MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Middletown Art Center has announced the start of its second “Resilience” workshop series, “Writing Resilience.”

Thanks to a Local Impact Grant from the California Arts Council and local support, MAC is able to offer Lake County communities its project Resilience.

Resilience provides broad access to the arts for adults of all ages and teens ages 12 and up.

It consists of four monthly five-hour classes that are offered first through fourth Saturdays, June 2017 to May 2018.

All classes will run from noon to 5 p.m. with a 30-minute break. This schedule provides easier connection to Lake Transit from Clearlake for those who want to use public transportation.

The fee is $5 per session. Preregistration is preferred as space is limited.

Resilience workshops cycle through the month with week one, photography; week two, poetry/written and spoken word (June 10); week three, painting (Sunday 6/18 due to Middletown Days); and week four, drawing/printmaking (June 24).

Resilience kicked off last weekend with Photographing Resilience, which was a “fun and inspiring learning experience” according to photographer Ruth Stierna.

Photographing Resilience will be offered next on Sunday, July 9, due to holiday weekend, and generally the first Saturday of the month.

The first “Writing Resilience” for poetry/written and spoken word will take place this Saturday, June 10.

It will be facilitated by Clive Matson, published author and poet, with a career of 40-plus years teaching creative writing.

Matson uses his own methodology based on his book “Let the Crazy Child Write!” to allow writers to delve into their unconscious and express that itch or urge that the creative unconscious wants to release.

As Matson expresses it, “We recognize three voices in the writer’s psyche: ‘Editor,’ ‘Writer’ and ‘Crazy Child’ – or creative unconscious. The Editor is the ‘should ‘ voice, as in you should write everything perfectly the first time, you should make money with your writing, you should make no spelling errors. The Writer organizes your writing life, finds blank paper and pens that work, makes time to sit at the computer or go to a coffeehouse with your notebook. The Crazy Child is the urge to write, that itch in your psyche or body that wants to get out into the world. We’ll tell the Editor and Writer to take a walk and let your Crazy Child write whatever it wants.”

To learn more about Clive Matson, check out his Web site at http://matsonpoet.com/ .

“The Resilience project focuses on nature’s recovery and rebound as an inspiration and mirror for our own resilience after the fires of 2015 and 2016,” said Lisa Kaplan, executive director at MAC. “People of all backgrounds, abilities and experience from professional to newbies are encouraged to attend and engage with the arts and creative expression.”

To register for “Writing Resilience” this Saturday or any other of the upcoming Resilience classes, or to learn more, visit www.middletownartcenter.org/resilience .

Middletown Art Center is a local arts nonprofit dedicated providing art opportunities, art education, cultural enrichment, and ecological awareness, contributing to the social and economic well being of rural Lake County.

MAC’s operations are supported by donations and membership as well as sales in the gallery. Visit www.middletownartcenter.org to learn about MAC’s current exhibit or how you can support MAC.

Middletown Art Center is located at 21456 Highway 175, at the junction of Highway 29.