Summary: Each day will start with a poetry prompt. Over the five days, you will awaken your creative reflections through filmmaking, assemblage, and sculpture that invite you to imagine more freely.
Full course description:
In this workshop, we will explore the beauty of Chateau La Napoule’s unique setting while expanding our sense of what is possible within our respective artistic practices.
Through photography, short films, exploring the Côte D’Azure with a documentary intention, and hybrid writing that incorporates text and image, we will create works that are as visually stunning as they are powerful in their storytelling.
After a week of writing, photography and filmmaking in stunning locations, from seafront arcades to castle rooftops and city vistas, participants will come away with a clear understanding of how visual rhetoric can enhance their existing body of work and artistic projects.
This workshop is open to creative practitioners of all genres and disciplines, including filmmakers, writers, and visual artists.
MEET THE ARTIST
Kristina Darling
Kristina Darling is an an internationally recognized writer, editor, and educator whose work is distinguished by its intellectual rigor, formal innovation, and deep commitment to literary community. She is the author of more than thirty books, published by presses including Bloomsbury, Persea, Dzanc, and Penguin Canada, and her writing is widely known for challenging conventional boundaries of genre and form.
A twice-awarded Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Darling has served as an expert consultant to the U.S. Fulbright Commission and now sits on the Fulbright awards jury. Her work has been supported by leading institutions such as Yaddo, the American Academy in Rome, and Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. As an editor and mentor, she is especially known for championing innovative, hybrid, and experimental work, and for fostering spaces where dialogue, curiosity, and artistic risk are central.
As a teacher and public speaker, Kristina is admired for her generosity, clarity, and practical insight. She approaches writing as a shared, conversational practice-one shaped by reading, teaching, and sustained engagement with artistic communities around the world.
Born and raised in the American Midwest, she now divides her time between Greece, Croatia, and Italy's Amalfi Coast, and is always looking for her next adventure!
EXAMPLE ITINERARY
Day 1 | Arrival
We will begin the week with a welcome to the Chateau and Gardens at 2pm. The instructor will lead an informal introductory session, in which participants will be asked to share one question that drives their artistic practice. We will discuss the possibilities that multimedia and cross-disciplinary practice holds for refining and multiplying these questions. The day will culminate in aperitifs on the terrace and a welcome dinner.
Day 2 | Discovering the Chateau, Centering the Artist
The day will begin with a delicious breakfast at the Chateau. After a brief how-to on creating powerful multimedia work, we will direct and star in our own short films. Guided by their instructor, participants will spend the day taking footage in several stunning locations, from seafront arcades to the Chateau’s rooftop and extensive gardens. The day will culminate in aperitifs on the terrace and conversation over dinner.
Day 3 | Art as a Conversation Between Part of the Self
The day will begin with breakfast and an immersive sound bowl mediation, followed by a morning session on shaping and editing the footage we have gathered. During the afternoon, participants will be asked to choose one particularly meaningful moment from their short film, which we will dive into in-depth during the following day’s session. We will then gather for aperitifs on the terrace and discuss the process of filmmaking–-the challenges, triumphs, and surprises—over a delicious chef-prepared meal.
Day 4 | Self-Ekphrasis
After a relaxing breakfast, we will begin by meditating on the singular moment each of us have chosen from our respective short films. Guided by a writing prompt in our morning session, we will then excavate that moment, examining both its backstory and possibilities. We will share our work in a supportive, celebratory setting before breaking for lunch, a hike to San Peyre and dinner in Theoule.
Day 5 | Text + Image
After a shared breakfast and soundbowl meditation, we will use photographs from our hike as writing prompts. We will then work to integrate text and image in innovative ways, allowing language to strike sparks against the visual material we have created. The day will culminate in dinner, drinks, and a celebration of participant work created during the week.