Louise leads storytelling workshops for adults, for children, and for intergenerational gatherings.
Her storytelling workshops can focus on the CRAFT of How to Tell a Story or on Storytelling as a way to CONNECT with our inner experience and one another. In both types of workshops, a warm sense of community and support is a given with Louise’s leadership style.
Her storytelling workshops have been offered by:
- School Systems and Library Systems as In-Service Workshops for teachers and librarians.
- Art Museums for docents and community volunteers helping to interpret art to museum visitors.
- Universities and Colleges for Women Studies, Diversity groups, Environmental groups and Teacher Education departments.
- Faith Communities as part of youth or adult retreats, to help community members improve their ability to tell stories of faith from their tradition, or for leadership training.
- Parks, Environmental Organizations and Nature Centers as professional development for staff and volunteers.
- Arts Councils and Recreation Departments as fun workshops for interested people in the community.
- Conferences and Retreats for a variety of professional organizations and non-profits. For the purpose of skill building or community building.
Storytelling Workshops
TOOLS OF THE STORYTELLER
A storytelling lecture-demonstration. Can cover a variety of topics depending on the needs of the group. 1-3 hours.
WE ARE ALL STORYTELLERS
A hands-on, in-depth exploration of the storyteller’s art. This class focuses on developing performance skills and guides each participant in choosing and developing a story to tell in his/her own style. The workshop culminates with a “recital” where everyone performs. We Are All Storytellers is a 20 hour class that has been offered for CEU credit.
STORY BRIDGES CULTURAL HERITAGE STORYTELLING
This workshop guides people in preparing and performing a story from their own cultural background and results in a team of storytellers for your school who are prepared to perform stories from many cultural traditions. All the adults in the school community – faculty, staff, parents, and community volunteers – are encouraged to participate. 20 hours plus 4 hours planning and performance time.
OUR STORIES, OUR SELVES
In this workshop we look at the events of our own lives as stories worth telling and we create new stories as a way to enrich and inform our lives and work. Telling these stories builds a mindset of being heroes and heroines of our own stories and our own llives! Sharing stories is an excellent way to build connections in a group and pave the way for further work together. Highly recommended for faculty and staff retreats. Flexible formats from a 2 hour workshop to a weekly series of 20 hours.
Art Workshops
Along with storytelling, Louise is a visual artist and loves to make things! In 2000 she founded Clapping Hands Farm, a camp and retreat that focuses on ART and NATURE and provides camps and workshops for children, families and adults.
Art Making workshops can be fantastic In Service workshops for TEACHERS or YOUTH LEADERS. ART PARTY and TOY MAKING activities can be great hands on activities for festivals, special events, and family days.
PRINTMAKING
A fun and accessible introduction to the printmakers art. Teachers learn to carve handmade rubber stamps and then design a project using their stamps that can be used as a teaching tool with their students. Each teacher produces several sets of their project and we “swap” at the end of the workshop, so each teacher goes home with several new learning games for their classroom. 4-10 hours.
FELTING
Have you ever accidently washed a wool sweater in HOT water and had it come out shrunken and tough and definitely not your size anymore? Felting is the art of using that same principal to use wool to make a wide variety of beautiful things. . . . animals, people, jewelry, bags, pouches, slippers, hats, mittens—– really there are no limits to what you can create!
ART PARTY
Louise leads “Art Party” workshops and camps for preschool through middle school grades. She has a terrific collection of creative projects for this age range.
In the “training” version of this workshop, parents, youth groups leaders, teachers, or anyone who longs to finger paint, make their own stomp rockets, weave a rag doll, build a balloon powered car, etc. have the opportunity to try a myriad of projects. Participants create their own Art Party notebook for easy reference whenever the impulse to get creative strikes. 1-20 hours.
TOY MAKING
OPEN ENDED ART PROJECTS that engage the creative imagination and ENGINEERING PROJECTS that illustrate principals of physics are both options when building handmade TOYS with Louise. These toysa are engaging to make and fun to play with! The range of options is vast and draws from 20+ years of Louise leading campers at Toys and Games camp at Clapping Hands Farm. Stomp rockets, boomerangs, infinity puzzles, straw rockets, bottle rockets, hydrolic powered robots, putt putt boats, clothes pin dolls, sock puppets, are just a few of the things on the menu. Appropriate for ages 3-adult!
“She encouraged all of us to share ourselves and our stories with the other participants, which was no small feat, given the diversity of the backgrounds and experiences of the participants. She also did a tremendous job of bringing out reticent participants, encouraging reluctant participants, and building the self esteem of every single one of us. She is , without question, one of the finest trainers I have ever met.”
– Mary Snow Crawley, Training/Resources Coordinator, Project Enlightenment, Wake County Public School System
“Louise’s storytelling workshop was exactly what I was looking for to improve myself as a storyteller and to better understand the art of storytelling in general. I loved the way she used techniques from other storytellers, recommended great resources, and had us do fun exercises to push our edges and explore the nuances of our stories. It was great to share stories in such a safe, supportive environment, and to get to hear so many wonderful stories! Louise is a phenomenal storyteller and a talented teacher. We love you, Louise!“
– Gumby Montgomery, outdoor educator