The Creativity Workshop will take place in the historic village of Carmel-by-the Sea. This jewel-like town on the Californian Central Coast is home to beautiful sandy beaches, quaint cottages, lovely restaurants, and fine art galleries. There is frequent bus service to the city of Monterey (8 miles distant) which has one of the best aquariums in the US as well as some fine 18th and 19th century architecture. You can also rent a car or take a bus tour to many nearby locations, such as the towering cliffs and crashing waves of Big Sur. The Workshop will take place at Il Fornaio in the Pine Inn, Carmel's oldest hotel.

Each day the Creativity Workshop in Carmel-by-the-Sea will meet for 3 hours (10:30 AM to 1:30 PM). We 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:

Believe in your creativity
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

(Order and kinds of exercises and instructors' talks may vary. Some exercises are done individually while others are collaborative.)

Day by Day in Carmel-by-the-Sea:

Day 1:
Introduction to the hows and whys of theCreativity 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.

Contact us
1 (831) 915-5209
Creativity Workshop
We can help you learn to be more creative.

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Contact us
1 (831) 915-5209