Created to Create: A Reluctant Artist’s Retreat

October 2024 (dates TBC)
Currently accepting waitlist applications

Get Involved!

We are welcoming local community partners who would like to contribute to our Maritimes Explorations. Are you an individual or organization with skills, knowledge, or experiences you’d like to share? Please get in touch with us!

Contact us

Maritimes Explorations are based in Nova Scotia. Throughout the program, we will travel through the traditional territories of the Mi’kmaq People.

Do you feel a call to process the world around you through art? Whether you have a love for writing, songwriting, poetry, moving or crafting, the world needs your story and we’re here to help you tap into your creative gifts.

Join this Howl Program for a week of creativity in community at The Deanery Project, an Environmental and Arts Learning Centre in Lower Ship Harbour, Nova Scotia. You’ll join a cohort of folks from across Turtle Island who share the creative itch.

With an approach rooted in the Mi’kmaw concept of Etuaptmumk, you’ll be guided through a process of connecting with your story as well as the stories around you, learning from local artists, Elders, Knowledge Holders, and community leaders. Created to Create will immerse you in the local cultures, histories & ecologies of Kjipuktuk / Halifax and the Eastern Shore of Mi’kma’ki / Nova Scotia. Activities will shed new light on how the land, water, community, and you yourself, can support your creative visions, nurture your spark, and strengthen the light you carry. Join us and see what happens when your creative process collides with teachings about Treaty rights, climate resilience and sustainable living. 

Your story matters. You were created to create.

Apply today

Program cost:
TBC

Program includes:

  • One week to focus on your creativity in a community space; 

  • All ground transportation during the program

  • Fully catered meals and snacks prepared with love and care; 

  • Small-group workshops with local creatives; 

  • Oceanfront beach and hiking trails at your doorstep; 

  • Open access to a professional sound studio, woodshop, stained glass studio, and living laboratory for sustainable building

This program offers guidance, education, coaching and support 24 hours/day for the duration of the program. Upon acceptance into the program, a $250 deposit is required to secure your spot.

We understand that cost can be a major consideration for families of participants. We encourage youth to apply regardless of financial means as we do not wish for anyone to be deterred due to financial constraints. Additional financial assistance may be available.

“The Howl experience evokes something deep within all of us-- an awareness of our interconnectedness, the understanding that we can make a difference to the lives of all our relations and the recognition of our individual and collective voices. I can say with certainty that it brings newfound understanding of our place in this world, a stronger connection to self, and a heightened sense of belonging within our communities, a deeper appreciation for the environment and how we walk on this earth.”


Ahlena, Maritimes Exploration (2024)

Participants of this program are

  • Aged 17 to 35 

  • Curious about Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and creating;

  • Itching to start or get back into a creative project but can’t seem to find the time;

  • Looking to tap into your creative side and aren’t sure where to start;

  • Craving connection to like-minded folks from diverse backgrounds; 

  • Interested in giving back to community through hands-on volunteer opportunities.

Is this program for you?

Program details.

On the first day of the program, participants will meet at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. A shuttle will also be available from Dartmouth, NS. Transportation throughout the program will be in group vehicles.  

Accommodations during the program will be in a rustic lodge immersed in beautiful natural settings. For this program, participants will stay at The Deanery Project on the Eastern Shore.

Meals provided throughout the program will be mostly vegetarian with a strong focus on local, seasonal ingredients. Most dietary restrictions and preferences can be accommodated. 

Meet the Program Leaders.

  • Howl Programmer by day, Singer Songwriter by night, Partner and Father 24/7. George Woodhouse (he/him) is happiest when his worlds are colliding in the form of sing-alongs in the woods. He comes to Howl from a decade of public service with Parks Canada where he helped form the Agency’s first youth engagement team. George has since worked with hundreds of families and newcomers to Canada as a Learn-to Camp coordinator in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. In 2019, he expanded his horizons and became the Visitor Experience Coordinator for Sable Island National Park Reserve where he witnessed the wild power of a shapeshifting sandbar, helping people from around the world connect with its stories, ecology and general magic. In 2023, George joined the Howl team to co-design and co-deliver transformative experiences for youth in Atlantic Canada. He approaches his work, music and relationships with the belief that when we allow ourselves to create, we inspire, we heal, we connect. Full disclosure, he wrote this bio in the third person, and he wants you to know that he would love to hear from you! Drop him a line anytime at george@experiencehowl.com

  • Gina (she/her) grew up along the sandy shores of Mi’kma’ki, on the traditional territory of the Mi’kmaq People. Since her first taste of experiential education as a teenager, Gina has had a love for learning from the land, sea, and stories around her. Following an uninspiring first year at university and a brief career in tall ship sailing, Gina changed her major no fewer than three times before discovering a passion for critical theory and its tools for building more equitable systems and institutions. After receiving a BA in Philosophy from Dalhousie and an MSc in Gender and Social Policy from the London School of Economics, Gina advocated for gender justice at grassroots and international organizations in France and Belgium before returning to Turtle Island in 2017.

    Today, Gina lives in Kjipuktuk / Halifax and is equally at home outdoors, on the dance floor, or curled up with a good book. Gina supports the development and delivery of Howl programming in Mi’kma’ki and works with the national team to ensure Howl’s commitments to climate justice, truth and reconciliation are woven into all aspects of its work. Want to connect with Gina? Reach out anytime at gina@experiencehowl.com!

  • Nicholas (Nik) Phillips is a Treaty Education policy analyst for the provincial department of Office of L'nu Affairs, and an academic chair at the Nova Scotia Community College, for Early Childhood Education and the Poqji-kina’masulti’kw tel-kina’mujik mijua’ji’jk (Mi’kmaq Early Childhood Education) program.

    He is a member of Mulin Sipu (Millbrook Mi’kmaw Nation). As a young two-spirited knowledge holder, Nik embodies the practice of Etuaptmumk (two-eyed seeing), bringing a wealth of Indigenous and Western knowledge to his life and work. He holds the belief that reconciliation is imbedded in our ability to share, listen, and understand one another. He is a well rounded person who believes in supporting others in their own places of knowing.

    Nik holds a BA (Honours) and MA (Child and Youth Study) from Mount Saint Vincent University. He is an active member of community who advocates for language, culture, inclusivity, and equity.