Writer Lillian Davies and artist Chloe Briggs’s collaboration began with a conversation while observing their children at play in the Parc de Belleville in Paris. Their resulting book, Playgrounds, is set up like a workbook and uses images and text to explore how public spaces can activate creativity and create a sense of community and connection. The authors also show how play—the freedom to imagine the world differently—is essential to our artistic endeavors.

Guided by the authors, participants will complete creative exercises inspired by Playgrounds. The workshop wraps up with participants sharing their creations to foster a sense of camaraderie and mutual inspiration.

Maximum 40 participants. Open to all ages.

About the speakers:

Chloe Briggs is an artist and educator based in Paris. In 2013 she created the Drawing is Free project, which makes connecting through drawing available to everyone. She runs drawing workshops both online and in person and offers a free weekly online portrait drawing session that is open to all. On Briggs’s Patreon account you can read her writing about drawing and listen to conversations with fellow artists about the experience of drawing a human face, and art as a means of connection. @drawingisfree_org

Lillian Davies is a Paris-based art historian and writer. Author of multidisciplinary artist Mounir Fatmi’s monograph, Suspect Language, Davies contributes to Artforum, Flash Art, Interview Magazine, Numéro and Objektiv as well as writing for art books and museum catalogs. You can read her work on her website. Davies is guest lecturer at École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris; Ecole W (Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas); and Parsons Paris, and is Adjunct Professor at Paris College of Art. She is a recipient of AICA France’s Bourse Ekphrasis and holds a BA in Art History and Comparative Religions from Columbia University, a MA in Curating Contemporary Art from Royal College of Art, London, and recently conducted doctoral research in a Troisième Cycle at École du Louvre. @lillian.davies

Learn more:

Playgrounds is available for purchase at independent bookstores Librairie Yvon Lambert, The Red Wheelbarrow, and After8 Books. Read about the project on their website.

Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speakers will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.

Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.