Le Marche (Re)discoveries:
Creativity Workshop & Cultural Exploration Tour

Everyone has a well of creativity inside of them.  Let me repeat that will a little emphasis – everybody has a well of creativity inside of them.  OK, you say, if that’s the case, how come we classify some people as ‘creative’ and refer to others as ‘not the creative type’?

The answer lies in the habits we learn as we get older – do this, don’t do that, here’s a step-by-step guide …  We get so conditioned to doing things a certain way that we build a calcified cocoon around ourselves of defined behavioural and thought patterns.  Our methods become so linear and predictable that we lose touch with that creative well, and we don’t know how to get to it any more.

Children know.  They haven’t built their cocoons yet.  They’re not afraid to ask ‘Why?’, or – better still – ‘Why not?’  To a child the best way to get from A to B isn’t necessarily a straight line, or even that if you leave A to go to B you’ll eventually get there – who knows what you might find along the way?  To a child there’s no reason a genie can’t come out of an oil lamp, or that a cow can’t jump over the moon.  We were all children once, so we know – innately – how to do this; we’ve just forgotten.

So how do you break out of your cocoon and start tapping that well?  Can you really live out of your creative essence rather than out of fear and the everyday concerns that come from living in a turbulent society?  To put it simply (while paraphrasing a prominent president): ‘Yes you can.’ 

We believe the best way to do that is to step out of your familiar environment, and to let an objective and trained eye prompt you to find it.  The more removed from things familiar, the better.  So let’s start here – Italy:  land of Michelangelo and Ferrari … gelato and ‘Made in Italy’ … arm-waving and la dolce vita.  But not just anywhere in Italy – Le Marche: as authentic as it gets, and as beautiful as anywhere.  As author Guido Piovene wrote in 1957: ‘Italy, with its range of landscapes, is a distillation of the world; Le Marche is a distillation of Italy.’  In terms of being removed from your familiar environment, while being enticing at the same time, it probably doesn’t get much better than this.

Then with a fresh and inspired mind you’ll ease into a series of interactions – simple in their concept, effective in their result – designed to help you find the path back to that well.  And not just once – whenever you want to.  It’s entirely up to you how you approach the workshop.  Perhaps you’ll be a musketeer or an eagle, maybe a piano or a deaf mute.  This is not about ‘stepping out of your comfort zone’ and how you might look to others.  Remember your fellow workshop companions are people in just the same position as you, and anyway you’re unlikely ever to see them again; even if you do, it’ll be their fellow ‘creativity seeker’ they remember.

We have just one goal – to help you find the way to your creative well, one that you can trace tomorrow, next month, ten years from now.  The methods we use are provocative, powerful, and (perhaps most importantly) playful.  One thing we guarantee – you’ll enjoy yourself, you’ll learn a lot (mostly about yourself), and you’ll also have time to discover the wonderful world of Le Marche.  Who knows what you might take away with you – an idea for an innovative business venture … a passion for medieval Italy or its mountain legends … a quiet confidence that you can take on your challenges with a new-found creative spirit ...

Experiences like this can be life-changing.  This is not an overstatement.

But they also don’t come along every day.  So let me ask you this: ‘Why not?’