Sacred ECHOES

This is a circle for those who identify as Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color. Sacred ECHOES is a place where we can support and uplift one another while also remaining part of the greater MUSEA Community.

Sacred ECHOES was built to create stronger bonds with other women of color while practicing Intentional Creativity offered to help strengthen our creative self expression and witness each other in this way. This Circle also supports its members stay connected to MUSEA's member events, exhibits, museum shows and classes.

Each month, Elders Semerit Strachan and Lauren Adorno-Weatherford offer a heartfelt and inspiring Red Thread Circle for the group, employing activities such as Metacognitive Drawing, journaling, and small group activities. Sumaiyah Wysdom Yates and Milagros Suriano-Rivera work together throughout the month to keep the group engaged in Intentional Creativity practices with a monthly ECHOES Open Painting Studio as well as weaving reminders about MUSEA happenings.

Our Artist Level membership is the foundation of our MUSEA Collective Community, offering monthly Artist Circles every 1st Wednesday of the month for creative exploration, and a nurturing space for you to connect with your inner content through inquiry and drawing inspired by Intentional Creativity® processes. Hosted by Member Coordinators, Marnie Dangerfield and Chatelle Jeram.

Your Artist Level Membership also includes:

Monthly #POP (Paint Our Projects!) Open Studio Parties every last Friday of the month where you can get motivated, get painting, and groove to some great tunes LIVE over Zoom with Intentional Creativity Educators, Milagros Suriano-Rivera and DJ Sumaiyah Wysdom Yates!
Savings on some of the educational offerings from MUSEA School
Connection to peers via our member-exclusive iMusea app group for desktop/mobile, where you can share your work and collaborate with other creatives outside of Facebook.
A dedicated Membership Coordinator Team to support you
Members-only ‘dashboard’ with access to all the benefits
Access to our Musea Membership Library which includes hours of Intentional Creativity programming and educational experiences to watch at your leisure
Regular Articles and communications from our Curator, CoCurators and Member Artists featured in our iMusea Magazine
Invitation to our Annual November Virtual and On-Location Gathering for Members.

The form is very simple, and intended to safeguard our spacious inclusivity; and, on the other hand, make sure that our sisters feel safe knowing that this is a circle exclusively for women of color. The main question also allows us to get to know each other at a deeper cultural and personal level.

Once filled out, your responses will be reviewed by Elders Lauren and Semerit, and a member of our team will reach out to welcome you to the circle. In some cases, Lauren and Semerit may wish to have a personal meeting with you before providing final approval, which they will set up with you individually.

Thank you for considering joining our circle and for filling out the form. 🤎

The History of the Sacred ECHOES of the Well Circle

This sacred container was established by our Co-Founder, Shiloh Sophia McCloud in response to events happening to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color around the world so that this group of women would be supported by each other while also being part of the greater MUSEA community. Having been deeply impacted by these events, Shiloh Sophia collaborated with BIWOC members of the Intentional Creativity Guild to establish monthly Re-Membering Circles lead by Elders Semerit Strachan and Lauren Adorno-Weatherford. Through this year-long Intentional Creativity circle process, it became clear that there was a need and desire to create a permanent circle where women of color could come together to co-create healing artwork for themselves and the world-at-large as they witness, uplift, and support one another.

In 2022, Sumaiyah Wysdom Yates and Milagros Suriano-Rivera stepped into leadership roles for the MUSEA Working Group and Museum CoCurators, and were brought forward to create more engagement within the group and deeper connection to the MUSEA community and events and museum experiences.

This Circle is guided by the wisdom of Elders Semerit and Lauren, who lead the group in monthly Red Thread Circles designed as enrichment in Intentional Creativity and forming stronger bonds of sisterhood. Community engagement and connection is bolstered through activities co-created by Sumaiyah and Milagros, such as writing inquiries and once monthly open #ECHOES painting studio via Zoom.

In February 2022, Musea: Intentional Creativity Museum held its first ECHOES-exclusive Museum Show and Exhibit, Carnaval of Spirit Love. The powerful images and stories from this group of women resonate throughout our community still today. The next exclusive exhibit for this group is upcoming on August 17, 2022. Although a Circle in and of itself, it is clear that these women are still and intricate, important, and valued part of the greater Musea community.

Semerit Strachan is a Feminine Power Transformational Coach and Facilitator who has dedicated her life to helping women break out of the inner fears that limit them from blossoming into the fullness of their contributions in their chosen careers. She uses her experience as a Certified Intentional Creativity Coach and ancient African cultural wisdom as a Griot of Medicine to reconnect her clients to the literacy of the symbolic language of the body, recovering their ability to perceive what their body is telling them through discomfort, symptoms, and illnesses.

With 39 years experience as a medical doctor she is intimately familiar with integrating healing techniques that incorporate and balance mind/body/soul approaches to facilitate moving clients from exhaustion and burn out to revitalized creativity; from confusion and lack of direction to knowing their gifts and how to package them into unique and needed contributions. Semerit holds a Medical degree from Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York and a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University. She has served as Griot and Director of Medicine at the Cultural Wellness Center in Minneapolis and has been a faculty member at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine.

Visionary Artist, Urban Shaman, Reiki Master and Sacred Wanderer. My belief is that we all have “creative bones” in our body, and we have the ability to access our own internal wisdom, to create art. When we open our heart to connect with the voice of our Muse, and silence the Critic, magical things happen that can transform our lives in ways we never thought possible. It’s true, it happened to me!

Creativity is what we are made of, it’s who we are, and it’s how we will change the world. What are you here to cause and create? Let’s find out, together.

Sumaiyah Wysdom Yates has been a Certified Intentional Creativity Teacher and Coach for nearly 10 years. In 2013, not only did she graduate from Color of Woman Teacher Training, she also opened her first art gallery — Soulful Emergence Art Gallery — in Canton, Maryland. Sumaiyah stumbled upon Intentional Creativity circa 2009 when her path crossed the path of her art matriarch, Shiloh Sophia McCloud. The images that she discovered in her search to develop her creative skill drew her onto the path of using this modality as a tool to heal her Self. Already having realized that art was medicine for her soul, Sumaiyah was stoked to find someone using art as a deep, sacred self-care practice — one which was being taught to all who were called. This was the catapult for Sumaiyah into the world of consciously using art to heal.

In 2020, Sumaiyah opened the DIVA Empowerment Studio as a sacred space for those who are called to come and learn the tools of Intentional Creativity for themselves. Meanwhile, she continues sharing this healing tool via online offerings such as ARTiculated LIFE JOURNAL, Alchemical Affirmations, and D.O.T.S. of Dopeness.

Milagros Suriano-Rivera is a mixed media artist and Color of Woman 2019 Graduate and Intentional Creativity® Teacher. In addition to being a Musea Guild Member, Interview Host for our Mini Facebook Live Series, she has joined our circle as a Musea Co-creator Guild Member. She is a mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, lover, and creative catalyst for healing. As a Latina Woman of Color and member of our BIWOC community, she is grounded in her ancestral connection through Intentional Creativity®. Milagros love collaborating with the universe and creating medicine through painting, sculpting, stayed glass, resin, and witnessing our beautiful community!

Her art is influenced by many talented artists, however, it was the teachings by Shiloh Sophia regarding the use of creativity to catalyze and awaken oneself. She believes creativity is about embracing her shadow, creating our own light, and dancing between the worlds so that bring healing by being a catalyst to impress, inspire, and impact others.

The History of the Sacred ECHOES of the Well Circle

Sacred ECHOES Leadership