Creative Ways Consulting/Training/Workshop Facilitation
Shari Davis and Benny Ferdman consult with organizations large and small to design and lead arts-based workshops and conduct organizational training. These workshops are tailored to the needs of the organization and include:
- Appreciative Inquiry--a strengths-based approach to organizational change and growth. Shari is a certified Appreciative Inquiry Trainer and leads workshops where teams define needed areas of change, identify individual and organizational strengths and collectively discover, design and deliver new approaches which harness and build on these existing strengths.
- Social, Emotional & Ethical Learning -- Shari is certified in training educators in this robust curriculum from The Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics at Emory University.
- World Cafe Method: a large group process which uses the power of meaningful questions and conversation for creating positive connection, insight and change in individuals, organizations, communities
- Team Art Workshops: Our interdisciplinary and mixed-media art workshops are designed for adults to explore big ideas, build creative problem solving skills and inspire insight, creativity and connection. Workshops including building wooden "wonder boxes," found object mask-making, and more
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Recent workshops/teaching
- The Appreciative Inquiry Process in Mentoring: a 3 session workshop for Rabbinic Mentors at Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles, 2023/24
- The Art & Practice of Learning Conversations-- an Appreciative Inquiry based workshop for Rabbinic and Cantorial students at the American Academy of Jewish Religion, Los Angeles, 2024
- Mask Making & Wonder Box Workshops for Masters Students at Hebrew Union College, DeLet Program, 2023/24
Shari Davis Bio:
Shari Davis is an educator, consultant and facilitator of learning experiences that strengthen deeper connections within communities. As co-founder of the organization Creative Ways, she has worked for over three decades developing educational programs, curriculum & exhibitions which explore the intersections of culture, nature, history and identity. For over eleven years, Shari was on staff at the LA Jewish Federation where she held positions as Director of Education, Director of the Focus on Teen Wellness and Manager of Curriculum and Teacher Training. Shari teaches classes in Health and Wellness, Social Emotional Learning and Building Resilience, and consults with organizations on building community through dialogue and the arts. She is a certified trainer in Appreciative Inquiry: a strengths-based approach to organizational change.
Benny Ferdman Bio:
As a collector of materials and stories from our human, natural and cultural landscape, artist Benny Ferdman reinterprets images and tales to reclaim wonder in everyday life. His paintings, sculptures, poetry and installations are animated by a mix of folkloric and natural forms, ancient text, the past, the present, time and transformation. His art often draws on themes of heritage, spirituality, and the human connection to nature, interpreting these sources and ideas through contemporary art practices. Ferdman’s work incorporates painting, drawing, assemblage and mixed media. Woven throughout is a great reverence for the natural world and an increasingly urgent message around collective ecological responsibility.
Ferdman and Davis currently live in Los Angeles and are co-founders and directors of Creative Ways, an organization that creates public art, exhibitions, multi-media installations, interdisciplinary arts programming and educational curricula nationally and across the globe and Camp Wildcraft--an art and nature summer camp in Los Angeles whose mission is to "grow curious, creative, confident and caring kids who feel at home in nature." www.campwildcraft.com
Benny and Shari are also Co-Founder/Directors of Camp Wildcraft--an L.A. based art and nature summer camp whose mission is to "grow
curious, creative, confident and caring kids who feel at home in nature." www.campwildcraft.com
Shari Davis is an educator, consultant and facilitator of learning experiences that strengthen deeper connections within communities. As co-founder of the organization Creative Ways, she has worked for over three decades developing educational programs, curriculum & exhibitions which explore the intersections of culture, nature, history and identity. For over eleven years, Shari was on staff at the LA Jewish Federation where she held positions as Director of Education, Director of the Focus on Teen Wellness and Manager of Curriculum and Teacher Training. Shari teaches classes in Health and Wellness, Social Emotional Learning and Building Resilience, and consults with organizations on building community through dialogue and the arts. She is a certified trainer in Appreciative Inquiry: a strengths-based approach to organizational change.
Benny Ferdman Bio:
As a collector of materials and stories from our human, natural and cultural landscape, artist Benny Ferdman reinterprets images and tales to reclaim wonder in everyday life. His paintings, sculptures, poetry and installations are animated by a mix of folkloric and natural forms, ancient text, the past, the present, time and transformation. His art often draws on themes of heritage, spirituality, and the human connection to nature, interpreting these sources and ideas through contemporary art practices. Ferdman’s work incorporates painting, drawing, assemblage and mixed media. Woven throughout is a great reverence for the natural world and an increasingly urgent message around collective ecological responsibility.
Ferdman and Davis currently live in Los Angeles and are co-founders and directors of Creative Ways, an organization that creates public art, exhibitions, multi-media installations, interdisciplinary arts programming and educational curricula nationally and across the globe and Camp Wildcraft--an art and nature summer camp in Los Angeles whose mission is to "grow curious, creative, confident and caring kids who feel at home in nature." www.campwildcraft.com
Benny and Shari are also Co-Founder/Directors of Camp Wildcraft--an L.A. based art and nature summer camp whose mission is to "grow
curious, creative, confident and caring kids who feel at home in nature." www.campwildcraft.com