Assistance Dogs [Helping Paws n.g.o.] (2000>)
![Assistance Dogs [Helping Paws n.g.o.] (2000>)](http://www.michaela-freeman.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/helping-paws-pomocne-tlapky.jpg "Assistance Dogs [Helping Paws n.g.o.] (2000>)")
In 2000 I co-founded the first Czech non-profit organization to train assistance dogs for health-impaired patients. We named it Pomocné tlapky o.p.s. (Helping Paws n.g.o.) and since then, over two hundred dogs were handed over to our clients. Getting Started When my husband Jim and I bought Barkley, a cute little Labrador puppy bred by…
ReSITE: Bridging Prague (2012)
Urban Planning Competition In the spring of 2012 I had the opportunity to participate in the Bridging Prague International Design Competition, an urban-planning event aiming at redesigning the banks of the Vltava River. The contest was open to both professional and amateur teams, looking for fresh ideas rather than architectural perfection. The scope of the…
DoMa / at HoME Theater (2010)
Hunger In the summer of 2010, I had the honor to collaborate with an English-speaking theater group, HoME, that creates and performs ‘site-specific theater’ in Prague. As the name implies, they perform in people’s homes. In this case, they temporarily took over my studio at Gallery Hunger and my roommate’s adjacent spaces in a performance…
Testimony of the Soul (2010)
A Book of Poems and Flowers In 2010, my flower scans inspired Czech poet Jan Maruna to write a collection of poems. I selected 40 of my scans of iconic flowers, such as rose, tulip, iris, but also forget-me-nots and clover. Jan wrote a short poem for each. The resulting volume was published by Tribun…
Magna Garden Digital Art (1996>)
MagnaGarden.com holds an extensive archive of digital images I created over the course of more than 20 years. These images are sold as signed prints on satin paper, PVC or canvas. My original scanography technique also enables high magnification, unique detail, unusual focus, as well as large-scale seamless composite images. Scanography I’m not a photographer,…
Alchemy Labs Writers’ Group (2012-2013)
Alchemy Labs was a modest project for English-speaking writers in Prague, aimed at honing their work and preparing it for public performance. The idea was launched at the ten-year anniversary of the Alchemy Readings and Performances Series in September, 2012. That anniversary evening celebrated the publishing of my husband’s books and it felt quite fitting…
Alchemy Readings & Performances Series (2002-2018)
I co-founded and intermittently participated in organizing the Alchemy Readings & Performance Series – English-language evenings with author readings, poetry, music, and performance. Despite being purely a volunteer effort with a changing sequence of hosts, the series went on for 16 years, highlighted over a hundred featured performers and nurtured Prague-based English-speaking writers through open-mics.…
Artist’s Way Creativity Courses (2010-2013)
I first began using the Artist’s Way methodology for unblocking creativity in 1996 on myself, then guided a variety of artistic friends and eventually co-facilitated courses that combined this method with our own unique techniques. This experience formed the basis for how I teach today. Teaching Creativity When I tell people that I facilitate creativity…
Organizing Animal-Assisted Therapy (2000>)
I first discovered the field of animal-assisted therapy in 2000 as we worked on founding Helping Paws, the first Czech organization to train assistance dogs. After organizing, creating a methodology and training volunteers and professionals for Helping Paws, I joined or co-founded multiple other animal-assisted therapy projects, recently dolphin-assisted therapy. What is animal-assisted therapy? Animal-assisted…