I love creating art with people who have not yet realized they are artists, and I especially enjoy working with diverse communities. In my workshops, participants have an opportunity to speak visually about what is important to each of them, and have fun doing it. The workshops are open to everyone and no artistic or sewing experience is necessary. Here is a sampling of what I have to offer:

Stitching for Social Change
For many years, through quilts, banners and other creative expression, women and men have been stitching their way to a better world. From traditional quilts to banners around the Pentagon, from the small determined arpilleras of Chile, to miles of memorial quilts for people who have died of AIDS, activists have used fabric to put their heartfelt beliefs in the public eye.

Through slides, discussion, and hands-on participation, participants will create fabric projects about an area of social change, dear to our hearts.

Organizing a Visual Arts Show
This course is designed for groups and individuals who are organizing visual arts exhibits in a variety of locations, especially those outside of tradition gallery spaces. Whatever the circumstances, a well organized exhibit plan and firm timeline will produce a strong and well attended exhibit. Come away from this workshop with a check list and time line which will keep you on track from your initial concept until the last piece of work has been returned to participating artists.

Self Portrait Workshops
Create a whimsical self portrait of yourself now, in the past, or in your fantasies. Or use your self portrait to convey your cultural background. You'll work with a pre-prepared body in fabric (or paper) dressing it, and adding a face, hair, etc, to create a finished piece or one which could become part of a group piece. This workshop can be done as a single event, or as part of the creation of a larger quilt.

Sewing our Stories
This workshop is about using a needle and thread to tell our stories. We’ll see examples of wonderful and touching fabric stories made by others, and then we’ll get out the fabric and sew our own.

Lighting Flames Without Burnout;
A Day of Rest for Activists
This workshop is for people who do social activism or community work and would like a day of personal sharing. As social activists and community workers, we do inspiring and world changing work. We have chosen the responsibility to change society, but we can also choose to be intelligent in the way we do it. The future needs us well rested, well nourished, and well exercised. This workshop is a chance to share our successes and our struggles in an atmosphere of caring and appreciation, and to gather renewed energy to continue the important work we do.

Building Bridges through the Arts
This presentation offers a survey of the use of the visual and performing arts to build connections and facilitate dialogue among Israelis and Palestinians and raise some of the ethical questions involved in doing this work. The presenter will also share some of her experiences with the Middle East Peace Quilt.

Stitching Curriculum
Elizabeth works with all ages to create unique, memorable quilts and banners. Her specialties include drawing out participants' stories through paper and fabric, creating group art projects to illustrate social history or literature, (ie: group murals of Mid Summer Night’s Dream) and using art to facilitate cross-cultural understanding. She is offering workshops in schools and libraries, based on the illustrations from her picture books.

Getting Inside the Pictures
Meet the characters in Abby's Birds and Once Upon a Bathtime. In this workshop children create paper portraits of themselves in the style of the books' illustrations. These paper figures then join the books' characters on paper murals. Each participant uses a talking balloon to allow the figures they have created to speak directly to the characters in the story.

To contact me about a workshop, click here.