The Well is a community that values creativity, curiosity and conversations about art, humanity, faith and culture.
In 2018 Corey and Christy Frey moved from Pensacola Florida to Middletown Maryland to start The Well Collaborative. Our hope was to develop a place for people within the busyness of their everyday life to engage imaginative, creative spaces in their hearts and minds.
One of the other driving forces in creating The Well was that, in the deepest sense of what it means to be human there is a connection to both creativity and an exploration of what lay behind the material world. For centuries these two spaces: creativity and transcendence, held common places in human consciousness. It is only in the last several hundred years that we have separated them, abandoning creative intuition to only logic and reason and abandoning our own souls to meaninglessness.
Where the undertaking of a task as big as reengaging an understanding in these realms may be too big for a small local community to handle, we believe building intentional spaces for conversation and engaging in creative practice is one way to start. So that’s what we try to do.
We approach these topics from a Judeo/Christian perspective, because of a personal practice of faith. That said, our hope is that The Well can be a place where people from all kinds of backgrounds and points of view can have a voice, share a meal and explore how we can develop meaning together.
So, what does all this fancy talk look like? Our Well Gatherings are where we get together for more directed conversation and teachings. Usually someone will share something of their creative discipline and talk for a few minutes about why it's important to them. We also hold Maker’s Nights, where we put out a bunch of art supplies, someone gives a technique demonstration and everyone can make things together. We have had poetry workshops, movie nights, festive celebrations or we just all plan a trip to an art gallery or music event together. There is almost always great food involved as well.
