July 5 - 12, 2012 10 AM to 1:30 PM each day

The Creativity Workshop in Barcelona

Program Overview

The Creativity Workshop in Barcelona will help you get more creative in your personal and professional life. To this end, the Workshop uses the tools of creative writing, memoir, art, photography, storytelling, mapmaking, and guided visualization. Barcelona is a city of extraordinary architecture, world-class museums, chic beaches, tranquil parks, fabulous nightlife, and seafood to die for.

The Workshop meets for 3 1/2 hours a day. You will have the rest of the time to wander around Barcelona and the vicinity.

The Creativity Workshop is attended by people from many different countries and professions, including business, education, psychology, the sciences and the arts. Experts agree that creativity is key to success in all professions. It also helps individuals feel more fulfilled, relaxed, and happier.

What will you learn?

The Creativity Workshop is an experiential workshop of doing and experimenting. You will go straight to the source of your imagination and outrun creative blocks and negative self criticism. The Workshop's exercises, techniques and instructor talks are focused on helping you:

Learn practical techniques to stimulate your creativity and imagination
Get in touch with the innate creativity you already have
Explore creativity as a way of life: a process rather than just a product
Find inspiration in the world around you
Get over creative blocks and the fear of failure
Learn how to make time in your life for creative work

Daily Schedule

Here is a sampling of just some of the exercises and techniques we will be working with in class. Participants tell us the time in workshop seems to fly by. The order and kinds of exercises and the instructors' talks may vary. Some exercises are done individually while others are collaborative.

Thursday, July 5, 2012: Arrival. Free day

Time for you to settle in and relax.

Friday, July 6: First day of workshop

Introduction to the hows and whys of The Creativity Workshop. Exercises in relaxation technique and guided visualization.
Relaxation: Exercises in relaxation techniques to help your imagination flow.
Guided Visualization: Calling forth the vocabulary of your imagination using the myth of the hero's journey as a framework.
Automatic Drawing: Finding your hidden imagery.
Show and Tell: Retrieving and sharing childhood memories to spark new ideas. This exercise will sharpen your storytelling skills.
Instructors' talk: How some famous writers, scientists, and artists found their inspiration, and how you can use some of their methods to find yours.

More on Daily Schedule

Saturday, July 7:

Relaxation.
Guided Visualization: Map-making as a way to find, chart, and communicate your creative process and projects.
Automatic Writing: How automatic writing (also known as “free writing”) can help you create in new and surprising ways. How you can use automatic writing to outrun your inner judge, get over creative blocks and discover new ways of developing and editing written work. How alternating between writing and drawing can help you develop creative flexibility and mind dexterity.
The Interview: Listening to and experiencing a life outside your own. How listening is as important as doing in creative work.

Sunday, July 8:

Guided visualization: Letter writing as a way to express voice, character and audience.
Miniature Theatre: Storytelling with found objects.
Automatic Writing: Writing in Groups. How writing and/or drawing with others can stimulate your imagination and expand your point of view.

Instructors' talks may include:

The importance of play in creative work
Valuing creative process over product
How to do on-going creative work in short modules of time
How to use luck and coincidence to jump start creative projects

Monday, July 9:

Guided Visualization: The Myth of the Other. Imagining yourself living a parallel life. What would you do that you aren't doing now?
Trips to the Past: Using a foreign environment to invoke memory and inspire transformation.
The Close-Up: Using photography and drawing to focus on details and change the way we see.
Instructors' talks may include:

Following your innate creativity and listening to its intuition
How to rekindle fearless imagination
The Power of the Magic phrase: “What If”

Tuesday, July 10:

Guided Visualization: The Legend of the Hand.
Automatic Drawing and Writing continues with a new twist.
Cafe exercise: Writing, drawing, photographing people you find in local cafes.
The Illuminated Manuscript: A collaborative exercise in combining mediums and perspectives.
Instructors' talk may include:

The Gift of the Amateur
Creativity is a Muscle: Use it or Lose it
Making your home and work environments inspiring
How to stay creative after The Creativity Workshop ends

NOTE: There are no classes on the final day of the workshop. This day is free for participants to put to active use the various techniques learned in the workshop by exploring the cultural, historical and natural riches of each location and its people.

Excursions are not included or arranged.

Wednesday, July 11: Free day - Suggested visit:

Trip to Dali Museum in Figueras.
Trip to the medieval town of Gerona, at one time a center of Jewish mysticism and Kabbala.

Thursday, July 12: Departure

Tuition and accommodations packages

We offer tuition and accommodations packages for most of our workshops.

SHARED ROOM (3 STARS): $2,200
This package includes tuition, 7 nights hotel (with A/C) and breakfast. You'll be sharing a room and bath with another workshop participant at Hotel HCC Open (3 stars). If you are coming alone and register for a shared room, we will assign you a roommate of the same sex.

PRIVATE ROOM (3 STARS): $2,700
This package includes tuition, 7 nights hotel (with A/C) and breakfast in a private room with private bath at Hotel HCC Open (3 stars).

We have special hotel prices for participants bringing a spouse, friend or family members. Check with us for details and pricing.

To reserve your place: full payment is required.

TUITION ONLY: You can register for The Creativity Workshop and make your own housing arrangements. Check with us for pricing.

By registering you agree with our Terms and Conditions.

The Creativity Workshop will take place at Hotel HCC Open (3 stars).

NOTES

1- We cannot guarantee the quality, cooling level, or functioning of the hotels' air conditioning. Air conditioning in Europe is seldom up to American standards of cool.
2- European hotel rooms tend to be smaller than American ones.

DISCOUNTS

$500 off for participants taking the workshop for the third time or more.
$300 off for participants taking the workshop for the second time.
$150 off each participant for groups of 4 people or more registering together. (Prague, Dubai, Crete, Barcelona, Provence, Singapore and Florence workshops only).
$100 off Bring a friend to one of our Prague, Dubai, Crete, Barcelona, Provence, Singapore or Florence workshops and get $100 off.
$100 off each participant for groups of 3 people registering together. (Prague, Dubai, Crete, Barcelona, Provence, Singapore and Florence workshops only).
$50 off each participant for groups of 2 people registering together. (Prague, Dubai, Crete, Barcelona, Provence, Singapore and Florence workshops only).

Share a double room with another workshop participant and save on the package price.
Special offers and discounts cannot be combined.

Spouses/companions who would like to travel with their partners but do not want to attend the workshop may share a room for an additional fee.
Vacancies are limited and hotel rooms will be assigned on a first come, first served basis. We encourage early registration in order to obtain the level of accommodations you seek.

By registering you agree with our Terms and Conditions.

Upcoming Workshops
2012

New York June 8 - 11
Crete June 26 - July 3
Barcelona July 5 - 12
Provence July 15 - 22
Florence July 24 - 31
New York August 17 - 20
New York October 19 - 22
Dubai December 5 - 10

2013
Singapore February 13 - 18
Prague March 24 - 30

On-Site Training
Personal Mentoring
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“Absolutely amazing things happen when you take flight at The Creativity Workshop. You will return to earth, magically transformed. Each morning in Barcelona, we awoke to blue, sunny skies and a warm Mediterranean breeze. We spread out with our journals and colored pencils near by, and then, lulled by the cadence of our instructor's musical voice, we switched off the editor in our heads and set out to capture lost dreams.”

Lalita Noronha, Author, Fiction Editor of The Baltimore Review, Baltimore, MD

Questions?
Call us: +1.212.203.3252
Email or go to our FAQ

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The Creativity Workshop Return to top Register Now

The Creativity Workshop in Barcelona

Program Overview

What will you learn?

Daily Schedule

Tuition and accommodations packages

About Us

Special Information

Take a Workshop

On-Site Training

Testimonials

Pricing

Register

Contact us