When Dreams Become Reality: A Teaching Artist Workshop

Join us for a Teaching Artist Workshop hosted by the Teaching Artists Guild (TAG) of California network. TAG workshops are part of the series of events in preparation for One County One Book 2024, Ventura County’s 2nd annual Celebration of Books. The featured book this year is “Rough Sleepers: Dr Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People” by Tracy Kidder.

California Teaching Artists are invited to observe, learn facilitation skills and participate in a 2-part community workshop series to develop a collective, poetic artwork with unhoused and housed people.

Creative expressions developed during this workshop series will be combined into a single collective artwork which will be featured and presented during the One County One Book Festival on October 12th, at California State University Channel Islands.

Final Times TBD

Goals:

• To normalize access to arts education and creative experiences for ALL members of the community, both housed and unhoused
• To build community bonds between people who share the same community but who would not normally socialize with one another, in this case housed and unhoused people
• To shift misperceptions and remove stigmas associated with the unhoused community, shifting the narrative from “this is an outsider” to “this is my neighbor”

Workshop 1: Poetry

Workshop participants will write poetry based on reflection through a series of writing prompts, facilitated by Fernando Salinas and Nicole Taylor

Workshop 2: Visual Art

The poetry composed during workshop 1 will be incorporated into a collective artwork, facilitated by Nicole Taylor and Nathan Hayden.

Health Protocols:

Wearing masks is optional. Having a COVID-19 vaccination is strongly recommended. Members of our community are still navigating health concerns in public spaces. If you are feeling unwell or have cold/flu-like symptoms, please stay at home.

Accessibility:

TAG is committed to providing tools to help all of our community to engage in meaningful participation in our events. If you require accessibility support such as ASL interpreters, please email us no later than a week before the event: [email protected].

This event is sponsored by the Clarence E. Heller Charitable Foundation.

Host or Publisher Teaching Artists Guild