Please preregister for participatory workshops on the form below.
There is no participation fee; donations to help cover costs will be welcome at the door.
The workshops will be held at the locations noted next to the workshop:
Clare Marie Gathering Place, Martha Place, St. Martha’s Hospital, Antigonish
CACL Lunchroom – CACL / Legion on St. Ninian St., Antigonish
Monday, November 19: 6-8 pm Songwriting: Word Power in Song (for Youth grades 7-12)
Kim Wempe
Join Kim in collaborative songwriting to know the power of words through song. Participants will use ‘free writing’ and collaborate in groups to create songs and share the experience. If you play an instrument, please bring it! However, you don’t need to play an instrument to attend this workshop. Hope to see you there!
Kim Wempe uses her past experience as a touring musician and her current experience as a nursing student at St.FX to combine art and health through songwriting as an outlet workshops that address mental wellness, coping, and social inclusion. Kim has worked with youth and music in a variety of school settings since February 2016 thanks to the support and funding from Arts Health Antigonish and SchoolsPlus-Antigonish. She also teaches private voice and guitar lessons, as well as continues to play shows as a singer-songwriter. Currently, Kim is completing her Bachelor of Science in Nursing with a final clinical in Youth Health Centres.
Monday, November 26th: 6-7:30 pm Comedy Improv for Youth! ( all ages!) Laura Teasdale
We will learn basic comedy improvisation skills to help kids engage with other kids, stay focused, learn to think on their feet, boost confidence and have FUN!
In improvisation, we are always making stuff up, and there are no mistakes. It is a great time to let kids be kids without anxiety and fear of failure. If we’re laughing…we’re succeeding!
Laura Teasdale is an actor, singer, playwright and teacher. She spent twenty four years living in Quebec, but recently returned home to her beloved Antigonish. She hasn’t regretted it for a minute. You may have seen her this summer at Festival Antigonish in Lunenberg, Burnin’ Love or in her own show Being Hank & Patsy. She was probably laughing when you saw her. Laura has always been very active and dedicated to community groups. Most of her plays involve local history. As part of her Performing Arts degree, Laura learned all about comedy, from the ancient Greeks on down to clowns and British Farces. She is a long time member of a comedy improv troupe and a clown troupe. She studied with the great Canadian Laughologist, Albert Nerenberg. But she also learned that the funniest moments are the ones we share among family and friends.
Arts Health Antigonish
invites you to celebrate Arts Health Month at……
AHA! Tuesdays!
Tuesdays in November, 7-9 pm
Please preregister for participatory workshops on the form below.
Preregistration will assist with planning spaces and supplies, as well as ensuring your place in sessions that have limited capacity.
Donations will be welcomed at the door to help cover the costs of the workshops: venue, facilitators and supplies. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.”.
These are adult workshops see below for locations.
Clare Marie Gathering Place, Martha Place, St. Martha’s Hospital, Antigonish
CACL Lunchroom – CACL / Legion on St. Ninian St., Antigonish
Tuesday, November 6th Storytelling: Compassionate Listening, Compassionate Sharing Maureen St. Clair
Maureen will guide participants in developing a deeper understanding of compassionate listening and story sharing as a tool and skill for building relations and cultures of peace. Come share, write, dance, listen, and embody your own and other’s personal stories!
Maureen St. Clair is an artist, peace educator, activist and writer. She holds a Master’s Degree in Adult Education with a focus on women’s self and community empowerment. Born and raised in Canada, with Grenadian citizenship, Maureen has lived in Grenada, West Indies for over 20 years with Grenadian partner and daughter, Theo and Maya. Maureen is known throughout the Caribbean and internationally for her vibrant, multi-racial, women-positive paintings inspired by her work with women and youth. While in Nova Scotia, Canada, Maureen is an Associate of Coady International Institute where she facilitates programs in community peacebuilding, global youth and community leadership. Maureen won the Beacon Award for Social Justice Literature and the Atlantic Writers Festival with her novel, Big Island, Small published by Fernwood Publishing and released spring 2018.
Tuesday, November 13 Songwriting: Word Power in Song Kim Wempe
Join Kim in collaborative songwriting to know the power of words in song. Through the use of ‘free writing’, participants will collaborate in groups to create songs, then share the experience. If you play an instrument, please bring it! However, you don’t need to play an instrument or consider yourself ‘musical’ to attend this workshop.
Hope to see you there!
Kim Wempe uses her past experience as a touring musician and her current experience as a nursing student at St.FX to combine art and health through songwriting as an outlet workshops that address mental wellness, coping, and social inclusion. Kim has worked with youth and music in a variety of school settings since February 2016 thanks to the support and funding from Arts Health Antigonish and SchoolsPlus-Antigonish. She also teaches private voice and guitar lessons, as well as continues to play shows as a singer-songwriter. Currently, Kim is completing her Bachelor of Science in Nursing with a final clinical in Youth Health Centres.
Tuesday, November 20 Dancing and Dreaming with Fingerpaints Nancy Turniawan
Do you remember those first mud puddles you stuck your fingers in? The wet sand? Did you get to paint your whole hand green… maybe even up to your elbow? Did those first paintings adorn the walls or fridge with your name and age in bold letters? When was the last time that you created with your fingers? Nancy will nurture participants into focusing on the joy of letting our fingers ‘dance’ across the page. Red? Yellow? Blue? Which colour will you choose first?
Supplies: Please bring scissors and rags
Nancy describes herself as a mosaic artist, clay sculptor, photographer, and mixed media artist. She draws on her creative energy by immersing herself in the natural world and regarding everything with awe. Nancy is drawn to the texture, rhythm and light in nature. She can express this beauty, and find healing and balance in her life, through the creative process of art making. In her 31 years of teaching Art in public schools at all grade levels, Nancy has always integrated Arts into every subject, school life, and within the arts community.
Tuesday, November 27 Laughter is the Best Medicine! Laura Teasdale
Everybody knows that laughter feels good. But did you know it is a great workout for your muscles and releases lots of stress relieving hormones? It even has the power to fight illness. The good news is, there are simple ways to bring more laughter into our lives so we can take advantage of all the rewards laughter brings.
In this workshop, Laura will fill us in on the science of laughter therapy and its benefits. Then we’ll play some simple games that begin as exercises, but end in genuine laughter. Laura will leave us with some techniques to bring laughter into our lives everyday.
Laura Teasdale is an actor, singer, playwright and teacher. She spent twenty four years living in Quebec, but recently returned home to her beloved Antigonish. She hasn’t regretted it for a minute. You may have seen her this summer at Festival Antigonish in Lunenberg, Burnin’ Love or in her own show Being Hank & Patsy. She was probably laughing when you saw her. Laura has always been very active and dedicated to community groups. Most of her plays involve local history. As part of her Performing Arts degree, Laura learned all about comedy, from the ancient Greeks on down to clowns and British Farces. She is a long time member of a comedy improv troupe and a clown troupe. She studied with the great Canadian Laughologist, Albert Nerenberg. But she also learned that the funniest moments are the ones we share among family and friends.
Storyteller and author Sheree Fitch will share stories about stories in poetry and prose. She will pose the question: What is story and what place does story have in our lives? She will discuss the difference between the oral story tradition and the writing of stories. She will then invite us all into the circle of storytelling, as we become tellers and sharers with each other. She’ll ask us to think about the symbols and mythology of our own lives, and how the shaping of our narratives and the telling of our stories can enhance our health and heal our lives.
Time: 6:30-9:00pm
Location: Clare Marie Auditorium
Adult event.
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Saturday Morning:
Truth and Consequences in Stories We Write or Tell
Through a series of guided exercises, participants will explore writing our truths in story – whether poems, plays, fiction, spoken word or memoir. How do we dare to tell ours truths and can we feel safe? How do we transform experience and make stories to heal our lives? What stories do we most need to tell? We will dig deep and explore and create.
Time: 9:30am-12:00pm
Location: Clare Marie Auditorium
Adult event.
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Saturday Afternoon:
Make-believe and Nonsense
Besides experience, we have this wonderful muscle called imagination. How do we create stories out of thin air, where do we find inspiration? Are there ways to bump start our imagination? Yes and then some! Participants will be writing, sharing, laughing, discovering, losing themselves and finding themselves in the healing power of story.
Time: 1:30-4:00pm
Location: Clare Marie Auditorium
Adult event.
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Saturday evening:
Stories in Community: Open Mic with Sheree Fitch.
Sign up as soon as possible! We want at least 20 people sharing their stories to a warmed up and appreciative audience. Sheree will be master of ceremonies for the evening, share some of her own stories, then lead us in listening to each other as dare to “tell tales” in a public space.
Time:7:30-9:30pm
Location:Prissy Pig. Generous selection of savories and sweets provided. Cash Bar.
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Sunday morning:
Reading Mary Oliver/Contemplative writing.
Through the power of our voices reading aloud the poetry of Mary Oliver, participants will enter a space for meditation, then emerge to write for an uninterrupted period of time. They will share if moved to share. The session will end with a group story told, powerfully, without words.
Each session is $20 or $75 if registering for all sessions.
GENEROSITY OPTION – If you are a student, artist, senior or unwaged you may use the Generosity Option. Please select all the sessions that you will be attending and then select PAY AT THE DOOR and give according to your means.
Directions to Clare Marie Auditorium
The Clare Marie Auditorium is next to St. Martha’s Regional Hospital. Limited parking is available in the lot ($2.00).
Please note that the Feb workshop was CANCELLED DUE TO WEATHER
These workshops are rescheduled to April 10-12
New registration link will be posted at a later date
AHA! and ASAP are delighted to announce that we will be hosting a workshop over the weekend of February 6-8, entitled “Narrative Medicine: The Healing Power of Story,” featuring the nationally acclaimed storyteller, educator, and literacy advocate Sheree Fitch. The event will include a public event on the evening of February 6, featuring stories in prose and poetry to find our myths and speak our truths. This will be followed by a series of participatory workshops throughout the weekend. We would love to see you at any or all of these activities!
Dr. Fitch has been a keynote speaker at conferences, schools and universities throughout Canada. She holds honorary doctorates from St. Mary’s, Acadia and Saint Thomas Universities, and is Honorary Spokesperson for the New Brunswick Coalition for Literacy and for the NS Read to Me Program. Her work as a poet, novelist, and literacy advocate has taken her to the Arctic, Bhutan, China, East Africa, Mexico and Vietnam.
I hope you’ll set aside time for this exciting opportunity. If you, or your organization, would like more information on how you can participate in this community event contact either of us:
A MINDFULNESS VIEW OF ART AND HEALTH with JERRY GRANELLI ( OCT 24/27) is the first in a series of educational events, organized jointly by the All-Of-Us Society for Art Presentation (ASAP) and Arts Health Antigonish (AHA!), to build professional capacity for ASAP artists and AHA! members, and to expand these initiatives beyond our immediate community. We have identified three artists from the Atlantic region, Rose Adams, Sheree Fitch and Jerry Granelli, each of whom have exceptional expertise on three fronts: they are recognized internationally for their professional artistic excellence, they have built exemplary reputations as educators, workshop facilitators, and community leaders, and they have made unique connections to the social determinants of health in their professional careers. Workshops with Rose Adams and Sheree Fitch are scheduled for the spring of 2015.
Schedule
The schedule for this first event with Jerry Granelli will include:
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24 7:30 P.M. ST. JAMES UNITED CHURCH A MINDFULNESS VIEW OF ART AND HEALTH
In this public talk, open to all, Jerry will introduce the principals of mindfulness training and discuss the tools, strategies and view necessary to develop personal, group and community mindfulness programs.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25 10 A.M. – 12 ST. JAMES UNITED CHURCH MINDFULNESS AND LEADERSHIP
At times in our lives, we are sometimes called upon to be leaders: in our homes, our jobs and our communities. If you are sitting in a leadership position in an art, health or community-based organization, this workshop is for you. Jerry will call on his experience as a founding member of Authentic Leadership in Action (ALIA) to discuss the role mindfulness training can play in helping to shape a refreshing view of leadership.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25 2-4 P.M. ST. JAMES UNITED CHURCH MINDFULNESS, THE CREATIVE PROCESS AND GROUP PRACTICE (1)
This will be the first of three workshops held consecutively in this time slot on Saturday. Sunday and Monday. Anchored in the AHA! Eldertree Project, Jerry will workshop this group of local artists, writers, musicians and interested others in the group creative process as he has for over twenty years with the participants of the Creative Music Workshop (CMW) in Halifax. If you are involved in a collaborative endeavor, this is for you.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26 8-9 A.M. COADY DENNIS HALL MEDITATION PRACTICE
For those interested in formal meditation instruction, practice and a Dharma talk, Jerry will lead this session, which will include a short time for question and answer.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26 10:30 A.M.-12:30 P.M. COADY DENNIS HALL WORKING WITH MINDFULNESS
How we integrate mindfulness training into our individual art and health practices will be the focus of this session. Jerry will address the concerns of working artists and those who play an educational role, attempting to introduce mindfulness training into their environments and programs.
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 26 2-4 P.M. COADY DENNIS HALL MINDFULNESS, THE CREATIVE PROCESS AND GROUP PRACTICE (2)
See above for details.
MONDAY OCTOBER 27 10 A.M.-12 CLARE MARIE SAVOURING UNCERTAINTY
Understanding our place in a constantly changing world is at the heart of all mindfulness training and is the very inspiration of the creative process. In art, health care and all community-based work we are asked daily to savour uncertainty. This subject is at the core of Jerryʼs work with ALIA and the theme of this last morning session.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 27 2-4 P.M. ST JAMES UNITED CHURCH MINDFULNESS, THE CREATIVE PROCESS AND GROUP PRACTICE (3)
This final session will focus on preparing for performance individually and as a group.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 27 ! 8 P.M. TOWNHOUSE AHA! FUNDRAISING EVENT
Come and join us in this final evening of celebration and farewell to Jerry. Participants in the afternoon MINDFULNESS, THE CREATIVE PROCESS AND GROUP PRACTICE sessions, including the Eldertree Project team, will be joined by Jerry to present a variety of music, spoken word and other creative delights for your pleasure.
Registration will be required for all sessions except the Friday 7:30 p.m. public talk and Monday evening TOWNHOUSE event. See link below.
The cost of the workshops for Saturday, Sunday and Monday will be as follows:
All six workshops $ 75
Each individual workshop $ 20
A generosity policy is included for all of these workshops: seniors, students, unwagedand artists may choose this generosity option and offer a donation either upon registration on-line or at the door.
We’ve now had five workshops, attended by between twelve and eighteen participants each time. We’ve learned a lot about self-directed learning, about each other, and about having “serious fun” together. We’ve welcomed new participants to each workshop, which has been delightful and at the same time challenging, trying to get everyone up to speed whilst working and playing with many concepts and directions. It’s been helpful always remembering, “We don’t know where we’re going but we’re not lost!”
These are some threads common to all five workshops: (a) we’ve drawn each time on adult education’s Appreciative Inquiry (AI) model of the “5Ds” (Define, Discover, Dream, Design, Destiny); (b) we’ve created an ongoing “values map” from many hundreds of participants’ stick-it notes and reflections: (c) we’ve explored how what we’re learning together in our cross-training fits with the recognized WHO social determinants of health (SDHs); (d) we’ve highlighted how adult play can be deep and serious fun; and (e) we’re collecting a unique body of appreciative evaluation of each other, and of ourselves, which can only grow.
What’s next? We’re spoiled for choice! We have three closely interconnected strands: (a) we’re awaiting a decision on the grants we’ve submitted to NS Communities, Culture, & Heritage and to our Community Health Board Wellness Fund to bring three nationally known artist/educators to conduct AHA! workshops and community-wide events later this year; (b) we’re broadening our net locally to invite others working in the arts, health, and education to consider facilitating our next workshop series; and (c) we’re building on our established values, on adult game theory, and on our self-directed learning, to dream and design our destiny—namely, the cultural pillar of Sustainable Antigonish.
“Art has the power to inspire, the power to heal, the power to transform, to rehabilitate, to bear witness, and to make us believe that there are better days ahead.”
Michaelle Jean, former Governor General of Canada
Nova Scotia Community Culture And Heritage
