Event Details
About the event
Read to Lead Workshops are evenings built around a practice, not a book report. Each session takes a single theme, anchors it to a great book, and gives you the space, ideas, and guidance to actually put it into practice.
Our first session is about creativity — and the surprising case that making things is truly medicine.
We spend so much of life being productive that we forget the things that actually restore us — an afternoon in a gallery, a song that stops us mid-step, an hour lost in making something. What if tending to your creativity wasn't an indulgence, but a practice worth protecting?
We'll draw on Art Cure by Daisy Fancourt, the Sunday Times bestseller (and 2026 Women's Prize for Non-Fiction shortlist) making the scientific case that the arts are a fifth pillar of health, right alongside sleep, food, exercise, and nature. Fancourt's decade of research shows how creativity lowers stress, lifts mood, eases pain — and even helps us live longer. That's our spark for this powerful evening built for you.
Laura Guzman, a seasoned executive, founder of Book Society, and certified holistic yoga instructor, will be your guide. Together we'll dig deep and find out where creativity has quietly slipped out of your busy life, why it matters for how you lead and live, and how to build a creative practice you'll actually keep. This will be hands-on. We'll test several small practices right there in the room, so you leave knowing what genuinely works for you — not just what sounds good on paper.
And if you're thinking I'm not creative — you're exactly who this evening is for. No experience, no talent, no artistic streak required. Creativity here simply means making something, in whatever form fits your life.
You'll leave with a renewed case for creativity as essential rather than optional — and a toolkit to keep it going: your own "Creative Prescription" (a small, doable practice designed for your real life), plus guided handouts, a 30-day creativity prompt menu, and a curated reading list to go deeper.
Your ticket includes:
- A hands-on, facilitated workshop with Laura Guzman
- All the creative materials and supplies you'll need for the evening
- A take-home toolkit — your Creative Prescription, guided handouts, and a 30-day prompt menu
- A glass of wine (or NA beverage) and snacks
- Exclusive access to the shop during after-hours
Get your ticket here! booksociety.social/event-details/read-to-lead-workshop-creative-medicine
Reading Art Cure beforehand will deepen the evening — but it's not required. Come as you are.
Want a copy? Add one to your ticket at checkout, or pick one up in the shop beforehand (email us at hello@booksociety.social to confirm availability). Prefer another format? Find the ebook at Bookshop.org or the audiobook at Libro.fm.