Creativity Workshop in New York City

  United States

New York

Term: Spring 
Dates: March, 12 - 15, 2010

Description: The Creativity Workshop in New York takes place in Manhattan at the Meta Center in the Chelsea district. Chelsea is famous for its art galleries, small boutiques and cafes. The Meta Center is located at 214 West 29th St., about 10 blocks from Penn Station, Madison Square Garden and Macy's. We will meet for 3 hours and will explore ways to expand our creativity through a series of exercises including guided visualization technique, automatic drawing and writing, map making, memoir, and storytelling. Throughout the workshop, the exercises and talks by the instructors will focus on ways to:

- Stimulate your perceptive abilities
- Find inspiration in the world around you
- Discover and use images from the unconscious
- Get over creative blocks and the fear of failure
- Engage your curiosity
- Recognize and use your creative instincts
- Give yourself the time, permission, and nourishment to do creative work
- Develop a daily practice to accomplish these goals
- Work collaboratively
- Use your memories to engage the imagination

Highlights: Day 1:
Introduction to the hows and whys of the Creativity Workshop. Exercises in relaxation technique and guided visualization. Visualization:
writing and drawing using the myth of the hero's journey as our framework. Automatic Drawing exercise: Finding our hidden imagery. Exercise in 'show and tell' as a means of honing our natural storytelling styles and retrieving childhood memories to spark ideas. Instructor talks about famous writers, scientists, artists and their sources of inspiration, and how we can use some of those same sources.

Day 2:
Relaxation exercise followed by a visualization using map making. Map making as a way to find, chart, and tell fictional stories and true life experiences. Exercise in Automatic Writing. How automatic writing allows you to brainstorm and create in new and surprising ways. How we can use automatic writing to get over creative blocks and discover new ways of developing and editing work, while avoiding self-censorship. Why alternating between writing and drawing aids us in developing creative flexibility. The Interview: Listening and experiencing a life outside our own. How listening is as important as doing in creative work.

Day 3:
Today's visualization exercise uses letter writing as a way to explore voice in writing. Miniature Theatre: an exercise in storytelling with found
objects. Automatic Writing continues with Writing in Groups. How writing and/or drawing with others can stimulate our imaginations and expand our points of view. Topics of instructors' talks may include: the importance of play and the need to value the creative process over product. Enforced Cafe-Sitting: the art of relaxed observation. How to carve out time for creativity in a busy schedule. How to do on-going creative work in a short modules of time. How we can use luck and coincidence to jump start creative projects. Creative freedom requires discipline: Developing daily practice.

Day 4:
Today's visualization is The Myth of the Other: imagining ourselves living a parallel life. The lesson of the sand painting: How process can also be a product. Automatic drawing and writing exercises continue with a concentration on collaborative work. Instructor talk: Giving ourselves the time, permission, and nourishment to do creative work. How a team can recognize and use their creative instincts together. Life after Workshop: Ways to keep using these techniques to keep our imaginations alive and flourishing.

College Credit Availability for our Workshops in New York
Through an agreement with The University of Arizona participants taking the Creativity Workshop in New York can obtain graduate or undergraduate credit hours. Contact us for details.

Degree Level: Bachelors Degree (Undergraduate)

Experience Required: no

This Program is open to American, Australian, Canadian, European, Kiwi, South African and Worldwide Participants.

Participants Travel to United States Independently

Creativity Workshop's Mission Statement: The Creativity Workshop developed a unique and eclectic methodology to help individuals believe in and develop their creative process through using creative writing, art, memoir, storytelling, drama, journaling and map making exercises intended to become the tools for a lifetime. It is dedicated to teaching people about their creativity and how to use it in all aspects of life, work, and creative expression. In a non-competitive, nurturing atmosphere, the course helps participants develop creative skills, expanded sense perception, concept innovation and problem solving, increased inspiration and brainstorming, and new ways of looking at life as exciting and transformative.

Year Founded: 1993