SPARK OF BEAUTY: Creativity and Connection

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May 11th-18th 2025 | Hillsboro, WV

2025 REGISTRATION IS OPEN!

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Deep within everyone & everything we find beauty.
When we see this there is a spark, it shines from our passions and joys,
what we think and what we feel, glowing brilliant and into something beautiful.

The Experience

Spark of Beauty: Creativity and Connection is a workshop experience immersed in art making, nature, and connecting to the playful, creative, and beautiful potential of ourselves and our world. During the week a variety of simple yet dynamic art activites will be introduced to awaken the imagination, spark inspiration, and encourage the creative spirit.

We will explore, play, create, and perform with traditional and non-traditional art materials as a way to discover our own unique individual gifts as well as acknowledge our undeniable connection to the natural environment and to each other. It is an invitation to develop inner process and also deepen our relationship with all forms of knowing, mind, body, spirit. 

Set in 300-acres of beautiful land in West-Virginia, the natural setting and large indoor spaces for hands-on experimentation will give us the room to learn and grow! Together we will cultivate a supportive and lighthearted space, one open to new possibilities of creative expression, self-reflection, and the mysterious and cooperative connection between art and well being.

This workshop is perfect for educators, caretakers, teachers, art practitioners, and anyone curious about the transformative potential of art.

 

 

 

Themes

Sparking Beauty: We will investigate hands-on art making in order to build our curiosity and strengthen our communication, asking new questions and finding new pathways towards personal growth and connection. The focus is on experimentation, not mastery, inviting the beauty of potential.

Living in Community: A week dedicated to exploring the possibilities of communal living.

Art and Well Being: Everyone is creative, and art practices can show us new ways to interact with and discover the world and the people around us. Through fostering an attitude of open interest, open dialogue and playful exploration, art experiences can transform the way we think about and move within the world.

Nature Experiences: We will walk on one or more beautiful wooded trails, visit the Gesundheit waterfall, and do a bit of forest bathing to focus on the wisdom of nature.

Art Activities: We will try a number of methods and materials, both in nature and indoors, participating in activities that take advantage of the place and space to experiment. We will work with visual art materials like paint, mark-making tools, found objects, paper, clay, fabric as well as sound and doing physical movement. We will be flexible and move with the flow of participant’s curiosities and interests. There will be space for both group and individual activities, as well as opportunities to continue working on any project or idea. 

 

Who is offering this?

 

Facilitators and presenters include:  

Rachel Kessler — a visual artist who exhibits internationally as well as a dedicated arts educator. She has fifteen years experience in arts pedagogy, working with artists, teachers, and those interested in growing their creativity across age groups and backgrounds. She also works as a consultant for arts and enrichment programs, non-profits, museums, and other educational organizations throughout the U.S. She has a BFA from California Institute for the Arts and MFA from Art Center College of Design, along with a breadth of learning experience in art therapy, inquiry, and learning design. Her focus in education has been in developing creative agency through material play. She has worked in support of Gesundheit’s mission for several years, as a facilitator of Laughing Body: The Art of Care and The School For Designing a Society’s Developing Your Humanism, as well as having participated in and supported clown trips internationally. More about her can be found at www.rachelkesslerstudio.com.

Matthew Fielder — Artist, clown, performer, educator, Matthew Fielder has been working in the areas of performance, the visual arts, experimental theater, puppetry, and animation for 20+ years. His philosophy and practice are rooted in heartfelt being -compassion, nature, the creative/poetic spirit, and artistic discovery. As an arts educator he has had the amazing opportunity to work with diverse communities across the spectrum-people of all ages and backgrounds, fostering creative risk-taking, supporting new experiences and building meaningful connections through engagement in the arts. Matthew has performed and held exhibitions in numerous galleries and festivals including ArtContemporary Los Angeles, MIT Museum, and PWNW. A good friend of Gesundheit, Matthew has facilitated programs and participated in clown trips around the world. He holds a BFA in Fine art and an M.A. in the program of Aesthetics and Politics from Calarts. 

 

 

Who is invited?

You are! This workshop is perfect for educators, caretakers, teachers, art practitioners, and anyone curious about the transformative potential of art.

 

 

General Information

Early Bird Price | $850. Price increases to $925 after April 1st. This covers tuition, room, board and transportation pick up & return. Scholarships are not available. Be Prepared to pay your $200 deposit to confirm your participation.

Where? | The program takes place on the Gesundheit Institute’s 320 acres in the Blue Ridge Mountains, with mountain trails, waterfalls, extensive gardens, and a lake. Gesundheit’s project-in-progress is a  unique model of holistic health care that will serve as an inspiration for us to coax each other to dream big—in our personal lives, in our community involvement, and in our contributions to global peace and justice

Facilities | Gesundheit lays on a pristine tract of farm and mountain land in rural West Virginia. The dacha, with its onion domes and Russian architecture, serves as a residence and meeting place, and has won awards for its unique design.

Meeting Spaces | Gesundheit Institute offers many unique meeting spaces and classrooms. There are quiet spaces for meditation or study and large rooms to house workshops and classes. Gesundheit hosts events focused on education—at the site of the future hospital and elsewhere.

Accommodations | Accommodations are in dormitory-style group settings. There are laundry machines at Gesundheit that you can use. We offer very slow WIFI (cannot download, cannot use skype, sorry!). Clean sheets and towels are provided.

Travel | Gesundheit staff will shuttle people to and from the train station in White Sulphur Springs and the airport in Lewisburg on the first and last day of the course.

⇒ If you would like to sponsor a tuition please reach out.

 

 

Questions?

Contact is Rachel Kessler: rachelkesslerstudio@gmail.com for more details and for a brief check-in before registration.