Creative retreats, painting
vacations & art getaways

Kat Kirby

May 16 - 21, 2027

Sacred Pages: A Creative Journaling Retreat for the Soul

Medium: Mixed Media

Level: All Levels

Location: Studio

Status:

Rates & Enrollment

Deposit is $450

Day Student Tuition: $1,596

Inn-Stay Package*: $2,664 - $3,220

*Your Inn-Stay Retreat Package includes:

Workshop Tuition, lodging, dinner 2 nights (welcome and farewell), breakfast and lunch each day, daily snack breaks, unlimited coffee, tea & seltzer.

For your independent dinners, there are many restaurants with a wide variety of cuisines and price points, within comfortable walking distance of the Inn, plus Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe’s.

You can choose a room to yourself (single occupancy) or double your fun, bring a friend and split a room (double occupancy).

To learn more about your options or to register, click the Register Now button.

About This Workshop

A gentle return to yourself through art.

Step away from the noise of everyday life and into a space of quiet creativity, connection, and renewal.

Over five nourishing days, you’ll create your own handmade art journal and fill it with your imaginative wanderings.

Together, we’ll explore collage, paint, doodling, mark-making, stenciling, Gelli printing, writing, and the layering of meaningful bits and pieces from our “Ephemera Bar”, a carefully curated collection of vintage papers, letters, music, ribbons, and fabrics. These are yours to play with, experiment with, and express with. There is no pressure to “be artistic” here. No rules to follow. Just a supportive, welcoming space where curiosity is enough.

We will explore the grounds of the beautiful property we'll call home for the week, The Connecticut River Valley Inn, and add treasures that we find to truly remember the place. Once your journal is complete, it becomes a sacred container for exploration.

In addition to our journal, we will be crafting small collaborative art books, so that we will each take home something from everyone in our retreat group!

This experience is designed especially for women in a season of reflection and growth who are seeking something deeper—rest, reflection, creative expression, and connection. Whether you are new to art or have been creating for years, you’ll be supported in slowing down, listening inward, and rediscovering your creative voice.

Through gentle guidance and open-ended prompts, you’ll fill your pages without pressure or expectation. There is no right or wrong here—only the joy of expression.

Come as you are. Leave with a full heart, a meaningful journal, an expanded art sister tribe, and a renewed sense of self.

What Makes This Retreat Special

A gentle, no-pressure approach to creativity
A gift bag filled with art supplies and small goodies to welcome you.
Spacious, unhurried days that allow you to truly relax
A focus on process over perfection
Meaningful moments of reflection balanced with playful exploration
The ease of having nourishing and delicious meals thoughtfully prepared for you
A warm, inclusive circle of women—each on her own journey
The simple pleasure of walking into town for a few shared dinners

About Kat Kirby

Kat Kirby Bio 2KatStudios, LLC KatKirby.com

Hi, I'm Kat Kirby, and my passion is helping people re-discover their "inner kindergartener" through expressive arts, making journals, creating in community. Growing up in New Jersey in a family that valued the arts and music gave me a head start in understanding that one of keys of self-understanding can be found in creative expression.

2KatStudios, LLC, is where I create and teach, and was named after my two cats at the time, Pumpkin and Alex. They are long gone, but live on in the studio’s name.

After graduating with a Master's in Art Therapy from Lesley University in 1978, I worked for over 40 years as an Expressive Arts Therapist with people in recovery from addictions, struggles with food, and trauma survivors. Knowing that everyone has innate creativity, I was and still am honored to witness the transformative power of art making, in whatever form it takes. Teaching graduate students in the Expressive Art Therapy program at Prescott College brought me to a new level of understanding of the joys of encouraging and allowing creative expression to flow. In 2006 I was lucky to have been trained as a SoulCollage Facilitator by the founder of that process, the late Seena Frost.

And for 10 years I worked as a Trainer of Facilitators, a "Train the Trainer" position that enabled me to continue my love of teaching combined with a truly transformational practice of making collaged oracle cards that express the story of one's self. Creating small works of art to recognize and accept all the parts of us, the roles we play, our strengths and areas of imbalance, our mentors and guides, provides us with a deck of cards that reflect back our unique way of being in the world.

Now I enjoy spending time in the studio, playing with a myriad of art materials, experimenting with new ways of self-expression. I love making and teaching handmade journals, upcycled books, mixed media mosaics, Gelli prints, watercolor and doodle designs, and more.