Upcoming Events

Friday February 24 - Sunday February 26, 2012
Begin! Begin again...
a workshop with Michael Lipson, Ph.D.

February 12, 2012
Fire and Rose,
a mystery of Love, in poetry and song

Dear Friend of the Novalis Project,

I take great pleasure in inviting you to attend a very special event at Novalis Hall during Holy Week, April 17-22, 2011. Please read the brochure I have attached for further details. The Isenheim Altar has provided our German facilitators, Michael Schubert and Karin Jarman, with inspiration and guidance for their work together in Europe and the forthcoming seminar/ workshop marks their first transatlantic crossing.

No prior knowledge of the altarpiece is necessary for anyone interested in attending this workshop. All that is needed is your willingness to engage mind, heart and hands in the deeply meditative exercise in consciousness that this great work of art engenders. Michael Schubert writes: "The spiritual wisdom which people of our time are longing for is contained in a concentrated form within the Isenheim Altarpiece."

The Altar is housed in a small museum in Colmar, Alsace, reputedly the second most frequently visited museum in France after the Louvre. Michael Schubert's series of life-sized reproductions of the altar panels will form a dramatic and inspiring backdrop when he assembles them in Novalis Hall for Holy Week-the first installation of its kind in North America! Painted almost 500 years ago, when hospitals were more like hospices for the poor, the altarpiece was mounted in the chapel of a monastery as a thing of beauty in itself and a source of active therapy, hope and consolation for dying patients in the care of compassionate monks.

There is a heavenly logic at play in the Isenheim Altar. Its unique arrangement of colour speaks a language of its own that stimulates feeling, giving viewers inner direction in the realm in which confusion often reigns. The play of light and dark that presents as living colour in these paintings brings the subtle movement of a rainbow to mind. "Although the soul is imprisoned in flesh, humanity will not be forgotten." wrote Dr. Margarethe Hauschka in Fundamentals of Artistic Therapy. "A Christ-prophecy is hidden in this simple sentence-that at some future time the inner rainbow will also resurrect, as is indicated in the aura of the Resurrected One in the picture of the Isenheim Altar.”

I invite your participation in the spirit of that prophecy, and hope to hear from you soon.

With warmest wishes for 2011,

- Treasa O'Driscoll, Project Coordinator

Friday, Feb. 24 - Sunday Feb. 26, 2012

**NOVALIS SPECIAL EVENT**

Begin! Begin again...
a workshop with Michael Lipson, Ph.D.

Just as winter awakens into Spring, a natural process of dying and becoming can be reflected in the changing conditions of our lives. The ability to begin anew is the innate human capacity we can consciously exercise in any given situation. We are empowered to embrace each turning point in life as an opportunity to begin anew. And every moment can be a turning point.

In this weekend's workshop Michael Lipson will lead us in an exploration of the ever-new quality of beginning, a group process that includes practical exercises and meditations. We will see how an orientation toward endless beginning is the cure for "burnout" of all kinds and for the inertia that permeates our emotional and practical problems.  Beginnings are only starting points so we must accustom ourselves to the practice of beginning not once, but over and over again. If you are in transition, or should be in transition, then this workshop is for you!

INTRODUCTORY TALK by Dr. Lipson
Location: Hesperus Village, New Dining Room.
Cost: $20

WORKSHOP:
Saturday, Feb. 25, 9.30am-5.30pm/Sunday, Feb. 26, 9.30-3pm:
Location: Camphill Sophia Creek, 87 Toronto Street, Barrie Workshop admission: $150 (includes introductory talk, 2 lunches and snacks)

Michael Lipson, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist practicing in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. His work combines the insights of Rudolf Steiner with those of Zen Buddhism. He teaches meditation widely and writes on issues of consciousness, human development and meditative practice.

For Register please call 1-705-722-5408,
or e-mail rsvp@novalisproject.com

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February 12, 2012, 2:30-5:00pm

Location: Hesperus Village, Hesperus Road, Thornhill ON
Admission: $20.00 (Includes refreshments)

Fire and Rose,
a mystery of Love, in poetry and song

“Her presentation is pure ritual. Treasa O’Driscoll takes the audience on a journey into another world where people undergo a transformation.”
- Robert Sardello, author, Freeing the Soul from Fear

The rose is an eternal image of beauty and love, representative of an open heart. Fire is associated with inspiration, revelation and the descent of the Holy Spirit. T.S. Eliot predicted that all would be well when the fire and the rose are one. Drawing on her memorized repertoire of poems and songs, Treasa leads the audience in a meditative reflection on the theme. (Bring pen and paper)

Treasa O’Driscoll lives in Barrie and coordinates the Novalis Project. She is the author of, Celtic Woman, a memoir of life’s poetic journey (www.bluebutterflybooks.ca)

Celtic Woman is a magnificent chronicle of an individual's journey toward the process not only of self-healing, but of understanding and growing with the world around her…. There is a spirit of inquiry in this book that moves throughout these pages, animating every word and infusing the text with an energy that guides the will to love above the trials and tribulations of the world, and there it illumines as a beacon...
- Bruce Meyer, author, The Golden Thread.

Celtic Woman, is a rich feast of a book, part travelogue, part romance, part meditation -- and all of it poetry!  Like the best of memoir, it manages to touch on the most personal, intimate themes of a human life and at the same time to render them universal.  Readers will want to shout both Bravo! and Encore!
- Michael Lipson, author, Stairway of Surprise.

Please register at the Hesperus office
or call Marta at 905-764-0840

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Tuesday Afternoons, September 20 - November 22, 2011
from 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Location: 87 Toronto Street in downtown Barrie
Cost: $125 (10 sessions including all materials)

Entering the Colour Stream
Introductory Oils and Watercolour
Painting Course with Lori Wilson

Awaken your imagination and renew your spirit in a warm community setting as Lori leads you into the wonder of colour that comes to light in the glory of Autumn.

(No previous painting experience necessary)

Lori Cockburn has a diploma in Dance and Art from Ryerson University. Her interest in exploring the expressive, creative and healing potential of movement and other art forms is central to her life. A graduate of the Arscura School for Living Art, Lori is devoted to applying all she has learned for the purpose of awakening the imagination as a force of insight and healing in the sould of her students. Every participant in this painting course will delight in Lori’s practical approach to learning and loving service to the spirit of Art.

Cost for 10 session and all materials: $125

For Register please call 1-705-722-5408,
or e-mail rsvp@novalisproject.com

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Sunday April 17 at 1:00pm

Location: The Christian Community Church,
901 Rutherford Road, Vaughn

The Isenheim Altar
**INTRODUCTORY LECTURE**
An artistic approach to the mystery of Easter
by Michael Schubert and Karin Jarman

Admission: $10.00 (No Charge for seminar participants)

Lunch: $10.00 (Served at 12 Noon for anyone wishing to
view life-sized reproductions of the Alterpiece
or socialize before the lecture)

(Click to Download Introduction Flyer)

(Click to Download Complete Seminar Brochure and Order Form)

Holy Week, 17th-22nd April 2011
Location: Novalis Hall, 7841, 4th line, Angus, Ontario, Canada.

The Isenheim Altar
**HOLY WEEK SEMINAR**
An artistic approach to the mystery of Easter

The journey through the images of this work of art is in itself
a deeply meditative path with which to accompany the mood of this week as an inner preparation for Easter.

The Course
The painter Matthias Grünewald was a contemporary of Albrecht Dürer but not nearly so well known. The historical aspect of his life is steeped in mystery with few documented facts. It reveals however a genius on the level of Leonardo da Vinci. His artistic output was modest and yet the works he produced were of great significance. His most outstanding achievement is the Isenheim Altar which is situated today in a museum in Colmar in France. The luminosity of colour in this piece is unsurpassed and shows a mastery of technique and craftsmanship in preparing pigments, which even today cannot be entirely explained.

The Isenheim Altar was painted for the specific purpose of healing. It was commissioned by a physician, the abbot Guido Guersi, in order to assist him in the work of his hospice which specialised in the treatment of skin diseases such as syphilis, leprosy and especially St. Anthony’s fire, an affliction caused by ergot poisoning. Patients suffering these diseases were social outcasts because of the fear of contagion. The images form part of a large winged altar which describes the journey of healing more powerfully than any words can convey and it carries a deeply Christian message. It remains hugely relevant for our time too, as we grapple with such new illnesses as cancer, HIV and AIDS.

During this seminar we will walk this healing journey together, decode the messages of the paintings and experience their depth through our own artistic renderings and exercises in observation. The art sessions with Karin will help participants form their own personal relationship with this very powerful work of art and make it accessible to their own experience.

The Tutors

Karin Jarman is an art therapist at St. Luke's Medical Centre in Stroud, England.

“I have lived and worked with the Isenheim Altar since I first encountered the original in Colmar, France, over 30 years ago. It has accompanied me from the start of my journey as an art therapist and has continued to be a source of tremendous inspiration and guidance for healing work. I would not have wanted to have been without it. Although it was painted more
than 500 years ago, its relevance today is as strong as ever. I feel very privileged to work on this course in partnership with Michael whose depth of insight surpasses anything I had studied previously.”

Michael Schubert is an author and a teacher of children and adults.

“I was born in 1940 in Berlin. I studied Sports, Art, Craft, History, Geography and German. I have been a teacher, starting out as a class teacher in Germany and then spending five years at a German School in
Johannesburg (South Africa). In 1972 I began teaching at Waldorf Schools. I was one of the founders of the ‘Michael Gemeinschaft, Schweigmatt’, and the ‘Kaspar-Hauser School’ - a boarding school in the Black Forest and the ‘Freie Waldorfschule Schopfheim’. I lectured at various teacher training seminars in Germany and Russia. Since 1975, I have been doing research on Mathias Grünewald and the Isenheim altar piece. I have published several dramas, a book about Queen Ishtar and recently ‘Der Isenheimer
Altar: Geschichte-Deutung-Hintergründe’ (Publ. Urachhous, Stuttgart).”

The Details
The course begins on Palm Sunday, April 17th
at 7.30pm, with an introductory talk. It runs
9.30am to 5.00pm, Monday to Thursday, and
9.30am to 3.00pm on Good Friday, April 22nd.

The Cost
Course Fee: $500 inclusive of all art materials, 5 lunches and other refreshments.

(Click to Download Introduction Flyer)

(Click to Download Complete Seminar Brochure and Order Form)

For Register please call 1-705-722-5408,
or e-mail rsvp@novalisproject.com

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Tuesday Afternoons, May 3 - June 28
from 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Location: 87 Toronto Street in Downtown Barrie
Cost: $125 (10 sessions including all materials)

Art Classes
Painting, Sculpture, Drawing

Allow the artist in you to come forth this Spring! Let your creativity flow and exercise your imagination in a play of light and dark and the colour that arises, led by inspired teacher, Lori Cockburn. No prior experience is needed as you engage heart and hands in the transformative activity of art-making.

Lori Cockburn has a diploma in Dance and Art from Ryerson University. Her interest in exploring the expressive, creative and healing potential of movement and other art forms is central to her life. A graduate of the Arscura School for Living Art, Lori is devoted to applying all she has learned for the purpose of awakening the imagination as a force of insight and healing in the souls of her students. Every participant in this painting course will delight in Lori’s practical approach to learning, her sensory acuity and loving service to the spirit of Art.

For Register please call 1-705-722-5408,
or e-mail rsvp@novalisproject.com

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For Register please call 1-705-722-5408,
or e-mail rsvp@novalisproject.com

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Tuesday Afternoons, September 28 - December 7
from 2:00pm to 4:00pm
Location: 87 Toronto Street in downtown Barrie
Cost: $125 (10 sessions including all materials)

Art Classes
Painting, Sculpture, Drawing

Allow the artist in you to come forth this Fall! Let your creativity flow and exercise your imagination in a playful experience of colour, clay and charcoal, led by inspired teacher, Lori Cockburn. No prior experience is needed as you engage heart and hands in the transformative activity of art-making.

Lori Cockburn has a diploma in Dance and Art from Ryerson University. Her interest in exploring the expressive, creative and healing potential of movement and other art forms is central to her life. A graduate of the Arscura School for Living Art, Lori is devoted to applying all she has learned for the purpose of awakening the imagination as a force of insight and healing in the souls of her students. Every participant in this painting course will delight in Lori’s practical approach to learning, her sensory acuity and loving service to the spirit of Art.

Cost for 6 session and all materials: $70

For Register please call 1-705-722-5408,
or e-mail rsvp@novalisproject.com

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Remembrance of the So-Called Dead
a Workshop with Dr. Michael Lipson

Saturday/Sunday November 13/14 from 9:30am - 5:00pm
Location: 87 Toronto Street, Downtown Barrie
Cost: $175 including 2 lunches and snacks.
For reservations: contact 705-722-5408 or rsvp@novalisproject.com

“As for myself, what has died for me has died, so to speak, into my own heart. When I looked for my departed father, the person who vanished had collected himself strangely, and not surprisingly, in me. It was so moving that my enthusiasm for serving, deepening and glorifying his new existence took the upper hand almost at the very moment when pain would otherwise have invaded and devastated the landscape of my spirit.”
- Rainer Maria Rilke

Anyone who has suffered bereavement and yet moved beyond his or her own feelings of grief to arrive at an authentic connection with the spirit of a departed family member, will resonate with Rilke’s experience. One widower described bereavement as “the deepest initiation into the mysteries of human life, through which love is purified, intensified and rendered to its core element.”

This workshop coincides with the Canadian holiday of Remembrance. Participants will engage in deep enquiry into the mysteries of death, thereby renewing their sense of purpose in life. Spiritual scientist and educator, Rudolf Steiner, stated the following:

“The dead know better than we what needs to happen socially and we need
to listen to them and become instruments to carry out their impulses.”

Dr. Michael Lipson will bring experience and insight to bear on such questions as the following: What remains of the person when the body and habits are gone? Do the dead exist in our earthly time and what do we understand the ‘afterlife’ to be? We will also explore the nature of conversation and community: how an improvement in the way in which we relate to one another now will facilitate and nourish communion when we no longer have bodies with which to communicate.

Participants will engage in both personal sharing and in meditative practices, but there will be no pressure to speak about anything that you do not wish to discuss. No prior meditative experience is necessary.

Michael Lipson, PhD, The author of Stairway of Surprise: Six Steps to a Creative Life (SteinerBooks, 2002), he was Chief Clinical Psychologist at the Harlem Hospital for Children dying of AIDS for over nine years and now conducts a private practice in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He is the translator of Steiner’s Philosophy of Freedom and of numerous works by Georg Kuhlewind and is greatly respected as a teacher of meditation.

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Tuesday Afternoons, April 13 - May 18, 2010
from 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Location: 87 Toronto Street in downtown Barrie,

Entering the Colour Stream
An introductory Watercolour Painting Course with Lori Cockburn

(No previous painting experience necessary)

Awaken your imagination and renew your spirit in a warm community setting as Lori leads you into the wonder of colour that comes to light in the flowering of Spring and Summer gardens.

Lori Cockburn has a diploma in Dance and Art from Ryerson University. Her interest in exploring the expressive, creative and healing potential of movement and other art forms gradually became a driving force in her life. A desire for further study led her to enroll in the Arscura School for Living Art. Now at the point of graduating from Arscura, Lori is devoted to applying all she has learned for the purpose of awakening the imagination and healing the soul. Painting and movement are a daily meditative practice for her and the source of her infectious joy in living. Every participant in this painting course, presented by the Novalis Project, will delight in Lori’s practical approach to learning, her deep insight, awakened imagination and loving service to the spirit of Art.

Cost for 6 session and all materials: $70

For Reservations please call 1-705-722-5408,
or e-mail rsvp@novalisproject.com

Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Location: 87 Toronto Street, Barrie

Abeona Family Network presents:
The Three R's of Home life -
Rhythm, Routine, and Relationships 
a lively evening workshop for parents of young children

When adults and children fail to live their daily lives at a pace that can be 'digested and savoured', effects of stress, over-exertion and ill-health will often start to surface. Good rhythm and routine, on the other hand, lay the ground for habits that serve the best interests of all concerned, resulting in healthy relationships between family members that are based in heart centred and enduring bonds of love. 

Gene Campbell, has taught at the elementary level in public and Waldorf schools for 30 years. She is the founder of Chiron, a movement rooted in principles of Waldorf education and catering to the needs of the home-schooling community. Based in Ontario, Gene leads Chiron inspired conferences, summer intensives and workshops throughout North America. She is widely sought after as counsellor and mentor by numerous young parents who delight in her originality, wit and eloquence. A gifted teacher and wise elder, her insightful and practical advice arises out of a profound understanding and respect for the natural developmental patterns of childhood.

Cost: $15- single admission. $25 for couples

Please register before April 20th by calling 1-705-722-5408
or email treasaodriscoll@sympatico.ca

Sunday, May 2, 2010 at 11:00am
Location: Novalis Hall, 7841 4th line, Angus, Ontario

The Music of Bach
a performance/workshop 
featuring
Eurythmist, Dorothea Mier, and Violinist, Emmanuel Vukovich

Eurythmy was developed by Rudolf Steiner in the early part of the twentieth century. He believed that all art is the revelation of concealed laws of nature and gave the world this art of movement as a means of bringing expressive elements in music and poetry into visible form through the finely tuned instrument of the human body. This collaboration between Dorothea Mier and Emmanuel Vukovich is a wonder in itself arising as it does out of their individual dedication to the music of Bach. They will share the process of their working together in the course of this performance. Come prepared to be touched in a part of the soul where you have never been touched before!

Dorothea Mier attended Waldorf Schools in England in her formative years. Having graduated from Michael Hall School, she studied piano at the Birmingham School of Music. Residing in Dornach, Switzerland, from 1955-1980, she worked as a member of the Goetheanum Stage Group and was renowned as a teacher of eurythmy. She became the director of the Spring Valley Eurythmy School in New York State in 1980, a position she held for over twenty years. Now retired, she is free to conduct workshops worldwide.

Of Croatian and German descent and a native of Calgary, Emmanuel Vukovitch graduated from McGill University in 2007 in music and environmental studies. He was leader of the Lloyd Carr-Harris String Quartet which won several national and international awards. Awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Orford String Quartet Scholarship in 2005, he became the first recipient of McGill University's Schulich School of Music Golden Violin Award in 2006. Emmanuel co-founded Music for Farms in 2008, a movement he promotes in his concerts for Community Supported Agriculture farms in Quebec, Ontario and in New York State and in his daily working life as a biodynamic farmer in Quebec.

The performance will be followed by a light lunch.

Cost:

Performance and Light Lunch:
$15 single admission
$30 families

Performance only:
$10 single, $20 families

Part of Music for Farms - A Novalis Anniversary Celebration
- Click here to learn more

For Reservations please call 1-705-722-5408,
or e-mail rsvp@novalisproject.com

Saturday-Sunday, March 27-28, 2010
Location: 87 Toronto Street, Barrie

Towards a Culture of Peace: 
with Michael Lipson, PhD

Our world is governed by inner and outer hostilities.  Today, the world's precious resources of water, oil, air and arable land are only growing scarcer -- giving more cause for conflict.
Unless…Unless we develop a consciousness of peace and mutual gift-giving. Peace, however, depends not only on concord between humans, or between humans and the kingdoms of nature.  It requires concord between human beings and the heavens.  

Let us spend a weekend discovering the deep well-spring of generosity we can access within. Let us go beyond resources-to the very Source itself. The way is through group discussion and group meditation.  Using words, we can access the place before words, where we are truly at one.

Saturday, March 27 from 9:3am - 5:30 pm
Sunday, March 28 from 9:30am - 3:00pm

Michael Lipson, PhD, is the author of The Stairway of Surprise, and the translator of many works by Rudolf Steiner and Georg Kuehlewind. A Clinical Psychologist in independent practice in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he teaches meditation internationally.

Cost: Complete Event $150
(includes Saturday and Sunday lunches and snacks)

Please register before March 10th by calling 1-705-722-5408
or email treasaodriscoll@sympatico.ca

The Art of Portrait:
Finding the Inner Face

A Watercolour and Art History course
with professor/artist, Donald Hall, from Italy  

Sunday - Tuesday, October 18, 19, 20, 2009;
from 10:00am - 4:00pm daily
at Novalis Hall, 7841 4th line, Angus, Ontario

"Many great artists of the past have advanced the art of portraiture. To give expression to the ‘inner face’ is a task of our post modern times. On the one side we find Nature, representative of life and death-a contracted state found in the colour green, brown and black. The Spiritual lies on the other side, its light and openness revealed in yellow and white. The soul lives between these polarities. The human being is drawn first to the one, then to the other, resulting in experiences of suffering and joy. The real human face makes its appearance by grace of these polarities, the peach blossom colour providing  a living image of its soul life. The post-modern soul-now  in danger of being pulled apart-can find its stability, its identity, by touching both Heaven and Earth, thus becoming, like Nature, creatively engaged in the reconciliation  of opposites."
    - Donald Hall

Cost for Course; $300 (includes 3 lunches and 2 snacks daily)

Register by calling Treasa O’Driscoll at 705-722-5408, treasaodriscoll@sympatico.ca 
      
Please send a $50 deposit before October 4, 2009
(cheque payable to Ita Wegman Foundation)
Address: Novalis Project, 92 Mary St., Barrie, On L4N 1T1

Daily Schedule:
Mornings (9.30am-12.00am): Morning lecture and color Study on the theme
Afternoons (1.30pm-4.00pm): Self-expression of portraits

Some boards and easels can be provided on request. Quality watercolor paper can be purchased on site. A good flat paintbrush (¾-1 inch), and pigments (Pelikan transparent pellets are recommended). You might also want to bring sketch book, charcoal and colour crayons as well as other paintbrushes.

Donald Hall, is a master schooled in the Assenza tradition.

The highly original method created by Beppe Assenza is an extremely valid pathway to painting that emerges from colour experience. It is a way in which the painter grasps the life, the essence of colour and extracts the idea from it, resulting in a style of painting that reflects the action of living colour.

Donald Hall was born in New Mexico, USA. He studied painting in Switzerland with Beppe Assenza in Dornach, Switzerland. (1969-1979), becoming Assenza’s assistant and also working in Painting Therapy with children.(1976-1978).

“Painting with Donald Hall is an adventure, an exciting search for deeper meaning in colour and form. "    
- Peter Doef,  Artist

“A mood of contentment prevailed during Donald Hall's opening talk and seemed to increase as participants applied themselves to his clearly articulated exercises and discourses on the history, meaning and purpose of art, delivered between painting sessions when we clustered in rapt attention around him."    
- Lilipoh Magazine

“In painting with Donald Hall and hearing his unique insights on the great masterpieces I have discovered anew my own connection with painting. I recommend the following to workshop participants regardless of the level of their expertise: Be open to your own creativity and to the lawfulness of colour… Avoid getting trapped in a style or in the pursuit of a perfect image…In the joy of the effort you may discover that something new will begin to live in you."    
- Denis Schneider, Art Teacher

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Friday-Saturday November 8 - 9, 2008
Location: Novalis Hall, Nottawasaga Village, 7481 4th line, Angus

Stairway of Surprise: 
A Two-Day Workshop with Michael Lipson, PhD

 "I shall mount to paradise
             By the stairway of surprise"
                        - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Where do thoughts come from? What lies at the basis of our world of sights and sounds?  Can we learn to feel fresh feelings, or must our feelings grow stale and dead?  What is life's meaning, what is it for?  What are we to do? How can our planet be saved?
 These fundamental questions cannot be answered, or even adequately posed from out of  normal consciousness.  To move more deeply into such questions, we need to pursue a path of spiritual development

This weekend workshop will offer exercises in consciousness that are suitable both for beginning and advanced students of meditation.  These six exercises were initially formulated by Rudolf Steiner.  They prompt us to move beyond our habitual world of separation and to enter a more unobstructed level of consciousness that is our true source of meaning, purpose and love.

Saturday, November 8 from 1:00pm - 8:30 pm
Sunday, November 9 from 9:30am - 3:00pm

Michael Lipson, PhD, is the author of The Stairway of Surprise, a re-working of Rudolf Steiner's six 'supplementary' exercises, and the translator of many works by R. Steiner and by Georg Kuehlewind.  A Clinical Psychologist in independent practice in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, he teaches meditation internationally.

Cost: Complete Event $150
(including Saturday dinner, Sunday lunch and snacks)

The Spiritual In Art

…a water colour painting course with Italian art master, Donald Hall

June 28/29, 2008 at Novalis Hall, 7841 4th line, Angus, Ontario

Explore the 'light' energy of the Black Madonna and experience Donald Hall's inspired approach to art history and his unique insights into the work of the great Italian masters.

Educate your senses and gain a practical understanding of Goethe's theory of colour.

Learn Donald's engaging exercises in colour, form and composition.

Enjoy meaningful social exchange with kindred spirits old and new.

Experience the tranquil, rural ambience of Novalis Hall and environs.

Create your own rite of passage into summer.

Mornings: 9.30-12.30pm       Afternoons: 2.00-4.30pm

Please bring dry watercolours or a set of Pelikan watercolour cakes and brushes-suggested sizes small, three quarters and one inch. Bring your own easel if possible-some can be provided. Course suited to beginners and advanced students alike.
        
Course fee, including paper, lunches and snacks: $225
(a non-refundable deposit of $35 is due before June 10) Cheques payable to Ita Wegman Foundation, 92 Mary St., Barrie, ONL4N1T1

“In working with Donald Hall and in hearkening to his profound insights on the great masters, I have renewed my connection with painting.”           
Denis Schneider, art teacher

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Presenting an Earth Day Concert with Mary Anderson and friends

The Haunting Magic
of the Celtic Harp

Sunday April 22 at 3pm
Location: Novalis Hall, 7841 4th Line, Angus, Ontario
Admission: $20 including refreshments

"One of Canada's finest harpists."
- Ottawa Folklore Center

"Simply a superb musician with a growing
reputation for excellence"
- Kitchener Waterloo Record

"Enough exuberance to set your feet to
dance and your heart to dream .."
- Folkharp Journal

Mary Anderson began her career as a harpist studying at the Royal Conservatory of music. Mary has evolved a style that encompasses traditional, jazz, classical, contemporary and popular sounds. Her playing has been called "aggressive", "refreshing", and "spirited", and she has been dubbed one of Canada's finest folk harpers.

Special Guest Rev. Bonnie Kelly will present
Maude’s Newfoundland Memories
The character of Maude is a composite of the many wonderful Newfoundland women that Rev. Kelly lived and worked with in her native Newfoundland when she served a United Church parish there. Maude has been shaped by a vibrant, happy community life and by the wild waves of the sea. Come and listen to her tales... She's sure to give you a laugh!

Please reserve by calling 1-705-722-5408
rsvp@novalisproject.com
Mailing address: Novalis Project, 92 Mary Street, Barrie, ONL4N ITI

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A Watercolour Painting Course with Donald Hall,
art professor and water colour artist from Bolzano, Italy

The Mystic Mastery of Raphael

Saturday-Sunday, March 24-25, 2007

Raphael exalted the art of painting to an expression of the divine and revealed the spiritual dimensions of colour and form. We can discover the true purpose of art in the study of his work, which has endured the test of time as a source of beauty and transformation in human hearts. Drawing on Goethe’s classic theory, participants will create colour combinations that give entry to the secret world of Raphael’s creations. The hidden power of the good, the beautiful and the true to which the work of this painter attests will reveal themselves in these exercises. The course will also include short talks on the history of art as it relates to Raphael. As a painter working in Italy, Donald presents an informed perspective on the classical tradition and its relevance to modern art.

Mornings: 9.30-12.00am:
Learn to see colour and find the right technique. Explore a living process to raise consciousness and feeling with the guidance of a superb teacher.

Afternoons: 2.00-4.30pm:
Make colour sketches and light/dark charcoal drawings to express the formal nature of objects and their relationship to one another.
Please bring dry watercolours or a set of Pelikan watercolour cakes and brushes-suggested sizes small, three quarters and one inch. An easel can be provided if you do not have your own. Course suited to beginners and practiced painters alike.

Course fee including paper, lunches and snacks: $225
(a non refundable deposit of $35 is due before March 10)

Location: Novalis Hall, 7841 4th line, Angus.

Please reserve by calling 1-705-722-5408
rsvp@novalisproject.com
Mailing address: Novalis Project, 92 Mary Street, Barrie, ONL4N ITI

“A mood of contentment prevailed during Donald Hall's opening talk and seemed to increase as participants applied themselves to his clearly articulated exercises and discourses on the history, meaning and purpose of art, delivered between painting sessions when we clustered in rapt attention around him.”
- Lilipoh Magazine, Fall 2006

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Workshops 2006 | HOME

Friday-Saturday October 13 - 14
Location: Cornerstone, 78 Toronto St., Barrie

Peace
The Spiritual Challenge of our Time
with Dr. Michael Lipson, clinical psychologist

Lecture: Friday, 7:30-9:00pm, $20
Our world is breaking apart into deadly wars. Meaningful peace between nations or individuals (horizontal peace) depends on our first making peace with the heavens (vertical peace). The process demands an infinite strengthening of our feeling life. This evening lecture establishes the basis for the meditative process that the Saturday workshop will engage.

Workshop: Saturday, 9:30-4:30pm
We will practice exercises of spiritual peacemaking through group and dyadic meditations, working from inspired texts and with everyday problems and conflicts. Through group meditative practice and reporting, we will help one another to make peace with the heavens and to transform the heart into a perceptive organ.

Michael Lipson, PhD, is a Clinical Psychologist in independent practice in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The translator of Steiner's Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path and numerous books by G. Kuehlewind, he is the author of The Stairway of Surprise: Six Steps to a Creative Life. He teaches meditation and related themes internationally.

Cost:
Complete Event $100 (including snacks)

Lecture only:$20

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Saturday, November 11, 1:30-4:30pm

Hospitality that Heals

A conversation with John and Carrie Schuchardt, who founded the House of Peace in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1990, so that victims of war might live in therapeutic community with working adults who have disabilities. In the last 16 years, John and Carrie have welcomed over 400 refugees from approximately 30 countries into their home, offering a healing refuge from the despair of war and enabling each refugee to realize the sacred right to peace that is fundamental to every human life.

John and Carrie also participate in many activities that foster the conversion in consciousness and policies that will shift the collective focus from war to peace. They join many others in following the lead of individual conscience, which becomes a powerful redeeming force when it is exercised. Traveling to Japan in 2005 to conduct a prayer vigil and fast, they apologized as individual Americans for the atomic atrocities perpetrated in Hiroshima and Nagasaki sixty years earlier. They promised to devote themselves to building a strong spiritual base for a non-violent future.

Participants in this dialogue will learn how to create hospitality that heals in their own hearts and homes. People who care for the homeless, the sick, the disabled and the elderly will derive encouragement and inspiration from these two pioneering peacemakers. The extended Camphill family is in the process of forming an inclusive therapeutic community in the Barrie downtown area, for which Carrie and John Schuchardt will provide valuable mentorship in the course of their visit.

Location: Cornerstone, 78 Toronto St., Barrie

Suggested Donation: $30

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