ART MATTERS: poems, visual art, and writing in communal silence

About the Workshop

In this 2-hour workshop, we'll explore our mutual love of art and the insight and meaning it offers in our lives. That is, especially as a stabilizing, grounding, and galvanizing force in uncertain times. Under oppressive regimes, during war, amidst violence and pandemics, artists keep making art. Join us for an evening of community gathering in celebration of all the wisdom art offers. Stuffy and academic? No way. Expect a night of camaraderie and gratitude for artists and the creative process.

The first part of our time together will be spent reading, looking, listening, and talking. We'll look at a poem and a work of visual art as invitations into our own creative writing. We'll spend the second half of our time in communal quiet, writing together in response to the work we've looked at, with time left at the end for optional sharing.

What you will get:

A community of people united in a common cause (art!)

A cozy bookstore setting on a winter evening (snacks and warm beverages provided!)

Two 20-minute guided creative writing/journaling sessions

Close reading and facilitated discussion of two poems and two works of visual art

This workshop is open to anyone who wants to spend thoughtful time in community engaged with beauty and meaning. All writing genres and levels welcome.

About the Instructor

Sarah McColl is the author of the memoir Joy Enough (Liveright/W.W. Norton, 2019). She also writes the newsletter Lost Art, a monthly essay on the creative work of (mostly) dead women and a finalist for the 2023 Andy Warhol Arts Writers Grant. Her essays have been published by the Paris Review, McSweeney’s, and StoryQuarterly, and her work has been supported with fellowship awards from Millay Arts, Ucross, Vermont Studio Center, and MacDowell. She holds an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and loves nothing more than talking about writing and what matters.

Host or Publisher Amatoria Fine Art Books