Irish Poet in Creativity Workshops in Arts and Ideas Fest

The International Centre for Creativity and Imagination will be hosting Anne F. O'Reilly, a poet from Dublin, Ireland. O'Reilly's readings and performances will be featured in three experiential creativity workshops during the International Festival of Arts & Ideas in New Haven, Connecticut.

The public is invited to register now for the "Unleash Your Creativity" workshop series, which includes the themes of "Embodying Creativity: Engaging Creative Collaboration Through Movement and Play" on June 18, "Creativity in the Workplace: Engaging Creativity, Design and Innovation in Organizations" on June 21, and "Composing a Creative Life on Purpose: Engaging Meaning in Life and Work" on June 25. Details and registration information can be found online at <http://www.appliedimagination.org/artidea>.

The workshops will help participants explore their creativity, learn tools for new ways of thinking and problem solving, find alternatives, get unstuck, discover others who value creativity, and engage creativity in the workplace. O'Reilly will use her own poetry, as well as others', as a tool to help participants explore and understand the creative process and their own creativity.

In her book, Sacred Play: Soul-Journeys in Contemporary Irish Theatre, O'Reilly writes: "The truly liberating space is that of play, which can turn the world upside down, and enable a new imagining."

In the "Embodying Creativity" workshop on June 18, O'Reilly will share how play creates the space for creativity and transformation in individuals, in organizations and in communities. Participants will experience several play- and movement-based explorations of personal and group creativity with facilitators leading the Pilobolus method, InterPlay, the Alexander Technique and Developmental Transformations.

O'Reilly also is the author a book of poetry, Singing from the Belly of the Whale and a CD of her poems, "Breathsong." For more than 30 years, she has been teaching and facilitating workshops in spirituality, creative writing and sacred poetry. She was a senior lecturer in religious studies in St Patrick's College Drumcondra until 2008, when she took early retirement and began working as a performance poet, celebrating the healing and transforming power of poetry. She brings to this work many years' training with voice, poetry by heart, sacred clowning, drama and meditation. O'Reilly's participation in the Festival is supported by Imagine Ireland, an initiative of Culture Ireland celebrating a year of Irish arts in America 2011.

Additional facilitators in the "Unleash Your Creativity" workshop series include Renee Jaworski, Pilobolus dancer and associate artistic director; Lisa Laing, Certified InterPlay Leader; L'Ana Burton, director of CDC Creative Dance Continuum and teaching artist for the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism; Rachel Bernsen, Certified Teacher of The Alexander Technique; Carol Pollard, associate director of the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics; Dorie Shallcross, author of Intuition: An Inner Way of Knowing; Lisa Furman, artist and associate professor, Albertus Magnus College; Evie Lindemann, assistant professor/clinical coordinator master of arts in art therapy program, Albertus Magnus College; and Alice Forrester, executive director, Clifford Beers Child Guidance Clinic.

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The "Unleash Your Creativity" series is curated by Steven Dahlberg, who heads the Connecticut-based International Centre for Creativity and Imagination and teaches "Creativity + Social Change" at the University of Connecticut. The centre is dedicated to applying creativity to improve the well-being of individuals, organizations and communities.

The series is presented by the International Centre for Creativity and Imagination, Albertus Magnus College, the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, AIGA Connecticut, and Connecticut Creates, in partnership with International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Additional support comes from Imagine Ireland.

The mission of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas is to create an internationally renowned festival in New Haven, Conn., of the highest quality with world-class artists, thinkers and leaders, attracting and engaging a broad and diverse audience celebrating and building community and advancing economic development.