Main Skills:
- Painting
- Photoshop
- Art in Education
- Photoshop
- Art in Education
- Photography
- Sustainable Design
- Art for Wellbeing
- Sustainable Design
- Art for Wellbeing
- Ecological Art
- Colour Theory
- Art Counselling
- Colour Theory
- Art Counselling
Silvia Tafur (Lima, 1975) works in painting, photography, design, and Art Counselling; using Art as a Therapy in various cultural and social contexts. She has designed, led and participated in different educational projects, including those focused on people with learning difficulties and behavioral challenges. During training in Fine Arts, realising how environmentally unfriendly some of the materials were, led to a quest for a way to improve the relationship between creativity and environment.
In 2008, after years of working in art and education, Silvia received a scholarship to participate in Designing for Sustainability: Systems, Ethics and Beauty, course at Schumacher College. Devon, UK. She developed various workshops with this focus since 2009; creating an itinerant project which changed name and content according to the participants and their particular needs.
She was invited and sponsored to present the workshop Art and Sustainability at IDEC 2008 – International Conference for Democratic Education – Vancouver, Canada; and presented again at IDEC 2012, Puerto Rico. In 2019, she will be participating of AERO conference in Portland, US.
Silvia has worked in Waldorf-based school Miguel Angel Cieneguilla, in the outskirts of Lima; where she taught on English and Art lessons for all grades, among other courses. She also participated in several workshops and seminars of Waldorf Education.
Inspired to work with communities, she founded NGO Ruralima in 2012, to help improve the quality of life in rural areas in her home country of Peru. Through Ruralima, she and other partners supported communities in co-creating a sustainable environment. In association with NGO Ka’Way Monti and partial help of Andean Alliance, she designed and conducted workshops for Quechua communities in the Peruvian Andes of Huaraz, Ancash; focusing on the importance of nutrition and physical contact in early childhood development.
In 2014, she was employed by The Way Lodge & Retreat Center as resident Art Specialist as well as interpreter and Peruvian liaison. The encounter with ancient healing techniques and indigenous plant medicines plus the study of over 200 cases, has enriched her understanding of human nature and the need to participate actively in one’s own healing process.
In 2015, she attended courses on Special Needs, Painting with children in Waldorf Education, and Clay Modeling at the Tobias School for Art and Therapy in Sussex, UK. The following years, she continued to practice Art in her studio and offer it to clients in schools and other private settings.
Currently, she alternates between her work in Art and Counselling. She organizes wellness retreats as a way to enhance an exchange among different cultures and disciplines. In 2017 she enrolled in a training in Art Counselling at Tobias School of Art and Therapy in Sussex, UK. Since 2018, she lives and works in Albany, California.