The ACC presents the Deep Winter Series to help see us through what might be a very dark winter. Each weekly session will offer an easy introduction to a creative activity that will activate your imagination and give you the opportunity to try something you may have never done before - or thought you were good at. Sessions are offered by professionals in the field of creativity and imagination, and all will start at a beginner level. The connections between creative practices and well-being are being revealed by new research every day; take a little time to find it for yourself during this deep winter period. Immerse yourself in play, engage your imagination, and create space to dream.
The series is free and open to the public.
Watch for updates here on Facebook & Instagram.
Join the lectures on Zoom at this link.
For further information, please contact: alexismilligan@hotmail.com.
This series is presented by the Atlantic Centre for Creativity.
2022 Deep Winter Series
Tuesday’s 7PM, AST
Alexis Milligan | January 18, 2022 @ 7PM AST | Join Here Warming Up Winter
Do you dance in the kitchen when you are doing dishes? Or in the car when your favourite song comes on? In this session we will warm up winter with moving to music and imagining ourselves in other times and spaces. We'll start with a warm up, explore movement and imagination through music, and finish with a gentle stretch. Make sure you wear comfy clothes you can move in and have some water on hand! Alexis Milligan is a movement director at The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and is currently pursuing her Masters in Interdisciplinary Studies at UNB. alexismilligan.com transitus.ca
John Guiney Yallop | January 25, 2022 @ 7PM AST | Join Here Knotting to Do
When John Guiney Yallop made the decision to retire, he felt immediately that he had knotting to do. Not having done any macramé since the 1980s, John asked his partner, Gary, to help him find some jute. Bring several metres of jute, rope, string or clothesline, as well as something to tie it onto (piece of broomstick, clothes hanger, broken chair leg) to this session. You will learn how to have knotting to do. John will describe his journey and his process.
Danielle Hogan | February 1, 2022 @ 7PM AST | Join Here Comforting Collage
Come explore the 'not-so highly technical' principles of collage. i.e. Cutting & Gluing! Participants are invited to use any images or materials (fabrics, wallpaper, newspaper..) that they have on hand. Just be sure to include scissors, a glue stick and some paper. Danielle Hogan is a visual artist and writer who is passionate about coffee, the history of textiles and, her dog Frida. She has a PhD in interdisciplinary studies from UNB.
Goran Matic | February 8, 2022 @ 7PM AST | Join Here Playing with Meta-Cognition
How do we successfully collaborate and innovate within complex social challenges – such as, within ‘wicked problems’, ‘problematiques’ and other related contexts? Here, creativity becomes a key enabler – with meta-cognition as a critical skill for engaging diverse participants.
Come join us for a hand-on workshop on collaborating with creative meta-cognition!
Kevin "Koovy" McLachlan | February 15, 2022 @ 7PM AST | Join Here Tea Doodles with Koovy
For this session all you will need is a cup of tea, watercolour paper or card stock paper, and a pen or a pencil. With these tools Koovy will take us through a fun laid back way to focus, create, and try something new. Explore your physical creativity in this simple and engaging activity, and see where your imagination takes you!
Kevin Baker | February 22, 2022 @ 7PM AST | Join Here Making a Musical Through Improv!
Hello everyone! My name is Kevin Baker and I will be leading you through an hour of HOPEFULLY what will be some incredibly fun, high paced and interactive musical improv that will challenge the mind, the body and our collective “zoom" group skills! We will start with some straightforward rhythmic games such as “Big Booty” and progress through to a little thing I like to call “Day in the Life Musical!!!” I also want to debut - for the first time in human history - a game of MY OWN INVENTION… “Under Pressure…”. YES! I will make you wait for an explanation on THAT game!!! At any rate, see you there! It should/WILL be awesome!!!
Rhys Bevan-John | March 1, 2022 @ 7PM AST | Join Here Somatic Awareness
The body has more control over the mind than the mind does over the body. Just because we "know better" about how we'd like to behave in a given situation, that doesn't mean our system will respond differently when it's under pressure. This workshop will get our feet wet with some somatic - holistic, body oriented - practices that will help us relax, and understand what we're thinking 'below the neck'.
2021 Deep Winter Series
Jean Rooney | January 19, 2021 @ 7PM AST | Join Here How to Draw Faces, for Beginners
This virtual workshop will explore basic techniques for drawing faces. It will offer two low-stress, fun and informal activities, requiring no previous experience. All you will need is a pencil and some plain paper! Firstly, you will learn how to draw realistically using the rules of anatomy, and then as a second activity, make imaginary faces using unusual shapes and marks. These creative activities will prove to be both educational and inspirational! Jean Rooney is a visual artist and educator based in New Brunswick. She is Studio Head of Advanced Studio Practice and an Instructor of Drawing at The New Brunswick College of Craft and Design.
Trevor Strong | January 26, 2021 @ 7PM AST | Join Here Everybody has a Song
Anyone can write a song! Learn how to get an idea, catch a hook, and make the ordinary interesting. We'll be using a lyric-first approach so you can make a song without even having an instrument. Trevor Strong is a writer, musician, arts educator, and a PhD candidate at Queen’s Faculty of Education. He is also one-third of the music-comedy group, The Arrogant Worms, who have toured ceaselessly across Canada for thirty years. Trevor delivers classes and workshops on creativity, writing, comedy performance, and song writing, all of which focus on the joy of finding an idea, expanding on it, and sharing it with others.
Alexis Milligan | February 2, 2021 @ 7PM AST | Join Here
Dance Like There's No One Watching
Shake off some Deep Winter Blues! Get your heart rate up, sweat a little, all from the comfort of your own home and with your camera turned off. In this class we will do a simple warm up, learn a little combination you can do in your kitchen to any song you love, and cool down with a gentle stretch. Alexis Milligan is a movement director at The Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, and is currently pursuing her master's in interdisciplinary studies at UNB.
Danielle Hogan | February 9, 2021 @ 7PM AST | Join Here Collage Your Way
This virtual workshop explores the 'highly technical' principles of collage. i.e. Cutting & Gluing! Participants are invited to use any images or materials (fabrics, wallpaper, newspaper..) that they have on hand. Just be sure to include scissors, a glue stick and some paper. Danielle Hogan is a visual artist and writer who is passionate about coffee, the history of textiles and, her dog Frida. She has a PhD in interdisciplinary studies from UNB.
John J. Guiney Yallop | February 16, 2021 @ 7PM AST | Join Here Illness and Poetry
Poetry has a way of taking us up close to, even into, an experience. In this session, I will share some of my own poetry where I explore(d) my relationship with illness. Time will be available for you to write (and share, if desired) poetry exploring your own relationship with illness (yours or someone else's). Please bring whatever materials and instruments you prefer to use for writing. John J. Guiney Yallop is a Canadian poet who presently lives in Nova Scotia and writes wherever, and about whatever, he can. He is also a professor at the School of Education at Acadia University.
Charles Pan | February 23rd, 2021 @ 7PM AST | Join Here Telling a Story with your phone
This is a workshop to help you use your smart phone to document your story using proper lighting, layout and simple editing techniques, to weave interesting and creative expressions of yourself. All you need is a smartphone with a camera and an interest in telling a story.
Robin Jensen | March 2, 2021 @ 7PM AST | Join Here
Awe-Full Art Club
Inspired by the "Can't Draw Club" and the "can't draw a straight line with a ruler" philosophy of art, we will set out to explore the wonderful world of "bad" art. Let's make terrible-horrible-awful drawings and giggle a little. You will need pencil and paper...or markers, or crayons, or pens or whatever kind of stuff you like. Robin Jensen is a Fine Arts Specialist in the Halifax Regional Centre for Education and after making art with students of all ages for two decades, a firm believer that every single human is a creative genius.
Sarah Pound | March 9, 2021 @ 7PM AST | Join Here Music Therapy: Energizing with Breath and Sound
Let's join together in a musical interlude. Let's breathe, sing, sign, tone, and make way for energy to move through us! Whether you have previous vocal experience or not, it is not required. This experiential session will provide a fun and safe space for exploration, connection, play and an energetic reboot. Sarah Pound is an accredited music therapist, a certified yoga instructor and a professional singer-songwriter and musician residing in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. She is most passionate about the voice, having recovered from vocal cord surgery as a teenager, only to later graduate from Acadia University with a specialization in choral and classical vocal performance.