The Asheville art scene is well known across the country. As a Life Plan Community in the heart of Asheville, we seek to provide opportunities to residents to practice and enjoy the arts. The Givens Art Gallery is a highlight at Givens Estates. Elizabeth, a current resident, has been instrumental in the creation and management of the Art Gallery here at Givens Estates. Enjoy learning more about Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is an artist, art therapist, trained spiritual director and retreat/program director. For the last thirty years her presentations and programs have taken her to venues in the United States, Canada, England, France and Australia. Her focus is on art as a language of the imagination in the spiritual journey.

Her own art is created as a spiritual practice. Meditating with art is and has been a process of consciously honing her capacity for awareness and ultimately of discovering a sacred Presence within. Through this creative soul work, she is invited to enter the unknown in ways that are centering, many times surprising, and often profound for her.

Over the years, in the New England area and in other parts of the U.S., Elizabeth had solo exhibitions titled A Changing Consciousness. She was featured in an art exhibition Minding the Mystery- Spiritual Pathmaking by Four Women Artists; and was in numerous art shows. She was a member of the Hollis Arts Society in New Hampshire where she exhibited her art as well. Her drawings and paintings are found in private collections throughout the United States and abroad.

Elizabeth has a B.A. in Art from Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. She was trained and employed as an art therapist by the Menninger Foundation, a long-term psychiatric hospital in Topeka, Kansas. She also served as an art therapist with developmentally challenged and physically impaired adults. She was trained as a Spiritual Director at the Milford Spiritual Center in Milford, Ohio, and had many Spiritual Direction clients over the years.

In 2012 Elizabeth moved to Givens Estates from New Hampshire where she and her husband, Loren, and their two children, Loren III and Holly lived for forty-two years.  After her husband’s passing, she moved to Givens Estates to be closer to her daughter, son-in-law and grandson. Since 2013 Elizabeth has managed the Givens Art Gallery and taught numerous art classes as well.

If you’d like to learn about art and other life enrichment opportunities at Givens Estates, please contact us at 828-771-2203 or [email protected].