As part of The Co’s ongoing Arts & Wellness initiatives, the public is invited to join us for a transformative experiment to foster inclusion through mindful art-making, action, and reflection. Project leader, Dr. Elyssa Wortzman, will present several workshops facilitating simple, easy practices to foster compassion and recognition of our shared humanity—and individual and collectively what it means to be a blessing in this world. Upon completion, participants will be asked to enter a “social contract” that requests each to wear a “Be a Blessing” graphic sweatshirt and seek to engage other participants in recognizing the blessing through a silent choreography of acknowledgement and connection. The project will culminate with an event offering a model of “protesting” for shared humanity. Documentation of the project and event will be shared in the Co’s galleries.

Dr. Elyssa Wortzman (D. Min, L.L.B) is a spiritual director, educator and artist, and currently serves as the Education Director of the Religious School at Beth Abraham Synagogue, Dayton.  She is the recipient of the Rabbi Samuel Sandmel Award for her innovative doctoral thesis on art as spiritual direction from the Graduate Theological Foundation (2016). She has worked as a Jewish educator in seminaries, community centers, schools and synagogues.