Postponed – SMCE4007 W25 – Introduction to the Expressive Arts

Awaken Your Creativity.

• Half-Day Workshop
• TBA
• In-person
• Mary Ward Centre, Second Floor, Loretto College
• 70 St Mary Street Toronto ON M5S 1J3
• $65.00 (includes HST)

This workshop introduces participants to the foundations of the Expressive Arts.

Explore your creative voice through poetry, visual art, and movement prompts designed to awaken and heal your creative spirit. Whether you are blocked in your creative process or want to learn a new approach to creativity, this workshop will provide a few hours of self-discovery and joy.  
 

Learning Outcomes  

In this workshop, participants will:  

Gain a clear understanding of the fundamentals of Expressive Arts as a foundation for personal creative practices. 

Develop tools and techniques to access and express one’s own creative voice. 

Engage in collaborative, creative activities within an enjoyable, supportive community setting. 

About the Instructor 

Dr. Iris J. Gildea is an Associate Professor at the University of St. Michael’s College and teaches in the Book & Media Studies Program. She has taught at St. Michael’s for ten years. 

Iris’ work and research are at the intersections of art, media, trauma and feminist studies. Most of her courses focus on various aspects of critical media studies. She writes and publishes on trauma theory and art as a mode of meaning-making and healing, often with a focus on survivors of gendered violence and childhood trauma. 

Iris received her PhD from the University of Toronto in Comparative Literature with a dissertation on Paul Ricoeur’s phenomenological hermeneutics. She loves the intersections of theory and art, seeking always to expand structures of knowledge and meaning-making. Outside of her university teaching, Iris leads poetry and expressive arts workshops in community. She also teaches meditation. When not writing, teaching or making art, Iris is in nature hiking with her dog. She splits her time between Cortes Island in British Columbia and Toronto, Ontario.