"this is why we journey: to retrieve our lost intimacy with the world."
                                                                                            christine valters paintner

About art + soul

​art + soul is an incubator for engaging and expanding spiritual imagination, nurturing inner hospitality and inviting practices of soulful creativity. At its heart, art + soul is about listening for and giving voice to our deepest life-giving stories.  These are the stories that illuminate and disrupt, expand and transform. The creative process—artmaking, writing, community reflection and ritual—is the vessel from which these stories emerge.

art + soul is embodied in many forms: virtual and in person workshops and gatherings, art installations, community conversations, pop up events, each form a waystation shaped by one or more of these touchstones:

homecoming: pathways of discovery and healing for inner hospitality
curiosity:  avenues for spiritual inquiry and deepening the well
wisdom:  ways of knowing and being that encourage flourishing
creativity as spiritual practice:  creative process as encounter
edge conversations: courageous engagement with change, loss, grief
and restoration

A word about the words “art” and “spirituality”...
Our understanding of “art” and artmaking is often diminished by  assumptions: that "art" is the creation of a beautiful thing that someone will want to buy, "artists" are uniquely gifted people with special talents, "artmaking" is a tame activity that children do.  I invite you to imagine the creative process as a form of prayer, of spiritual practice…exploration, encounter and engagement with materials, words, objects, ideas that help you tell an inner story that needs or wants to be given voice.
 
The word “spirituality” is also burdened by assumptions: that "spirituality" is about belief, it is synonymous with "religion," and "God" is always part of this conversation. The invitation here is one of expanding spiritual imagination, nurturing new ways of seeing and recognizing the sacred in the most ordinary of things.



art + soul is an incubator, both a wide, long table, set with a feast of soul food for the spiritually curious and hungry, and a cozy nest of gentle and skilled collaborators--spiritual directors, artists, therapists, and healers who are re-imagining how spirituality, creativity and community weave together to offer medicine and nourishment for the soul. Integrating contemplative personal and group exploration, expressive creativity and healing community, art + soul invites seekers to engage the multitude of inner stories that inhabit us.
 
art + soul offers an eclectic variety of engagement, both virtual and in person, to mine these stories: workshops, groups, initiatives, retreats, events and public installations. In one way or another, these themes find their way into the work of art + soul:

homecoming: pathways of discovery and healing for inner hospitality
curiosity:  avenues for spiritual inquiry and deepening the well
wisdom:  ways of knowing and being that encourage flourishing
creativity as spiritual practice:  creative process as encounter
edge conversations: courageous engagement with change, loss, grief,
and restoration

Each art + soul event is an invitation to inquire, discover and reimagine the words, language and practices of spirituality and creativity in more expansive and generative ways. Curiosity about big life questions and playful encounter with creative process become portals for both inner and outer hospitality. No need to be “spiritual,” “religious” or “creative.” You are welcome to let these boundaries go; simply come in the spirit of inquisitiveness.
 

 
Founded by minister and spiritual director Susannah Crolius, art + soul has been unfurling since 2013 as an experiment and expression of finding innovative ways to transfigure tired, wounded and neglected stories of heart and soul into life-giving questions and discoveries of authenticity through the vessel of expressive art making and writing.  It continues to learn, grow and deepen through the gifts of collaboration with several creative partners.
 
Founder Susannah Crolius, M. Div., has [ministered] in both traditional and non-traditional ways:  as Hospital Chaplain, as Hospice Chaplain and Bereavement Counselor, as Parish Pastor, as an Intentional Interim Minister to congregations in crisis and transition and accompanying refugees before unfolding art + soul, an incubator for weaving spirituality and creativity together to give voice and form to our deepest stories.
Susannah graduated from Starr King School for the Ministry, a Unitarian Universalist seminary in 1995, was ordained in the United Church of Christ denomination, spending 25 years within the UCC before choosing to step out beyond the boundaries of any singular denominational identity as the contours of and need for spiritual community continue to shape-shift.
 
Artist – Anam Cara—Explorer—Hostess (hearthkeeper) (mother hen)