BROKEN-OPEN January 16th and January17th — A Two Day Studio-Based Intensive for an intimate group of 16 people with Salon Dining, Movement, and Found-Object Sculpture Making with Marlon F. Hall

Salon Dinner Experience in Tulsa where Marlon was an anthropologist and artist in Tulsa Artist Fellowship healing historical pain through meals.

Found Objects Marlon has sourced from all over the world.

BROKEN OPEN is a studio-based intensive designed for the liminal space between two years—that meaningfully precious pause when one chapter has closed and the next hasn’t quite made up its mind. This in-between time invites a different posture: not fixing, not optimizing, not rushing toward answers—but playing, wondering, assembling, and beginning again with curiosity.

Marlon Hall’s Studio where the experience will be for a two day Intensive will be. He recently complete the Hueman Project for the Milam Underpass here.

MARKED BY INTENTION///

We will move through play, appetite, experimentation, and shared moments that feel authentic. We begin on Friday evening with a salon-style dinner in the studio. This is not a formal affair—it’s a warm table, good food by a culinary artist, original music by an artist in residence and curious conversation. Stories surface. Laughter happens. The nervous system exhales. We mark the turn between years not with declarations, but with attention. On Saturday, we return for a fuller day of embodied exploration.

One of the early salon dinners of Marlon Hall’s. He has now done over 250 of them world wide.

INNER ADVENTURE///

The morning opens with movement as inner adventure—less about achievement, more about listening, curiosity, and the pleasure of being in a body. From there, we shift into a hands-on found-object sculpture workshop, learning practical techniques for working with everyday and reclaimed materials.

You will walk away with a work of art to hang on your wall made by you and for you as a visual meditation of what you hope to hold attention for in 2026. Participants build a small sculptural form—an imperfect, playful life object—that holds memory, intention, humor, and care.

Ecotone Salon Dinner, Houston Museum of African American Culture

BROKEN-OPEN offers a whole-seeking approach to life-making, where broken pieces aren’t problems to solve, but materials to work with. Rooted in my practice as a social sculptor and anthropological listener, this intensive treats life itself as a kind of sculpture—something shaped over time through movement, conversation, laughter, skill, and care. We gather around three simple but powerful practices: salon dining, movement, and found-object sculpture—not as separate activities, but as a single unfolding experience.

MARLON HALL’S STUDIO WHERE THE WORKSHOP WILL BE.

I’ve spent years guiding reflective cohorts in places that value thinking deeply and living honestly—including Duke Leadership Academy and Princeton Theological Seminary—and what I’ve learned is this: people don’t move toward wholeness through seriousness alone.

The Investment: $444

This includes the full two-day studio intensive, all materials, movement practice, and the shared salon dinner. The group is intentionally limited to 16 participants. If this resonates, please complete the short interest form below. It helps me get a sense of who is feeling called and ensures the group is held with care.

The focus is not mastery, but construction: how disparate pieces lean on one another, how balance is negotiated, how meaning emerges through arrangement rather than resolution. BROKEN-OPEN is intentionally limited to 16 participants so the room can breathe. This is a studio-based intensive; participants return home each day. The work stays connected to ordinary life, because that’s where it’s meant to live. Open to artists and non-artists alike.

SCHEDULE///

DAY ONE — FRIDAY EVENING

Arrival · Appetite · Orientation

6:30–6:50 pm | Arrival + Soft Landing

  • Music playing, lights warm

  • People arrive, settle, greet one another

  • No instruction yet—just ease

Purpose: Shift from “end of the week” into presence.

6:50–7:10 pm | Opening Gesture

  • Brief welcome

  • A simple framing of the liminal space between years

  • One grounding breath or short movement

Purpose: Mark the threshold. Name the container without over-explaining it.

7:10–8:20 pm | Salon Dinner

  • Shared meal

  • Light, guided prompts woven in (not heavy, not constant)

    • What fragment are you carrying from last year?

    • What surprised you by surviving?

  • Encourage laughter, cross-table conversation

Purpose: Nourishment, trust, human warmth.

8:20–8:50 pm | Table Reflection + Story Play

  • One playful reflection round (no pressure to speak)

  • Optional object prompt (something on the table or in the room)

Purpose: Shift from eating to meaning without solemnity.

8:50–9:15 pm | Preview of Saturday

  • Introduce the materials for sculpture

  • Invite curiosity, not outcomes

  • Brief explanation of Saturday’s flow

Purpose: Give the subconscious something to work with overnight.

9:15–9:30 pm | Closing Gesture

  • Simple collective gesture (breath, silence, or movement)

  • Clear send-off: “Go home. Let things settle.”

Purpose: Leave people full, not flooded.

DAY TWO — SATURDAY

Embodiment · Play · Construction

11:00–11:20 am | Arrival + Re-entry

  • Light check-in

  • Tea / water available

  • Gentle transition back into the room

Purpose: Re-gather the group without rushing.

11:20–12:45 pm | Movement as Inner Adventure

  • Yoga rooted in listening rather than performance

  • Emphasis on curiosity, sensation, and breath

  • Optional laughter, lightness, permission to modify

Purpose: Wake the body as a thinking, feeling collaborator.

12:45–1:15 pm | Break + Nourishment

  • Light Lunch

  • Informal conversation

Purpose: Integration and grounding.

1:15–2:00 pm | Introduction to Found-Object Sculpture

  • Materials overview

  • Basic techniques and safety

  • How to think with your hands

Purpose: Confidence and permission before making.

2:00–4:00 pm | Sculpture Making Session

  • Hands-on building

  • You circulate, support, encourage play

  • Emphasis on balance, assembly, and improvisation

Purpose: Translate reflection into form.

4:00–4:30 pm | Witnessing + Naming + Crossing Forward

  • Participants share their object based sculpture (or simply place it in the room)

  • One sentence: what this object now knows

  • Reflect on the liminal moment now passing

  • Name one quality to carry into the year

  • Gentle closing ritual

Purpose: Honor the work without critique. Completion without finality.