ABOUT 

Creative Conversations Inc. is a non-profit 501©3 educational and service organization, grounded in the recognition that active engagement of the arts through can be an entry into growth and transformation. Our purpose is to develop and offer events that support this creative process bringing outstanding presenters into the Annapolis, Maryland area.

Creative Conversations, Inc. is an organization of volunteers.  We have no walls. We utilize a wide range of resources in selecting appropriate venues and personnel.  Our home area is the greater Baltimore Washington Annapolis triangle, including the Eastern Shore of Maryland.  Our events have also drawn people from throughout the United States and Canada.

How you can help:
Interested in volunteering for Creative Conversations?  Please send an email to info@creativeconversations.org detailing your interest, preferred time commitment (i.e. helping with an event for an afternoon or evening, monthly meetings, etc.)  and skills or services that you may offer.
Interested in donating money to Creative Conversations?  Please send donations to PO Box 3004, Annapolis, MD 21403.  All donations are tax deductible.

EVENTS

The Imagining Mind: Living and Leading with Compassion, Resilience, and Wisdom from the Heart
Presenter: Dr. Clyde Croswell
Description: The poet Rumi says "Out beyond the ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I'll meet you there." This experiential learning workshop provides insights into the field of mindfulness, personal transformation, and self-renewal/awareness. We'll practice creating human value for Self and Others by developing our awareness and capacity for co-creating positive, productive relationships through real, creative conversations in the organizations and living systems we all help to generate.
Grounded in 21st Century Science of Mind and interpersonal neurobiology, we will use poetry, music, and self-reflection to explore enaction, the emerging new paradigm of embodied cognition. In dialogue we'll learn how to develop the wisdom of Self and Other, leader and follower, embodied mind, and direct versus conceptual experience. Come join us. Together, we'll answer for each of us the vital question for this weekend and the future -- How will I be different with my Self and Others when I go back to my home and workplace?
Dr. Clyde Croswell is President of Community-L, Inc., a human resource and organization development firm that provides creative learning services to clients and partners in business, government, and nonprofit organizations. Clyde is also a professor in the Executive Leadership Doctoral Program at The George Washington University and adjunct professor in The Shenandoah University's Public Administration Certificate Program. His professional practice, research and expertise are in mindfulness, leadership complexity, self-organizing systems, affective learning, and organizational learning, focusing now primarily on 21st Century Cognitive/Affective Science of Mind and the neurobiology of relationships. Lieutenant Colonel Croswell also retired from twenty-nine years of service in the U.S. Marine Corps, where as a Vietnam Veteran, he first served as a performer, then conductor, and finally as the administrator of U.S. Marine Bands.

Starting Close In
Presenters: Michael and Kathleen Glaser
Heeding the implicit wisdom in T.S. Eliot's line "We had the experience but missed the meaning," this concluding workshop is designed to help us capture all the gold coins that we tucked in our pockets for later contemplation. We will encourage participants to identify and name the excitements, the questions and challenges that have stirred us like
the small
opening
into the new day
which closes
the moment
you begin
[ to leave.]
In short we will engage participants in a variety of activities aimed at helping us make the most of what we have experienced. Starting close in, we will focus on mining the gold the weekend offered and capturing the questions worth living into so that we might constructively carry those forward as we re-enter the world of our daily lives.
Kathleen W. Glaser is a Center for Courage and Renewal facilitator who conducts Courage to Teach and Courage to Lead retreats. She has over thirty years experience in public schools, serving as a teacher, principal, college professor and supervisor of student teachers. She received the Washington Post Distinguished Educational Leadership Award and is a co-founder of the Chesapeake Public Charter School in Southern Maryland. Her passion is creating trust-worthy spaces for learning and community.
Michael S. Glaser is a Professor Emeritus at St. Mary's College of Maryland where he served as both a professor and an administrator for nearly 40 years. He is a recipient of the Homer Dodge Endowed Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Columbia Merit Award from the Poetry Committee of the Greater Washington, D.C. area for his service to poetry and the Andrew White Medal for his dedication to the intellectual and scholarly life, and for his commitment to sustaining the poetic tradition in the State of Maryland. Glaser is a member of the Board of Directors of the Maryland Humanities Council and served as Poet Laureate of Maryland from 2004 through 2009.

Delighting in Nature: A Journey of Discovery Along the Chesapeake Bay
Presenter: Paul Fofonoff, PhD
Join local naturalist and marine biologist Paul Fofonoff, PhD on an invigorating and rejuvenating morning nature walk amidst the flora and fauna of beautiful Camp Letts. A passionate explorer, Fofonoff continues to realize his childhood dreams through his work in biological science with the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) and as a volunteer with the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC). Over the past decade, Fofonoff has led numerous backpacking and day-hike trips throughout the local region. With each trip he delights in sharing his knowledge of the animals, birds, plants, insects and more and he admits that he still can't resist turning over rocks on any trail or shoreline to find strange creatures (a favorite pastime as a young boy in Cape Cod, MA). This is one of the concurrent workshops in the Sunday morning program. This unique opportunity to share in a morning adventure with Paul Fofonoff is sure to enrich your spirit and to revitalize your soul.
If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere. ~Vincent Van Gogh

Visual Images for your Journey
Presenter: Nancy Cosgrove
Images speak to you, your intuition guides you. As you move through this weekend, this experiential workshop will assist in helping you to discover hidden messages and insights through the intuitive process of SoulCollage®. Materials will be provided.
Nancy Cosgrove is a Sculptor, Mixed Media Artist and SoulCollage® Facilitator.