Our Declaration
We, The People of the Intentional Creativity® movement are bonded in the expansion of consciousness and compassion through the arts. Intentional Creativity® is the practice of the exploration, science, and application of our approach to creating with love through all mediums, especially painting, writing, movement, community, and sacred advocacy. Created by artists for artists.
Our Education
MUSEA offers educational classes, certifications, and a degree in the field of Intentional Creativity®. We are a private university open to all, centering on the healing and visual arts. The CURATE degree is for women, though aspects of the curriculum are open to all.
Whether you want to join us for a degree, or just begin to experience our approach to self-expression, identity development, or a path of practice, we have educational experiences and sacred practices for you. No previous experience is required!
Applications for the 2023 MUSEA University cohort are currently closed. We will inform our community when the next round of applications begins. We offer global virtual and onsite education on our Northern California campus as well as traveling abroad.
In the 1930's a philosophy for creating art with mindfulness was nurtured through the creation of; books, sculpture, painting, drawing, printmaking, woodwork, clay, fiber, and fashion design. The approach was passed from hand to hand until it reached our co-founder, Shiloh Sophia McCloud.
For more than two decades Shiloh Sophia has nurtured an Intentional Creativity cultural framework rooted in the teachings of a matriarchal art lineage of storytelling and imagery. With her husband, Jonathan McCloud they have stewarded Intentional Creativity. An inter-disciplinary practice weaving creative arts, healing arts somatic sciences, transpersonal psychology, and archaeomythology.
Today we are in collaboration with our museum, Intentional Creativity Foundation, 501(c)3, our gallery Musette Atelier and the Intentional Creativity Guild of Creatives to bring you, Intentional Creativity.®
Our Space
MUSEA – Center for Intentional Creativity® is; a living Art Museum, University, Sanctuary, Ecosystem, and Atelier. MUSEA is home to an inter-generational and multicultural collective of emerging and experienced creatives, healers, and leaders. The MUSEA community is a global art movement dedicated to self-expression as a method of consciousness and compassion through the arts. The Intentional Creativity Arts Guild of MUSEA-Certified educators and curators offer engaging arts programming across the world co-curating art exhibits and online classes and in-person experiences.
For more than two decades MUSEA has nurtured an Intentional Creativity cultural framework rooted in the teachings of a matriarchal art lineage of storytelling and images. Intentional Creativity is an interdisciplinary practice weaving; creative arts, sciences, somatics, transpersonal psychology, and archeomythology. A core premise is that creativity is a basic human right that enables every person to know how they think, feel, therefore act.
MUSEA extends an invitation to all beings to live with connection and intention by choosing to bring love and awareness into everything we create and our relationship with the universe. Together we can remember the past, live in the present with intention and create the future.
Are you seeking a community of creatives?
Would you like a dedicated art practice with powerful consistent teachings designed to call your own voice forward?
You may find yourself at home with us here at Musea!
Creating with intention is a sacred act. A consecration. A celebration. An honoring of yourself and your life. All beings have always been created. We have mixed up creativity with talent. Talent may be for the few. Creativity is for everyone!
Our Heritage
MUSEA has passed along the teachings of its matriarchal lineage of artists and raising up women’s voices in leadership. We seek the truth of self-expression in alignment with creativity as a basic human right that gives access to each person to know how they think and feel and therefore act. We are guided to tell our stories and create our images of evolving culture and connection with one another, the planet, and all beings to create possibilities in the present and the future. Our roots go back to the 1930's with wisdom being passed from hand to hand and heart to heart.
Our Mission
MUSEA’s mission is to share the practice of Intentional Creativity. Through this way of working, which is available to all levels of creative exploration, we can answer our truest callings, inspire self-agency, and access identity and activism through education, exhibits, experiences, and community circles across the world.
About the Artist SHILOH SOPHIA
Hello! I'm Shiloh Sophia, an internationally recognized artist who maintains my identity as a bit of a misfit from the traditional fine art world. I paint and write poetry and futuristic myths from my inner world. I challenge many collective and societal ideas through my art, writing, and community leadership.
I have a dedicated path of practice where I spend every morning having tea with my Muse called ‘café’. My husband, Jonathan I are the Co-Founders and Curators of the Intentional Creativity University and Museum, where we center on the lives, art, and stories of women. We have a campus and gallery in Northern California - come visit!
Our approach to life, relationships, and art is called Intentional Creativity®. This focus on art-making encourages creating whatever you are making with loving intention. That could be a pot of soup, a special garden, a painting, throwing pottery, or making jewelry. This isn’t about a style, but a way of being in HOW we make what we make. These teachings have been passed down through a matriarchal lineage for three generations and it incorporates devotional painting, ceremonial ritual, intuitive illustration, and community culture. I have taught this process to tens of thousands of students worldwide, both in person and online. Certifying others to teach it too! What a joy to share from my heart in the healing arts!
My curriculum vitae includes a lot of unconventional street cred. I have guided creative events at high-level corporate gigs and I have self-published more than eight books. By personal invitation, I have facilitated groups for hundreds of women at the United Nations for over seven years. For over 25 years I have been guiding a red-thread community of over 11k women in liberating self-expression. Our offerings include membership, supportive peer groups, in-person retreats, online courses, and certified leaders worldwide.
I have been rooted in the San Francisco Bay Area community throughout my life. I’ve been found hawking my wares at various Farmers' markets and leading sip-n-paint workshops at the local bar. I’ve curated many galleries over the span of my career, with my most recent, Musette Atelier in the center of Sonoma Plaza. My husband and I have a ranch where we grow food, make wine, tea, and tinctures, plus host eccentric supper clubs and retreats. Fun, right?
Most days, I can be found with my lover and our creative muses having tea and discussing quantum mysticism, somatic science, trauma-informed art stuff, and how to live in the US while maintaining our freedom. Our two Siamese cats, Diego and Frida observe our discussions while snuggling up and making meowy demands.
www.shilohsophia.com The ancient and ever-present blog, artwork and online shop
www.musea.org Our university, certifications lineage and iMusea app
www.imusea.org Global Museum + Membership of creatives centering on women's art
~ May Love Be at the Center of All Choices
~ 1-888-385-6866 support@musea.org
Medicine Painting is painting with the intent to heal, move or transform. The chosen area of focus, for the painting process, could be healing something physical, emotional, energetic, ancestral, or imaginal. Medicine Painting is an ancient practice woven throughout human history and seen in most cultures in one form or another.
Consider it for yourself, where have you seen the most moving artifacts in our common ancestry or in your own ancestry?
A woven rug with encoded symbols. A burial garment with a story about that person's life and destiny. A woman's hair comb, in bone, is carved with the symbols of her family. A hand-made drum with a story of that person's unique medicine. An image of the goddess encoded with the food of her people. An ancient temple carved with symbols of protection. A cradleboard for babies woven with the natural fibers of the tribe. A cave wall studded with stars.
Creativity is an ancient and futuristic medicine. We have evidence that we have always been creative - of course, we had to be creative to survive. But because of the artifacts, we KNOW that we were intentionally creative with an eye on beauty, design, and story. Art communicated the internal world of the artist. We can practice this way of being in the present by honoring our own creativity and our inner voice. And in the future? If we do not begin to be intentional about what we create, we will continue to see the collapse of systems of all kinds. Ecosystems, financial systems, bio-systems...all systems need both creativity and intention and awareness in order to move toward a more sustainable way of life. This sustainability - although a buzz - word of the now - begins with navigating our own sustainability as well-being, and our interconnectivity with the community, the greater collective, and the earth. The intention is where to begin. And medicine painting invites an increased level of awareness about what is possible for us through exploring our healing journey as a species.
Artifacts like these are both sacred and ordinary, beautiful and utilitarian. These creations demonstrate a clear cognitive awareness of art, design, myth, and beauty as a part of both the individual and the collective story of that tribe and that specific sense of place. I say 'sense of place' in reference to geography because all the materials were natural, drawn from the environment, and reflective of nature, food, elements, cycles, and seasons. Until industrialization and colonization, our ancestors had an awareness of the finiteness and respect for the way they live in their environment and everything was in essence, intentional and natural. Of note, in the field of archeology, findings are only considered 'art' if it has been determined that it was created with intention.
Art is for everyone. Art-making has nothing to do with talent. Creativity activates inherent life force and can be put into practice as a powerful tool to summon the inner healer. Medicine Painting can be a choice for anyone to spark healing, not just artists, the talented, or those who feel they are creative. Creativity cannot be relegated to those with skill alone. The distinction that - art is for everyone - cannot be emphasized enough. I work in a gallery where I see hundreds of people - and MOST of the people who come in still say things like: I wish I was creative. My mom was an artist. I could never do something like this and the list goes on...
That means that this misconception - that art-making is about talent is keeping people from accessing the healing power of creativity. We are here to change that misconception in our culture. Talent is when someone develops their creativity or has an innate gift, but it is not creativity. Creativity is a life force flowing from the heart and mind of the person into whatever it is they set themselves to bring forth.
EVERYONE IS INHERENTLY CREATIVE.
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