Dear Friends,

he Novalis Project emanates from members and friends of the Barrie Camphill community. Each season brings us closer to our goal of establishing an inclusive, therapeutic community in the downtown core where all may practice a hospitality that heals. Anxiety arises when the gap between our concerns and the sphere of our influence in bringing about change seems too great. Yet when we bring our conscious attention to bear on the issues of the day in the company of those whose practical example and lives of fruitful service can inspire and enlighten us, possibilities for new beginnings arise. Our Fall programme draws on a roster of such individuals and we welcome your participation in any and all of our events.

- Treasa O'Driscoll, project coordinator.

		Treasa has released her new book titled "Celtic Woman, a memoir of life's poetic journey" and is now available in bookstores across the country. For more information visit: www.bluebutterflybooks.ca

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
(including Saturday dinner, Sunday lunch and snacks)

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

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

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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