Building New Narratives for the Future

The most extraordinary experience of your life

Three days in the foothills of the Pyrénées, with some of the most forward thinking artists, thought leaders and entrepreneurs, participating in an immersive and experiential learning journey that will change the world

Guy Mendilow

Guy Mendilow was raised in an academic immigrant family devoted to increasing belonging and dignity, especially for those society tacitly deems it permissible to dismiss. For example, Mendilow’s maternal grandparents smuggled Jews out of WWII Hungary and founded a humanist home for youth-at-risk premised on full societal integration, defying the norm of isolating institutional dependence.
Mendilow has a long record with the use of moving artistic experiences and processes to cultivate belonging. It stretches from childhood participation in one of Johannesburg’s only integrated churches at the height of Apartheid to masters-level research and workshop development for Arab, Israeli, Pakistani and Indian educators using improvisation to set the stage for mediation.
Since 1996, Mendilow has designed and facilitated residencies in communities ranging from the
Navajo Reservation and rural Midwest to business schools (e.g. Babson College). Mendilow’s productions have received multiple funding awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Boston Foundation and the New England Foundation for the Arts on the basis of artistry, cultural preservation and the strengthening of communities through the arts.
More information
Regie Gibson

Regie Gibson has lectured and performed widely in the US, Cuba, and Europe. In Italy, representing the US, Regie received both the Absolute Poetry Award (Monfalcone) and the Europa en Versi Award (LaGuardia di Como). He has been honored with fellowships with Mass Cultural Council and YMCA and served as poet-in-residence at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and Lexington MA’s Cary Memorial Library. A widely anthologized poet, author and playwright, Gibson has also performed with, and composed texts for, the Boston City Singers, the Mystic Chorale, and Handel+Haydn Society.
Gibson’s thought-partnership has informed the NEA’s “How Art Works” initiative and the “Mere Distinction of Colour” — a permanent exhibit examining the legacy of slavery and the U.S. Constitution at James Madison’s Montpelier home in Virginia. Regie is currently the creative lead on a team of scientists and members of the Red Cross-Red Crescent Climate Center (Hague, Netherlands), helping to craft language regarding issues of climate change. He teaches at Clark University in Worcester. Gibson now lives in Lexington, MA, USA.
More information
Kseniya Simonova

Winner of Ukraine’s Got Talent (with 40 million+ views for her semifinal video), and Golden Buzzer winner on both America’s Got Talent: The Champions and Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions, Kseniya Simonova has astonished audiences in over 40 countries with her remarkable sand storytelling.
Simonova developed her sand animation technique by sifting volcanic sand through her hands over a lightboard. During her performances she creates, obliterates and morphs her images to create a flowing narrative.
Simonova has been featured on Eurovision, has recorded with artists from Esperanza Spalding to the YouTube Orchestra and is invited to share her stories before presidents, heads of states and royalty. Simonova lives in Yevpatoria, Ukraine.
More information

Your Retreat

Setting the Scene

Arrival in Pau and transfer to hotels
Brief performance introducing Gibson, Mendilow, Simonova, leading into Listening Lab
Introduction to The Centre for the Arts and Global Leadership, Clos de Gaye, and the Festival for the Arts and Social Change
Dinner in the gardens at Clos de Gaye
Listening to our Stories

Ponder to Page - day-long workshop (see below)
Evening walk through the mountains and Ten-Toasts Dinner at l’Etable d’Ossau
Building a New Narrative

Transfer to St Jean de Luz
Lunch discussion on building new narratives for change
Afternoon train trip into the Pyrenee mountains, overlooking the Basque coast
Workshop and dinner
Gibson, Mendilow, Simonova:
Focused solo creation time for final presentation, reflecting participants’ experiences through live, powerful spoken word, music, and sand/snow/oil paint animation
Revisions
Group rehearsal
When the show ends, what begins?

Transfer to Chateau de Pau for visit; lunch at Palais Beaumont;
Plan of action
Final closing ceremony including presentation of an original piece, reflecting
participants’ experiences through live, powerful spoken word, music, and
sand/snow/oil paint animation

FAQs

Listening Lab

Listening Labs are forums in which moving stories told through powerful spoken word, music, and theatrically projected sand animation facilitate generous listening with fellow participants in conversations that are honest, intimate, and alive.

Ponder to Page

This powerful workshop process is a personal narrative awakening. All of us have stories inside of us — experiences begging to travel the path from our minds to written lines. But how to do this? In this workshop, literary performer Regie Gibson will take you through his fun, easy, creative, step-by-step process of making small, meaningful written texts out of small, meaningful moments.

Participants come with a few sheets of paper, a writing instrument, and a willingness to listen to those who volunteer to share.

To Those Who Shape Us: A Ten-Toasts Dinner

(*Note: the theme below is a sample. Actual theme and numbers will reflect the participants in each group)

Each of us contains a world of stories about those people who have shaped us. The risks they took, their choices and chances and even the mistakes they may have made make us who we are today. In this special dinner, we will regale each other with meaningful conversation and stories in the form of toasts reflecting a theme drawn from our time together: To Those Who Shape Us.

Guests dine in groups of 8-10 fellow travelers who you do not know each other (yet!). At some point in the dinner, each guest is invited to ding their glass and share a brief story or experience that ideally no one at the table has heard before, relating to our theme: A story about (e.g. a person that shaped the teller), and about a way the teller was changed. At the end of their story, the teller raises their glass and toasts to an element or value their story highlights (e.g. to those who taught us resilience!) and invites all others in their group to raise their glasses as well.

The only other rule is that the last person has to sing their toast!

A unique experience, unlike any other, the extraordinary beauty of south west France, overlooking the Pyrénées, on the border with Spain, with professional artists and cultural leaders, eager to share their talents, inspire and develop your leadership, and your enable you to leave inspired and invigorated

Make it

Our retreats bring together exceptional people from all over the world - corporate, government and civil society leaders, academics, artists and cultural leaders - all those with a desire to bring about positive impact in our world.

By bringing together such a diverse mix of people, your own networks will expand in truly global ways and opportunities for collaboration on large-scale issues across the world will unfold.

Clos de Gaye

Extraordinary experiences where the world comes together for impact

Each retreat takes place against the backdrop of some of the most beautiful corners of south west France

The Pic du Midi d’Ossau
Evening picnic on the Plateau de Benou
Stunning views from Clos de Gaye
Soothing effect of the ocean
Dramatic waves
Award-winning cuisine
Culture
Heritage
History

New collection.

Immersing yourself in nature, accommodation will be provided on the Clos de Gaye estate or at nearby Clos Mirabel. All food and activities will be provided onsite in multiple beautiful locations across the estate.

Enquire Now

Outcomes

● Moving and memorable experience connecting fellow leaders from very different cultures/backgrounds

● Get to know each other as fellow humans by listening to one another, and being heard.

Explore one’s own backstories in surprising and refreshing ways. Increase understanding of each other's differences, shared values/experiences and what has brought us to our current perspectives, concerns, aspirations, fears, and joys.

● Draw upon artistic experience and creative processes that use the power of human curiosity to traverse expanded terrains, aligning thoughts, emotions and actions.

● Participate in an experience, guided by a team of world-class artist/facilitators, that is powerful enough that it becomes the start of ongoing relationships/connections/perspective shifting and input into the Global Arts Impact Agenda

When the show ends, what begins?

These retreats ask the big questions. We seek to use our ability to come together to take our responsibility as leaders to be custodians of the future and to listen and learn to the young people and what it is that they need for a more peaceful and harmonious world.

Each retreat has a storyteller, someone who accompanies us on the journey, to listen, learn and reflect on what is discussed and to work together with the whole group for an action plan that ensures we deliver concrete and tangible outcomes that are accountable to all those not in the room, to build a better world for all.

A leadership journey like no other

All of our leadership retreats are designed to put you in the driving seat of your own leadership journey. They give you the space and time for reflection, the opportunity to build new leadership skills, forge connections that enable you to achieve outsized impact in your work and, critically, to be a beacon of light for a more human-centered world.

Join Us On This Journey

All retreats and high-impact summits are lead by Caroline Watson, visionary founder of The Centre for the Arts and Global Leadership, and the Global Arts Impact Agenda. An award-winning entrepreneur using the arts to effect large-scale social change, Caroline is also a masterful hostess and creator of extraordinary experiences.

Caroline Watson, Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, Harvard, Yale, INSEAD, Oxford

Unfolding your leadership potential

"……Caroline is a wonderful events organizer, Her multifaceted skill sets, combining her talents as an actor and leadership expert, shines through in every detail she orchestrates. Caroline’s passion, strong sense of inclusion, impeccable organizational skills, and innate flair for hospitality ensure that every event is a seamless and rewarding experience……Caroline's events are expertly curated adventures that leave a lasting impact.

Shirley Liu, L’Oreal Paris