“Seeing Differently” workshop launched: how the humanities and art help us understand ourselves in the world around us.

Last month, Rob Goldberg and I launched our new workshop, “Seeing Differently: Discovering Ourselves Through Art.” The workshop, a brainchild of Humanities Watch and Rob’s experience as a leadership consultant, asks its participants to reflect on a work of art that helps them better understand personal and professional challenges in their lives.

For our first endeavor, Rob and I worked with a class of 20 Guilford College seniors. They came from various backgrounds and majors: health sciences, sport science, biology, history, art, among others.

In our program, Rob and I discussed the purposes of the workshop. It aimed not at art appreciation or art history, but rather at ways of gaining deeper insight in life’s challenges by interacting with art. Art, then, becomes a medium for self-understanding, and this inward turn toward one’s hidden resources is at heart a humanities exercise. We may come to view ourselves and our world in a new light.

The opening exercises elicited the participants’ recollections of their experiences with art, and then everyone chose a personal image from among 100 paintings that we had assembled. By exploring the image first silently, and then in a structured small group conversation, they discussed the ways the image related to the challenges they were facing.

The reactions from the participants were overwhelmingly positive. Mohamed Togol, a Biology major, said, “My biggest takeaway was that art can be used to understand personal issues and find ways to cope with struggles. Art can bring peace to those who need to take a break from life and reflect.”

We will be offering the workshop in other venues and with different audiences with diverse ages and backgrounds. Leading the workshop is itself a rewarding learning process and the future is bright.

Photo credits: Anna Pennell

H/t: Anna Pennell

For other posts on the inwardness of the humanities, see here and here.