Creativity & the Arts

Jade Scarlett

Some things are just too big, too tangled, or too tender for words—and that’s exactly where art journaling comes in. It’s a gentle, creative practice that lets you process what you’re feeling without needing to explain, justify, or even fully understand it yet. The page doesn’t ask questions. It just listens.

In this workshop, we’ll trade the pen for watercolors, markers, colored pencils, fineliners, crayons, or whatever art supply you prefer, using color, texture, and mark-making as another language for the things sitting quietly inside us. The only requirement will just be a willingness to be honest on the page, one messy, imperfect layer at a time.

You’ll learn simple techniques for turning a feeling, a memory, or a chaotic day into a visual journal entry—layering color to hold a mood, using line and texture to give shape to emotion, and building pages that aren’t about “good art,” but about true expression. It’s part creative practice, part quiet self-care, and part permission slip to feel what you feel.

Bring your emotions, whatever state they’re in, and some art supplies. We’ll bring instructions for a few easy and effective techniques and plenty of gentle guidance. No experience needed—just a curious heart and hands willing to make a beautiful mess.

“Creating art is a form of meditation and spiritual dialogue. Within the subconscious, there is a rich world of images; a wealth of connections and memories, built layer upon layer, much like my art works. As a spiritual and reflective person, I am compelled to search through these images for meaning and significance. As an artist, I seek to refine this information and create personal work with substance and beauty, work that translates the rich landscape of my dreams, the imagery of my inner worlds, and the breathtaking nature around me.” —Jade Scarlet

Note: You are welcome to bring whatever art supplies you have or prefer to use for this workshop. We are providing the link below to art supply resources as a guide to what art supplies would work best for the techniques that Jade will be covering in the workshop. No particular art supplies are required of participants.

Resources for art supplies

Jade Scarlett calls herself a “Creativity Possibilitarian,” which is a made-up term that perfectly describes what her life is all about―making living a creative life possible for everyone. She has been an organizer and promoter of classes for major retailers, museums, and public institutions — including Michael’s, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the New York Public Library. She is skilled at designing curricula and projects that build confidence in beginners while keeping experienced students engaged. Jade is also known for an upbeat, patient teaching style, strong organization, and ease at adapting to new audiences and venues. jadescarlett.com

An Artist’s Way Guide to Unleashing Your Inner Creativity

Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, in conversation with editor Joel Fotinos

This evening’s presentation by Julia Cameron is meant to give us simpler approaches to awaken and strengthen our writing ability. Every artist or aspiring creator knows the sting of being stuck. Blasting Through Blocks is a “good news” book: Yes, you will find yourself in its pages. You’ll recognize the resistance, the internal critic, the fear of failure, the perfectionism, the inertia. But the promise here is simple: You can always unblock. You don’t need grand methods or deep dives into theory—just the willingness to work with small, powerful tools.

As you cross the 52 essays in this new book by Julia, you’ll come upon one creative block and one practical practice each week. Some tools will feel familiar—rooted in The Artist’s Way heritage—but many will surprise you with their straightforwardness, their clarity, their freshness. Over time, these practices build into a living, flexible toolkit you can revisit whenever you feel stuck again.

This is a book for personal pilgrimage and communal practice alike. Use it as a companion through a year of your creative life. Bring it to your writing group, your classroom, or give it as a gift to any artist in your life. As these pages light up one shadow at a time, you’ll begin to see the spiritual and psychological pathways through your creative difficulties—and discover why your work matters.

NOTE: A copy of Julia Cameron’s new book Blasting Through Blocks: An Artist’s Way Guide to Unleashing Your Inner Creativity is included in the $35 price of this talk. Books will be mailed to students living only within the contiguous United States.

Julia Cameron has been hailed by The New York Times as “The Queen of Change.” Credited with starting a movement in 1992 that has brought creativity into the mainstream conversation— in the arts, business, and everyday life—she is the bestselling author of more than 50 books, fiction and nonfiction, and a poet, songwriter, filmmaker and playwright. Commonly referred to as “The Godmother” or “High Priestess” of creativity, she offers tools based in practice, not theory. Her No. 1 bestseller, The Artist’s Way, has been translated into more than 40 languages and sold over five million copies. juliacameronlive.com

Joel Fotinos is the founder, vice president and editorial director of St. Martin’s Essentials, the lifestyle imprint at Macmillan, and a former vice president and publisher at Penguin Random House. For nearly 30 years, he has collaborated with Julia Cameron on The Artist’s Way series and related projects. Joel also facilitates Artist’s Way groups and shares creative inspiration on his Substack and TikTok. joelfotinos.com

Using Shame as the Key to Access Our Best Self

Melissa Petro

Shame is one of the most powerful—and least examined—forces shaping our lives. It governs what we say, what we silence, and how visible we allow ourselves to become.

In this immersive writing workshop, we’ll approach shame not as something to overcome, but as something to understand, decode, and ultimately transform. Drawing from the ideas in Melissa Petro’s book Shame on You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification, we’ll explore how shame operates culturally—especially in a media-saturated world where exposure and judgment are constant—and how it quietly constrains creativity, ambition, and self-expression.

Through guided writing, close reading, and shared inquiry, participants will enter their own stories with precision and curiosity. Writing becomes both method and medium: a way to surface what has been hidden, to question inherited narratives, and to reclaim authorship over one’s life.

Melissa brings a rare vantage point shaped by lived experience—navigating stigma, public scrutiny, and reinvention—and offers a framework for transforming vulnerability into insight, language, and agency.

Together we will:

• Trace  the personal and cultural contours of shame
• Identify the narratives that limit expression and possibility
• Experiment with writing that converts exposure into clarity and authority
• Practice listening and responding in a space of rigor, discretion, and trust

Note: No prior writing experience is necessary. All that’s required is a willingness to think, to feel, and to tell the truth—on the page and beyond.

Melissa Petro is a cultural journalist and author of Shame on You: How to Be a Woman in the Age of Mortification, a hybrid memoir and cultural investigation into how shame shapes women’s lives. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Nation and New York Magazine. melissa-petro.com