Orion magazine hosts regular Online Environmental Writers’ Workshops in poetry and nonfiction, and this is our first ever online visual arts workshop. This unique opportunity lets you improve your writing and art skills and build community from home. Connect with us for six to eight sessions with an experienced instructor. Learn more about environmental art, and renew, illuminate, and deepen your relationship with nature and place.

Conducted over Zoom (or similar platform) and limited to twelve participants. Please read individual course descriptions for more specifics as each course is different. While individual workshops vary, students can likely expect to spend a few hours a week reading, writing, creating art, and commenting on work in and outside of class

Starting in 2025, we will offer an additional hour-long private group Zoom Q&A session with Orion's editor-in-chief Tajja Isen a few times a year. This will occur outside your normal class meeting time at a time and date TBD, for no additional charge. It will be a time to peek behind the curtain and ask any general questions you might have about pitching, writing, publishing, and Orion.  

THE COURSE
Forage and Response: A visual art, photography, and journaling outdoors

In this eight-week course, we will integrate journaling, foraging, and observation in nature with experimental visual art practice. Drawing on mindfulness traditions such as forest bathing and vipassana meditation, participants will engage in group and independent responses to prompts for creative explorations in nature. Weekly sessions will include introductions to new artists, guided reflection and dialogue, and group  brainstorming sessions. Students will be encouraged to experiment with a broad range of media and will be introduced to the basics of gelli printing, cyanotype and other approaches to printing with plant pigments. Students will develop personal projects that build on these investigations, culminating in an online exhibition of artworks and artist statements that reflect their creative journey. No prior art experience is required.

Duration: This online course meets over eight consecutive Sundays from 6:30 - 8:30pm ET, from October 12 - November 30th. 

Application window: September 10 - 25, 2025

 Instructor: Shelley Kirkwood is an American photographer and writer whose work explores memory, place, and themes of transience depicted through the landscape. Deeply rooted in observation and attuned to the natural world, her practice blends fine art photography, literary sensibility, and curatorial insight to create images and essays that invite reflection on the intersection of the ephemeral and the enduring. Kirkwood earned a BA in photography from Hampshire College and an MFA from the University of Arizona. She has exhibited her work extensively both in the US and internationally. Recent accolades include a Gold Medal and Best in Show at the Royal Horticultural Society’s International Portfolio Exhibition at London’s Saatchi Gallery, an Honorable Mention in the Julia Margaret Cameron Awards, and several features in award-winning art and environmental publications, including Orion.

How to Apply

No writing or visual arts/photography is needed to apply, but you're welcome to send one if you like. Please so send a brief cover letter a with a bit about yourself. Applicants will be notified whether they have been admitted within a week or two of the application deadline.

Questions? Contact workshops@orionmagazine.org or check out our Help Center.