The Art of Unburdening

Art-making and healing for caregivers and their communities

Caregiving is an act of deep love—but it can also be isolating, exhausting, and emotionally overwhelming. Especially for those caring for individuals living with dementia, the daily weight of responsibility can feel both invisible to others and relentless.

A series of stand-alone workshops in storytelling, art & music

This creative workshop series offers caregivers a space to set that weight down—if only for a while—and reconnect with themselves and others through the healing act of making art.

Learn more about the Art of Unburdening in this press release here on our website.

Registration now open! NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY for any of the workshops!

Use this Google form to sign up for a workshop, or to get on our email list to reminded of spring 2026 dates.

• Saturday, February 21, 12:00-2:00 PM - Printmaking with LeeAnn Love

  • Trellis & Vine Art Gallery & Studios, 27 South Lowry St., Smyrna

  • Through printmaking, participants will explore the layers of a caregiver’s experience, focusing on supports, self care, and resilience. No experience necessary.

  • (This workshop was originally scheduled for 1/24)

• Wednesday, March 18, 2:00-4:00 PM - Storytelling with Kara Kemp

  • This gentle, welcoming, storytelling workshop will help you set down what you’ve been carrying and reconnect with what wants to grow. Through guided prompts, creative expression, and supportive listening, participants are invited to explore moments of care, love, fatigue, resilience, and quiet strength of the stories we carry. There is no pressure to perform or polish. Stories may arrive as words, fragments, images, or feelings. Rooted in the belief that storytelling can be both restorative and connective, this workshop creates a “soft landing” space where individuals are seen, heard, and supported by community. Together, we will practice unburdening, not to fix or resolve, but to breathe more fully and remember we are not alone. 

  • All levels of writers are welcome.

• Wednesday, April 1, 2:00-4:00 PM - Assemblage box workshops with LeeAnn Love

  • First United Methodist Church, Murfreesboro

  •  Using assemblage, collage, and personal memorabilia, participants will create a Life Well Lived box showcasing their loved one’s strengths, important memories, and life experiences. We will email suggestions for items you may want to bring from home.  No experience necessary.

  • (This workshop was originally scheduled for 2/18)

• Wednesday, April 15, 2:00-4:00 PM - Music

  • First United Methodist Church, Murfreesboro

  • Connecting Through Rhythm and Breath is a group workshop about how listening, breathing, and making sounds together calms the body, opens your ears and voice, and helps you begin to find your own natural rhythm. Master music educators Liz Johnson and Dave Isaacs have years of collective experience helping people find their voice. No musical training is required! You can sing, play an instrument, hit a drum, or clap your hands. If you do play an acoustic instrument – guitar, bowed strings, winds, brass, or percussion – bring it, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t. There’s a way for everyone to join in and we will end the session with a guided improvised jam. As one participant put it after attending her first session, arrive an adult, leave as a child!

Meet our workshop leaders

Kara Kemp (March 18 workshop) served as the 2023–24 Murfreesboro Performing Arts Laureate and is creator of United We Style, a nationally recognized storytelling fundraiser. With over 30 years of experience in the arts and nonprofit sectors, Kara specializes in crafting experiences that foster emotional connection, authenticity, and community healing. She co-produces Bloom Stage, a multi-genre storytelling series that uplifts diverse voices and encourages personal narrative as a form of transformation. Known for creating brave, inclusive spaces, Kara’s work blends creativity and care across disciplines.

Liz Johnson amd Dave Isaacs (April 15 workshop)

Liz Johnson, MM, is a PAVA Recognized Vocologist (PAVA-RV) and voice teacher based in Nashville, TN.  She practices voice habilitation with people from all over the world, and blends her training in psychology, jazz, and voice science to offer clients a balanced and holistic approach to vocal health. Liz is also a certified breathwork coach through Oxygen Advantage, and has a certificate in Neuroscience for Singing from the Voice Study Centre in London.

A Nashville resident since 2005, Dave Isaacs has become best known as a music educator and the "guitar guru of Music Row"  through his studio Nashville Guitar Guru and his many online guitar courses. His 2019 book “The Perpetual Beginner: a musician’s path to lifelong learning” was acclaimed by Publishers Weekly as “a delightful blend of memoir and music instruction”.

LeeAnn Love (April 1workshop) is a professional artist and expressive arts therapist whose mixed media work explores movement, color, and impermanence. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, with shows at Out of the Blue Gallery (Cambridge, MA), ClearStory Arts (Chattanooga), and Gallery27 (Scotland). She was Artist in Residence for Williamson County Schools and has completed multiple public mural projects.

She earned her master’s in Expressive Therapies from Lesley University and has since founded both Heal with heART, her private counseling practice, and MyCanvas, a mobile art therapy initiative for at-risk youth. LeeAnn currently supervises new art therapists and consults with the Healing Arts Project Inc. (HAPI), providing workshops for adults in recovery. She divides her time between Nashville, TN and East Lothian, Scotland.

Use this Google form to register or be added to our workshop email list!

This project made possible by

Banner image credit unsplash.com/@kit