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January’s Global Theme is Sanctuary.

You can stop running now, you are safe here. A sanctuary offers protection to those who are vulnerable: those who are fleeing violence, those who have been cast off and told there is no place for them there, even animals whose habitats have disappeared. Here is a place where you can finally lay your head down and rest. 

The original meaning of sanctuary was a sacred place, containing a holy relic or person. A sanctuary recognizes that each of us, no matter where we have came from or what we’ve done, and our needs — for a full belly, for a roof, for safety, to be free from worry — are inviolable and whole. 

Where is it that you find refuge? What happens to your body when you cross its threshold? And most importantly, how can you hold the door open for others?

Our Sheffield chapter chose this month’s exploration of Sanctuary, Lisa Maltby illustrated the theme, and Mailchimp is presenting the theme.

Join us in Richmond on January 20th to unpack this theme with Dr. Hollee Freeman. Tickets go live on January 13th at 10am.

#CMRVA #RichmondIsCreative #CMSanctuary

NOVEMBER’S Global Theme is TRUTHOur Buenos Aires chapter chose this month’s exploration of Truth and Sol Cotti illustrated the theme.

Truth lies at the bottom of a well, winding from its source in the icepack of distant mountains. Truth tastes pristine, uncompromised by what would be profitable or convenient. Truth causes your body to hum like a tuning fork, resonating at the same frequency as the universe around you. “When you experience an undeniable truth,” writer and social worker Jessica Dore observes, “you will beg, borrow, and steal. You will rearrange your whole life, forsake everything, just to serve what is real.”

And yet the truth is fiercely contested when competing narratives collide. We forge our truth in a crucible, testing its strength through heat and hammering. Instead of smashing our convictions against one another like a particle accelerator, could we sort through the messy, contradicting facts from all around us, together? Can we wade through paradox, the dark tangle of it all, and make sense of the world?

Join us at The Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU on November 18th to unpack TRUTH with Dr. Sesha Joi Moon & Kelli Lemon. 

Doors open at 8:30 am. 

Our global theme for October is ETHOS. 

It was chosen by our Asheville chapter, illustrated by Colin Sutherland.

Ethos is that specific quality that defines a place, time, or group of people. When you step into a room, a busy downtown, or a community gathering, you intuit its spirit. A messy DIY space invites experimentation and mistakes, a lush city park promises tranquility to anyone who seeks it. Maybe you even know of a monthly event where everyone is welcome and everything is free of charge.

At its core is a paradox: despite the specificity of an ethos, it’s impossible to pinpoint or trace to a specific origin. What honed that distinctive sensibility is long gone, vanished into myth.

With our actions and words, we embody these values and beliefs beyond conscious knowing. In turn, we subtly shape the ethos that our descendants — of family, of place — will receive from us. Ethos is alchemic, ineffable, and infinitely ponderable across place and culture. What ways of moving through the world did you inherit?

Join us at our October 21st event where we’ll unpack this theme for Richmond. Get a feel for it with hashtags #CMethos, #CMRVA & #RichmondIsCreative.

February 2022’s Global Theme was chosen by RICHMOND, VIRGINIA!

Set your alarms for when tickets go live and join our [virtual] conversation with Noah Scalin and Marc Cheatham on February 18th. 

January’s Theme is Free.

What is free comes in many flavors. Free to come, free to go. Free to love, free to deliciously inhabit our own skin, free to try on all the possible version of ourselves.  “Free,” as in not charging a single cent. Free to speak truth to power. Free to say no to what’s on offer.

However, to be free to — to dream, to create, to imagine — requires freedom from. To be free from want and fear, to be free from censoring forces, to be free from oppression. To strive for true freedom is to honor our obligations to each other, to fight for our mutual liberation.

When someone is free to achieve their fullest creative expression, they become a beacon for all of us. How will you make space for your own flourishing and that of others, so that the world around you might also bend towards freedom?

Our Charlotte chapter chose this month’s exploration of Free and Lo’Vonia Parks to illustrate the theme.  

Find a list of January events here: https://www.creativemornings.com/talks/upcoming

Our Rome chapter chose this month’s exploration of Invisible and Cristina Spanó illustrated the theme.

December’s Theme is Invisible.

The invisible encompasses everything that does not fall within the hegemony of visibility. An entire world we cannot see exists but doesn’t show itself. From the electromagnetism coursing around us, to the flow of capital across borders, to the adaptive strategies of wildlife. The denizens of nature know that remaining invisible is power.

Many of us labor to avoid becoming invisible at all costs. We strive to create a constant performance in an age of surveillance. Being invisible is often synonymous for being marginalized, forgotten, and fallen out of view.

What if we take a cue from nature and reclaim invisibility as a strategy? What rich inner worlds can we cultivate when we remain out of view? How might we become aware of the things that have receded from sight, suddenly coming into focus with startling clarity?

Find a list of all the cities exploring this theme at creativemornings.com/themes/invisible

This October, we’ve designed a different format so that we can meet up IRL!

Let’s Keep Virginia Cozy. 

Register and get all the details HERE. 

October’s Theme is Design.

We live in a world of design, an intention behind every encounter, every technology we touch, every structure we step through. Design is an alchemy, a marriage of material and meaning, investigation and inspiration, form and function.

To design is to create — out of nothing, something. To design is to play — an invitation to stay open and curious and reimagine in new ways. To design is to think — a method of learning through making, scraping failed experiments for fresh insight. To design is to be human.

Designers are called to operate in a way that transcends disciplines, making it possible to understand the world in all its complexity and envision passageways to more just futures. At their best, designers center the experiences of people whose needs have been overlooked, stepping outside of themselves and into their shoes. Design asks of us empathy and humility, if we are brave enough to answer.

Our Trois-Rivières chapter chose this month’s exploration of Design, Olivier Charland illustrated the theme, and Skillshare is presenting the theme.  

Check out the global event list HERE. 

September’s Theme is Dare.

To dare is an act of faith. We work up the nerve to make the soaring leap, even when we don’t know what the outcome will be. At the core of daring, you’ll find bravery and defiance entwined. We dare to challenge the stories passed down to us that no longer fit, the stories that limit our imagination.

As we shed the stories that no longer serve us, but a way forward seems uncertain, how can we summon the courage to do impossible things? In The Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnit invites us, “Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go.” The door is open. Do you dare step through?

CreativeMornings/Porto Alegre chose September’s theme of Dare and Mitti Mendonça illustrated the theme.

We dare you to take a tour of other cities exploring this theme this month. Check out the full list here. 

August’s Theme is Release.

Inhale. Exhale. Release. Let the breeze roll over you, let the water flow languid, feel the tautness behind your eyes go slack. Release is a universal law—every build-up of tension must give way. Everything from the flowers to the trees need to do it to survive.

Release is a critical part of growth, healing, and transformation. We can release each other from our claims. We can be the means of each others’ deliverance. It’s what gives the words “I release you” their power.

What happens when we let go of emotions, expectations, habits, relationships, or thoughts that no longer serve us? What do we release in ourselves? What do we let loose into the world?

CreativeMornings/Portsmouth chose August’s theme of Release and Allie Runnion illustrated the theme.

Join Richmond in this conversation with Alison Miller on August 20th! Tickets for go live 10:00 am, August 16th at CreativeMornings.com/rva.