Heal Up! Arts & Wellness Roundtable
Arts & Wellness Roundtable
January 28 | 11 AM - 12:15 PM
Virtual
This roundtable aims to create thought-partnership on ways that artists can embed wellness practices within their work. Discussions will ebb into wellness as a "place to come from", and flow into caring for the person behind the art in a sustainable way. Speakers include Shola Thompson, Kearra Amaya Gopee, and Ragnhild Bruland (Ragz).
Shola Thompson is the founder of Community Revitalization Partnership, a non-profit aimed at creating therapeutic spaces within NYC schools. Over the last 10 years within private practice and public partnerships, Shola has worked collaboratively with clients to create lived-experiences that honor themselves, their relationships and the spaces that mean the most to them. Shola's work is centered in healing, resilience and equity.
Kearra Amaya Gopee (they/them) is an anti-disciplinary visual artist from Carapichaima, Kairi (the larger of the twin-island nation known as Trinidad and Tobago), living on Lenape land (New York, NY). Using video, sculpture, sound, writing, and other media, they identify both violence and time as primary conditions that undergird the anti-Black world in which they work: a world that they are intent on working against through myriad collective interventions.
Ragnhild Bruland (Ragz) grew up in Norway where she studied psychology at the University of Oslo. She is the co-founder of the Flex Dance Program for youth in secure detention after being inspired by the art-form of flexing (flexn) and the work that was being done by artists in local communities. She strongly believes in the value of artistic expression and its positive effects on mental health. Her research interests include dance and music on resilience and coping mechanisms.
About Heal Up! Career Pathways in Creative Wellness
A 2023 Brooklyn Arts Council Creativity and Wellness Professional Development Series
This professional development series explores career pathways and training that offers artists an opportunity to integrate their art and wellness skills.
These workshops feature art and wellness practitioners and welcome participants from all creative industries into a supportive space to learn about the transformational power of the arts. This professional development series will assist creative agents in growing and expanding their craft on practices of wellness.
Community development, social engagement, creativity, museum wellness, craft, and indigenous experts will discuss new art and wellness training programs, workshops, and engagements from a variety of cultural practices and educational spaces (formal and informal).