Community Workshops & Facilitation
Workshop offerings:
Viscerality: Embodied connection in the digital sphere
How can we make an experience of genuine connection possible in a virtual world? How does physical grounding and awareness of our bodies generate fulfilling interaction in the digital sphere? Through drawing, movement, and live music, we can explore these questions and share creative tools for facilitating meaningful communication across physical distance. I facilitate this interactive and hands-on Zoom workshop with Joellen Sweeney and Maria Olaya.
We will lead you in movement and drawing exercises that invite grounded body-awareness and ease of expression. These exercises are relaxed, playful, and accompanied by beautiful classical guitar music. You will learn new ways to communicate, in pairs and as a whole group, using movement and the visual language of drawing. We will end with reflection and a group discussion about how to apply these tools and experiences to your profession and/or community organizing work.
Praise for Viscerality Workshop:
“We booked the Viscerality workshop for a virtual meeting of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA) . The workshop’s focus on bringing the visceral to the virtual world was spot-on as we continue to explore new ways to do more of our work virtually. Bringing together the unique combination of the visual arts, music and dance/movement engaged us on all levels: intellectually, physically, and emotionally. Several of our members said they plan to incorporate some of the exercises in their upcoming research interviews/focus groups/brainstorming sessions. We can’t thank Arcadia and team enough for sharing their talents with us!”
- Carolyn Marconi, President, Catapult Marketing Group, LLC.
“I’m really impressed by the quality of connection and safety to be vulnerable and genuine in showing up with others that the workshop allowed.”
— Andrew Daquiz, Viscerality workshop participant
“The workshop helped me see that when participating in meetings, including via Zoom, taking time to center myself in my body beforehand can really help me feel more at ease and find more belonging in the space, which connects me with others more and empowers me to share myself more freely and authentically.”
— Thomas Scharf, Viscerality workshop participant
Visual art: insight, communication and place-making
Making art teaches us to see: to look with curiosity and to be surprised by what is actually there. Making art allows us to communicate directly with images that touch into emotions, memory, and intuition. And art made together gives us an opportunity to feel collective ownership for a message or a place.
Draw What You See: insight and recognition
I teach observational drawing through fun and unusual exercises that encourage participants to see from new angles. It is incredible how much there is to notice in a place or person you thought you already knew. These classes improve drawing skills and cultivate awareness and insight in surrounding community.
Visual Language: communicating beyond words
Drawing and painting are great ways to communicate beyond spoken language. I lead workshops for groups of speakers of diverse languages. Through biographical paintings and games in collective story making, participants experience the thrill and gratification of mutual understanding.
Place-making: collective art creation
I am passionate about working with groups to design and paint murals that express the diverse experiences of the community. Collective art making (murals, banners, mask/puppetry parades) can also be used to commemorate and honor those who have passed or to celebrate important shared milestones.
Recommendation for community art making:
“Arcadia is an extraordinary artist working in a range of visual art mediums and performance. In her (classes and workshops) she inspires as she teaches, making the art process accessible and engaging in a safe space, where participants can experiment and explore self-expression through their art.”
- Sarah Ferguson, Teaching Artist for Young Audiences and The Right Brain Initiative
Theater: dialogue and change
Together, we can tailor a theater workshop for any group that wants a bold medium to express their needs and can use new tools to respond to conflict and injustice and facilitate dialogue leading to real change. I work with schools, work teams, and other community groups.
Theater workshop for dialogue and change: I use my background in acting, circus, and movement theater to teach performance techniques for powerful, clear expression and confidence in public presentation. Through improv games and movement exercises, I work with your group to decide on a storyline, write a script, and stage an engaging performance about an issue you want to share with others. I will also share tools in facilitating community dialogue and guiding collective brainstorming and action planning in response to the performance.
I have worked with immigrant parents of Acción con Corazón to create plays exposing the discrimination they and their children experience within the school system. We brought these plays to PTA and neighborhood meetings to facilitate dialogue and planning for policy changes within the schools. I have also worked with youth to create plays about bullying to share with peers as an opening for conversation.
Recommendation for theater workshops:
"Arcadia helped many people to be able to communicate the painful experiences of discrimination that their children suffered in educational spaces. First, she helped us to communicate among ourselves and then to communicate our experiences by bringing proposals for change to these same educational environments. Through creativity, you can experience healing, relief, and dignity by expressing what you want to change.
- Juan Carlos La Puente, member of Acción con Corazón
Recomendación para talleres de teatro
"Arcadia ayudó mucho a que muchos puedan comunicar sus experiencias de dolor por la discriminación sufrida de sus hijos en algunos entornos educativos. Primero, nos ayudó a comunicarnos entre nosotros, y luego a comunicar nuestras experiencias llevando propuestas de cambio a esos mismos entornos educativos. De manera creativa se puede experimentar sanación, alivio, y dignidad al expresar lo que queremos cambiar.”
- Juan Carlos La Puente, miembro de Acción con Corazón