Tending Your Creative Fire

Thought Leaders/Teachers/ Guides

Creativity Salon ~ A panel/exploration of what it means to tend to your creative fire, facilitated by Renee Trudeau.  Speakers:

Erin Hallagan Clare
Erin is the founder of Story Parlor, a narrative arts space in Asheville, NC, offering community-driven events and workshops designed to bring audiences and artists together through the universal language of creativity and story. Erin studied film and theatre, she earned her Masters in Psychology with a Creativity Studies specialization, where her thesis was dedicated to creative facilitation. She holds a graduate certificate in Applied Mythology and is a certified Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach as well as a graduate of the Advanced Creativity Coaching program with Dr. Eric Maisel. In kinship with her experience as a Creativity Coach, Erin is an accredited Enneagram Practitioner as well as a certified yoga teacher through the Yoga Alliance. Prior to these projects, Erin served as the Creative Director of the Austin Film Festival & Writers Conference in addition to producing the PBS and PRX-affiliated project, On Story, for which she received a Lone Star Emmy for Best Arts/Entertainment Program in 2014. A writer and storyteller, Erin regularly teaches creativity and personal mythology workshops at both Story Parlor and the Great Smokies Writing Program at UNCA.  Erin believes everyone has a story to tell, and that we are all creative. When not enjoying live art, she loves craft beer, camping, and intending all her puns. www.storyparloravl.com/ 

Kristen Edge
Kristen is the founder of ArtPlay, a Creativity Studio and Gallery in Asheville, NC offering community experiences for people to reconnect with their inborn creativity– whether through engaging with gallery art or exploring self-expression through the creation of visual elements. Growing up immersed in dance, Kristen discovered how movement could communicate emotions and connect with others. This early understanding of nonverbal expression shaped her passion for creativity. Later, she earned a Master’s degree and completed PhD-level coursework in Educational Psychology, deepening her study of human nature and learning. Motherhood further inspired as she observed her son’s innate ability to express himself through play and gestures before he could speak. As an artist’s apprentice and a Reggio Emilia-inspired studio teacher, Kristen witnessed children’s profound creativity as they expressed ideas through “100 languages” like drawing, movement, and storytelling. This inspired her vision to create a space where people could rediscover their inborn creative voice. The ArtPlay gallery and studio invites people to explore their stories and emotions beyond words. During Helene, her space was flooded and destroyed, but they relocated to a historic 1865 home in the Chestnut Hill Neighborhood of Asheville, and continue to nurture creativity through play and community connection.  www.artplay-studio.com

Annie Barralon Fain
A native of the crafts and music/dance community of Brasstown, NC and the Program Development Manager at the John C. Campbell Folk School, Annie Fain Barralon teaches a variety of classes at the school including book arts, clawhammer banjo, and several styles of dance: Appalachian clogging, English waltz clog, Northwest Morris, and Bal Folk (learned when she married into a French family). Annie Fain plays banjo and banjo uke for the all-woman string band, Blue Eyed Girl, and is creator of podcast Fain House Radio. Speaker of French, mother of two, she has lived and studied in Edinburgh/Scotland, Brønderslev/Denmark,  Désaignes/France and Western North Carolina. Annie sells her art prints, greeting cards, and wall calendars printed from her original watercolors regionally and is a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. www.afainhouse.com

Creativity Salon Facilitator & Retreat Host/Guide: Renee Peterson Trudeau
The oldest of seven children, Renee was raised in a wildly creative Montessori and Waldorf- inspired household steeped in music, science, philosophy, art and yoga. In the mid 1970s, her parents—a physician and a musician/artist—left their comfortable, conventional life in San Antonio, TX and moved Renee and her four brothers to the wilderness of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains to create a new life centered around nature, spirituality and simplicity. They lived in a two-bedroom home with a wood-burning stove, rode horses bareback to school, and wrote poetry, read Sanskrit texts and made stained glass and pottery.  Years later, between 1992-2000, Renee tragically lost her mom, dad and 20 year-old brother. These early deaths were wakeup calls for Renee to stay awake and alive and challenged her to never sleepwalk through life. A nationally-known catalyst/author/thought leader and teacher, Renee has written several award-winning books, she facilitates women’s retreats at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, Esalen Institute, 1440 Multiversity, the Art of Living Retreat Center and Omega Institute and she’s a sought-after media expert on the topics of self-care and resiliency. Her pioneering work in the area of women’s leadership has been featured in The New York Times, Spirituality & Health, O Magazine and more. Originally from Austin, TX, she lives with her husband in Brevard, NC; their son, a jazz musician/artist, lives in New York City.  Renee loves teaching embodied spirituality and finds joy through dancing, leading song circles, making soup with local veggies for friends/family and taking long, meandering forest hikes. Learn more about Renee: www.ReneeTrudeau.com

Creative Fire Morning Yoga w/ Lauren Agrella-Sevilla, E-RYT 500
Lauren Agrella-Sevilla is a mother, seeker and a lover of this world. Her passion lies in supporting people in connecting with their bodies in authentic ways that help them feel most alive so that they can be a force of good within their own communities. Founder of ImPowered Together, she makes her living as a mental health therapist, educator, and consultant in Western North Carolina. Lauren lives outside and on a bike as much as possible. She and her partner have two sons; her family lives in Brevard, NC.  www.inpoweredtogether.com

Nourish Your Creative Fire Wine Tasting ~ with Merit Brand Wolff,  owner, Wine Sage Merchant +Wine Bar
Merit Brand Wolff is the owner of Wine Sage Merchant + Wine Bar in Historic Downtown Hendersonville, NC. Passionate about wine, Merit is equally passionate about building community – especially among women. Recently, two ladies came to have a glass of wine at her store, Merit asked them how they met. They answered, “Here at your wine bar!” These connections are why Merit does what she does; nothing makes her happier! Merit is the mom to two grown daughters, two active pups and she’s married to The Wine Guy – the person who originally sparked her interest in wine. www.winesageandgourmet.com