing in expressive arts and ecopsychology. While working in Student Affairs at Western Carolina University, she started the Women’s Center, a resource, advising and advocacy center open to all students. Her doctoral coursework and research at the University of Virginia focused on creativity, intrinsic motivation and the adult learner.
Susan Patrice is a documentary photographer, community artist, and founder of Makers Circle. She recently launched the Six Feet Photography Project, a community project that encourages photographers to make and share images of their lived experiences of confinement and social distancing. Susan's own photography and public installations focus primarily on the Southern Landscape and its people and feature intimate images that touch deeply into the questions of place, gender, and belonging.
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