Discover the power of contemplative looking and reflective writing in this 90-minute online workshop. Guided by the founding instructor of the National Gallery of Art’s Writing Salon, Mary Hall Surface, participants will slow down, look closely, wonder and write inspired by Hughie Lee-Smith’s intriguing painting, The Beach. See with new eyes and strengthen your resilience and hope as we look outwardly at art and inwardly through writing for personal and spiritual growth. Designed for everyone, not just “writers.” A Zoom link and password along with any relevant materials for the program will be sent to you before the program.

About Mary Hall Surface
Mary Hall Surface is a playwright, director and teaching artist who presents writing workshops through the Smithsonian Associates, the National Gallery of Art and museums nationwide. She is the founding instructor of the NGA’s popular Writing Salon, as featured in The Washington Post. A nine-time Helen Hayes Award nominee, including four for the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play, she received the 2002 Outstanding Director of a Musical for her Perseus Bayou. Her plays have been produced across the US, Europe, Japan, Taiwan and Canada, including eighteen Kennedy Center productions. She leads workshops for educators as a National Teaching Artist for the Kennedy Center and was a six-summer faculty member of Harvard’s Project Zero Classroom. She is the proud founding artistic director of the Atlas INTERSECTIONS Festival, where she curated over 600 all-arts performances and events from 2009–2015.


Registrants will be sent information with a Zoom login. Donations gratefully accepted. Registration is free for this ONLINE event. If you wish to contribute, select the option in the drop-down.