At Conspire, we guide you through an art making process that calms the nervous system, opens the mind, and connects you to yourself.
It’s like yoga for your creativity: gentle, grounding, open to everyone.
Our creative process follows four basic steps
1
We allow time for our nervous systems to arrive and settle in the space, grounding together.
2
We invite in a topic, an inspiration, a challenge or a question, sharing and listening with a partner or small group.
3
We bring what was stirred by those discussions into non-conversational art making, with an invitation to follow pleasure.
4
We witness what we’ve created and invite it to speak back to us, sharing if desired.
“The fact is I am far more likely to do good in the world in the post-artmaking state than in any other.”
— Pat B. Allen, Art is a Spiritual Practice
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this similar or different from group therapy?
Our creative process was born out of art therapy, but these are not therapy sessions. It’s more like a yoga or fitness class. You’re with a group of people who are being guided through the same process, but each person is having their own experience. These parallel and personal experiences can be sometimes very deep and transformative, and sometimes not. Either way, they belong to you and, while there is some space for sharing, there is nothing that you are expected to share beyond your presence and willingness to be in the room with others.
Can I bring my own art materials?
We invite you to try out the materials that we have in the studio, which include paints (gouache, watercolor, acrylic), pastels, colored pencils, collage materials, and air dry clay. If there is something we don’t have that you’d like to work with, reach out to us and we’ll see what we can do!
I have little to no art experience. Do I belong here?
Absolutely. This process is about being with your own creative self, which everyone has access to, whether you have art experience or not. Your creative time belongs to you and there is no right or wrong way to do it. You are most welcome, just as you are.
I have particular access needs and I’m wondering if they can be accommodated?
We would love to know about any access needs that you have and will do our best to create a space that feels accessible and cozy to you. There are certain things we can’t change (like, unfortunately, being located on a second floor), but if it’s something within our control, we’ll do all we can to meet your needs. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us with an email at Connect@Conspire.Studio.
Conspire can be translated as breathe together.
To those who have conspired with us, we give thanks.
The creative inquiry process comes to us through Rabbi Adina Allen and the Jewish Studio Project and through Pat B. Allen.
Rabbi Allen created the Jewish Studio Process as a methodology for bringing traditional Jewish wisdom traditions out of a purely intellectual domain and into a place that allows for more spacious, embodied, and intuitive modes of knowing.
Allen draws on the Open Studio Process, developed by Pat B. Allen in the 1990s as a response to the diagnostic model of art therapy, revolutionizing art therapy by putting the power of meaning-making into the hands of the art-maker.