Perfect for:

  • Schools looking to boost student engagement

  • Educators seeking innovative teaching strategies

  • Teams wanting to enhance creativity and reduce burnout

  • Anyone craving a calmer, more focused mind

Participants leave not only with new skills, but with a powerful, practical tool they can use anytime, anywhere.

Join a Mindful Doodling Workshop to experience firsthand how drawing leads to mindfulness. During this engaging workshop, we focus on bringing every participant into the creative process, even the reluctant ones. By honoring all drawing types and easing into our exercises, art educator and cartoonist Cara Bean shows how even the smallest marks on paper have a lot to teach us about expressing ourselves, feeling creative, and connecting to everyone around us.

This workshop offers:

-presentation about the mental benefits of doodling

-a guided mindful doodle session for relaxation

-line and shape improvisation

-simple character designs

-interconnected energy doodle

TESTIMONIALS:

“Cara has been an absolute pleasure to work with from the very beginning and her wonderful spirit and talent were shining so much! Our kids who all seemed very shy at first opened up to her and seemed to really enjoy themselves and their art.” —Cara Young, Children’s Librarian, Worcester Public Library

"I think the attendees left feeling really inspired and pumped to keep drawing."
— Meaghan Schwelm, Librarian, Adams Street Branch of the Boston Public Library

“Cara was so personable and encouraging with the participants. Overall, it was such an engaging and creative crowd-pleasing event.”
— Dianna McDevitt, Librarian, Hanson Public Library

“Great for all ages. Fun-filled using hands-on demonstrations.”
— Barbara Berler, President, Friends of the Jonathan Bourne Public Library

MATERIALS:

-copy paper and sharpened pencils

-Digital projector with HDMI computer cables OR ability to connect to Smartboard and project a PowerPoint presentation. *Cara usually travels with her own Mac laptop and dongle converter. If your school should use their laptop and just have her bring her presentation on a thumb drive, please let her know.

-A microphone/amplification system is appreciated for any groups larger than 30 participants. Especially if it’s in an auditorium, multi-purpose room, gym, etc

-a dry-erase board or large pad of paper on easel for drawing examples

-a ream of printer paper and extra pencils

SPACE ACCOMMODATIONS:

-either table tops or clipboards with chairs for all participants

WORKSHOP FEES:

Library: $400 per workshop*
School: $550 per workshop*
University or Professional Group: $1,000 per workshop*

*Travel/accommodation costs not included.

PREVIOUS WORKSHOP HOSTS:

An Unlikely Story Bookstore and Cafe, Plainville, MA

Athens Academy, Athen, GA

Atwater Library, North Branford, CT

Auk Bay Elementary School, Juneau, AK

Belmont Public Library, Belmont, MA

Blackhawk Middle School, Bensonville, IL

Boston Public Library, Adams Street Branch, Dorchester, MA

Boston Public Library, Faneuil Branch, Brighton, MA

Boston Public Library, Jamaica Plain Branch, MA

Boston Public Library, Lower Mills, Dorchester, MA

Boston Public Library, Mattapan Branch, Boston, MA

Bridges Homeward, Cambridge, MA

Cambridge Public Library, MA

Case Memorial Library, Orange, CT

Center for Cartoon Studies, White River Junction, VT

Chelmsford Public Library, Chelmsford MA

Comics and Medicine Conference, White River Junction, VT

Cromwell Belden Public Library, Cromwell, CT

Cumberland Public Library, Cumberland, RI

Darien Public Library, Darien, CT

Dartmouth Middle School, Dartmouth, MA

DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park, Lincoln, MA

Downtown Arts Festival, Gainesville, FL

Edith Wheeler Memorial Library, Monroe, CT

Electric City Comic Con, Schenectady County Public Library, NY 

Elizabeth Taber Library, Marion, MA

Falmouth Public Library, Falmouth, MA

Flushing Public Library, Queens, NY

Gleason Public Library, Carlisle, MA

Graphic Medicine Conference, Athlone, Ireland

Hanson Public Library, Hanson, MA

Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Cambridge, MA

Haverhill Public Library, Haverhill, MA

Jonathan Bourne Library, Pocasset, MA

Kaiser Permanente, CA

Kitsap Regional Library, Bainbridge Island, WA

Lexington High School, Lexington, MA

Liminka School of Art, Limika, Finland

Manchester-by-the-Sea Public Library, MA

Mansfield Public Schools Professional Development, Mansfield, MA

Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo, Cambridge, MA

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Mattapoisett Public Library, Mattapoisett, MA

Millicent Library, Fairhaven, MA

Milne Public Library, Williamstown, MA

Morrill Memorial Library, Norwood, MA

Munroe Center for the Arts, Lexington, MA 

National Cartoonists Society Conference, Boston, MA

New Bedford Public Schools, New Bedford, MA

New England Innovation Academy, Marlborough, MA

New London Public Library, New London, CT

New Milford Public Library, New Milford, CT

North Adams Public Library, North Adams, MA

North Providence High School, North, Providence, RI

Old Lyme Phoebe Griffin Noyes Library, Old Lyme, CN

Our Sisters’s School, New Bedford, MA

Plumb Memorial Library, Rochester, MA

Reading Public Library, Reading, MA

Seattle Public Library (downtown), WA

Southwest Seattle Public Library, WA

Springfield Town Library, Springfield, VT

Springfield Public Library, Springfield, MA

Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Sturgis Public Library, Barnstable, MA

Tabor Academy, Marrion, MA

Thunder Mountain Middle School, Juneau, AK

University of Omaha, Omaha, NE

Wallingford Public Library, Wallingford, CT

Welles-Turner Memorial Library, Glastonbury, CT

Woburn Public Library, Woburn, MA

Worcester Arts Magnet School, Worcester, MA

Worcester Public Library, Worcester, MA