Workshops & Special Residencies 2024

32M exists to foster and further creative exploration in all media and expressive performance modalities. Below you will find our upcoming workshops and special residencies.

for more info email us at: artworkresidency@32mcenter.org

Type & Sound, Graphic Scores Workshop at 32M

Aug 16-17, 2 days, inquire for availability

A multidisciplinary class combining improvisational music and creating a graphic score as we progress, using letterpress. Paid participants will receive one copy of the score, hand printed on fine paper. Held in conjunction with Golgonooza Letter Foundry & Press.

Join us for our 8th year offering this unique to Golgonooza event.

$300. 2 day session

“My first experience at a Quiet Fire Workshop left me dazzled. When I arrived back to my house my friend asked me, ‘Where have you been? You’re glowing!’ The experience was thoughtful and well curated, with much room for creativity to carry you deep into the moment. The magic and history of the press hold you as you get to explore a medium from so many moons ago through words and poetry, feel them as you make space for them in the physical world… bring them to life. Combined with the element of improvisational sound, this workshop guides you to a new place of self-exploration, allows you to conjure something that never existed before with a room full of new friends. The unique experience, history and surroundings of Golgonooza and the Quiet Fire Workshop with Julia is something I wish for everyone to experience. It will breathe life into your fire.” Meg Graham, Artist

DREAM RETREAT WORKSHOP

Rune tree
Rune tree

Work with the symbology of dreams through art.

Bring a short dream or a segment of one.

Sunday, Aug 25th — 12:30-3:30 pm

$35. per session. limited to 6 people max

We will meditate on the content of our dreams and use simple art materials to express and begin to understand them.

Use Symbology of dreams class, in email subject line.

Grief Retreat days, managing personal loss

Max 6 people.

Tending a broken heart cannot be pushed nor rushed. When you need help dealing with the grief of personal loss and cannot function well in your life or the normal world and want to find a way through, a retreat designed to assist you with your grieving process may be worth considering.

Experiencing the loss of a spouse, a parent, pet or even a job, can cause the world to turn upside down. Work with our grief mentor to begin to contact and to process those wounds.

2 to 5 days, involving journaling, art making, and connecting with nature. Participants will be guided through exercises, punctuated with quiet time, designed for reflection and healing. One on one discussion/personal mentoring time will be scheduled for each individual on the path of grief.

$190./ day includes an overnight accommodation. A community kitchen is available for self preparation of your meals. (A simple meal package may be available to add on for those feeling unable to cook. If interested in having meals provided, contact us for details.) Transportation to 32M is on your own, but we can arrange pick up from the train station.

LITERARY /  LETTERPRESS  RETREAT

with Julia Ferrari

Broadside Retreat
Broadside Retreat

LITERARY /  LETTERPRESS  Retreat, in partnership with The Golgonooza International School of Typography & Letters

Announcing a special retreat for writers where we will work with you to design and print a small Broadside from a  piece of your writing.

You will have free time daily  during the week to pursue your creative writing interspersed with up to four, 2 hour afternoon sessions, setting and printing type for a short poem, line or phrase from your work. You will be working alongside a master printer on your broadside design.

Pricing: Regular resident retreat room fee, in addition to +

Limited Edition Letterpress broadside creation session with edition of up to 12 copies $550.* 8 hours of class time

*more time may be purchased @ an hourly rate if desired.

Session Dates: July 8 – 12 & 15 – 19

Subject to availability.

* Plus the regular resident’s retreat room fee

Past Events

Improv MUSIC Micro-RETREAT

Residents will have collaborative, music improvisation sessions scheduled thru the day as well as self directed time.

Inquire for details. Will lead into the X-Fest Ashuelot events which start on Friday August 18th.

Sept 23 -24rd 10 am-4 pm

Chance and Randomization Workshop /Ableton Live

with Katie Semro

Thursday, August 17 — 6-8 pm — $35.

When making electronic music, it is easy to have control over every aspect of a piece, but something that control can result in music that’s a little predictable or lack luster. Adding some chance and randomization into your electronic music can add the sparkle and life that you’ve been looking for. 

In this workshop we will explore ways of creating an improvisational feel in electronic music through using chance, randomization, and probability in Ableton Live. We will cover a wide range of ways to incorporate these concepts into your music including built-in effects, free third party plug-ins, side chaining, crossfading, and other methods of adding unplanned variability. Join us for a fun evening of learning new ways to make amazing music. 

All levels are welcome, but we will assume you are familiar with the basics of using Ableton Live. 

Introduction to Making Electronic Music with Ableton Live

September 23, 10am – 3pm $80.

When you hear the term “electronic music” do you think of dance music, or ambient music, or robot-voice music? Well, using the computer to make music doesn’t have to mean those kinds of music. In fact, you can make almost any kind of music on the computer, and in this one-day intensive workshop you will learn how to make the music you want using the music creation software Ableton Live. 

We will start with the basics of how Live works, and then dive into the many ways to make music with it. We’ll cover using built-in loops to put a song together; how to use MIDI to make your own loops; how to arrange a song; and the basics of mixing so you can add polish to your piece. Come along for a fun and full day of making music! 

No experience with Ableton Live or making electronic music is necessary. This workshop is perfect for people who have never made electronic music, or who do already make music, but want to learn to do it in Live. You can download a 90-day free trial of Live here.  

About the Instructor

Katie Semro is an audio creator and educator. She makes music, audio art, and documentaries. She has created music for podcasts, an audio graphic novel, and a dance company. Her audio art installation Trust me, I’m a Doctor was exhibited at Sound Scene Fest 2022 at the Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. Her audioscapes of the artists accompanied the exhibit What We Make of This World at the Fountain Street Gallery in Boston in April 2023. Katie will be performing an audio art piece at Nova Arts in Keene, NH at the end of June. She has produced, edited, sound designed, and scored several audio documentaries, and her work has appeared on 41 radio stations across the country. She lives in Sharon, NH with her husband and two children

Seeing & Drawing from Nature

Join us for our nature drawing classes, meeting on Green Street, Brattleboro, VT. Mondays: August & September, 5:30 pm.

We will walk to various garden/ natural sites in Brattleboro and sketch. 1 hour $15. Bring a sketch pad and pencils of your choice (folding stool, optional).

Use “Seeing & Drawing class,” in email subject line.

Type & Sound, Graphic Scores Workshop at 32M

with Julia Ferrari, and possible guests, Leilehua Lanzilotti, and Gahlord Dewald

A multidisciplinary class combining improvisational music and creating a graphic score as we progress, using letterpress. Paid participants will receive one copy of the score, hand printed on fine paper. Held in conjunction with Golgonooza Letter Foundry & Press.

Sept 2 -3rd 10 am-4 pm

$300. weekend session

Here and Now, Then and Never: Places & Poems

Poetry Workshop with award winning UK poetBrian Evans-Jones 

Thursday —July 6  6:30-8:30 pm $35

tickets available through: The Poetry Place or contact: julia@32mcenter.org 

Whether we love them or endure them, seek them out or flee from them, places are fundamental to the human experience. So it’s not surprising that poetry about places can be intense and reward- ing, reaching beyond description into wide-ranging ideas from love to politics. In this friendly and supportive workshop, we will explore ways to write more powerfully about places of different kinds—current places, remembered places, even imagined places. There will also be the chance to use the lovely riverside setting of the 32M Center as inspiration. Suitable for all levels

Brian Evans-Jones is a poet and teacher. Originally from Britain, he was Poet Laureate of Hamp- shire, UK before moving to America in 2014. He won the Maureen Egan Award from Poets & Writers in 2017 and his poems have been published in magazines on both sides of the Atlantic. He has led workshops in Britain and America since 2008, as well as teaching poetry in schools and col- leges, and online through his website: The Poetry Place.

Previous workshop participants have said: “Great workshop, really enjoyable and well executed!” “A valuable experience that I’m sure will help me to improve my writing.”“Brian was brilliant. He obviously loves his subject and I felt a renewed enthusiasm for writing.”

32M Center for Creative Work >< 32 Main Street, Ashuelot, NH 03441 >< 603-239-6830 >< julia@32mcenter.org

Type & Sound, Graphic Scores Workshop at 32M, 2022

with Julia Ferrari, and possible guests, Leilehua Lanzilotti, and Gahlord Dewald

A multidisciplinary class combining improvisational music and creating a graphic score as we progress, using letterpress. Paid participants will receive one copy of the score, hand printed on fine paper. Held in conjunction with Golgonooza Letter Foundry & Press.

Sept 2 -3rd 10 am-4 pm

$300. weekend session