By Laura M. Holson

In March 2025, I traveled to Arles, France, to spend a month as a writer in residence in a 17th century mansion. The city, with its Roman ruins and sunflower glow, seemed to promise stone-walled solitude. No howling dogs. No insistent neighbors. What I found was something less austere and more inviting: an eccentric carnival of locals — gallery owners, designers, art curators, even a baker — who pulled me into their creative orbit with Provenćal flair.

Research shows that adapting to a local culture while living abroad has a positive impact on creativity. But you don’t have to go far to find a creative community. Today, there are any number of courses offered by museums, schools, community groups and arts organizations to scratch any creative itch. Universities, like Stanford,  UC Berkeley’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and Otis College of Art and Design, offer continuing education classes that teach everything from watercolor essentials to how to make a movie on your iPhone. What if you don’t live next door to a world-class institution? No problem. Many classes are taught online. And creativity is not limited to the arts, but includes all kinds of making, even basic carpentry: Yestermorrow in Waitsfield, Vermont, teaches workshops on greenhouse design and foundation fundamentals.

In her best-selling book, Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Elizabeth Gilbert argues that creativity is not dropping everything to pursue a career as an opera singer or a printmaker. (Unless you want to.) Instead, she writes, “I’m talking about a life that is driven more strongly by curiosity than by fear.”

Options these days abound for the curious, from career professionals to novices. One year, I wanted to learn how to use a letterpress machine and found a class led by an artist at the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena, California. Community colleges are an excellent low-cost option if you want to learn how to speak a language or draw. And not only do horticultural societies have expert gardeners who teach, but many lead private garden tours as well.

More than a decade ago, I started a Sunday night creativity salon with a handful of friends who challenged each other to get out of our comfort zones. Using Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way as a guide, we mastered new skills and bolstered our creative confidence. I learned to tap dance (badly, but with gusto). My friend Evelyne learned how to drum. Another friend took a summer pottery class with her son. Our exploration knew no bounds; we gave ourselves permission to try whatever we wanted without judgment as we embraced an almost childlike sense of awe. The experience inspired me to create a series of immersive creative gatherings called The Box Sessions, so others could experience the wonder I did.

In many ways, I imagine, that experience led me to Arles, too. The city is haunted with the specter of the painter Vincent Van Gogh, who wandered the promenade along the Rhône River, seeking solace for his restless spirit, with an easel and box of paints. Currently there are about 700 centers, organizations and private residencies in more than 80 countries that accept art residency applicants, according to Res Artis, a global network of residencies offered around the world. A number of friends have decamped to Château d’Orquevaux, a residency run by two artists in northeastern France. Jojin Van Winkle, a visual artist who teaches art at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, says she has participated in about 20 residencies, including Aviário Studio in central Portugal. She describes her time abroad as a “great way to not just see the world, but to live the world.”

Living in Arles gave me the opportunity to experience life like the artists who came before me. With planning and an adventurous spirit, it’s something you can do too.