Return to Self: Mindful Mask-Making + Artist Reception with Niki Lopez

Slow down, create, and reconnect through mindful mask-making with Niki Lopez, followed by a free Return to Self artist reception. What if you gave yourself a Sunday afternoon to turn down the noise, make something with your hands, and reconnect with yourself? Join interdisciplinary artist and social practitioner Niki Lopez for an intimate edition of The Art of Self-Expression: Mindful Mask-Making, presented in conversation with her current exhibition, Return to Self, at Longville Wellness. This is more than sitting down to decorate a mask. Through guided reflection, intuitive art-making, music, gentle aromatherapy, color, texture, adornment, and a rich mix of creative materials, Niki creates an environment designed to help you slow down, experiment, and follow your own creative instincts. Your mask can become whatever you need it to be: expressive, symbolic, playful, protective, bold, quiet, personal, or simply something beautiful you enjoyed making. There is no right way to create here. You do not need to consider yourself an artist. You do not need a plan before you arrive. You are invited to come as you are, choose what speaks to you, and allow the process to unfold. Niki’s mask-making experiences grow directly from her own artistic practice, where masks and sculptural faces have long been used to explore identity, spirituality, ancestry, protection, transformation, and the stories we carry. Her approach to creative participation centers reflection, choice, self-expression, and connection rather than perfection. What You’ll Experience ✨ Guided mindful mask-making and reflection ✨ Your own expressive mask to create and take home ✨ Music and gentle aromatherapy to help set the atmosphere ✨ A wide variety of art materials, textures, color, and adornments ✨ Space to experiment without judgment or pressure ✨ Connection through creativity and shared experience ✨ Light refreshments and wine ✨ All art materials included No previous art experience is needed. Whether you arrive craving a creative outlet, some breathing room after a long week, an afternoon with a friend, or simply the chance to try something different, you are welcome. Return to Self The workshop takes place surrounded by six works from Niki Lopez’s Return to Self, currently featured at Longville Wellness through December 31. The exhibition brings together work created across fifteen years of Niki’s evolving practice, revealing recurring threads of identity, ancestry, the body, spirituality, healing, protection, self-definition, and transformation. Presented inside a wellness space, the collection creates a natural conversation between art and wellness and asks what it can mean to slow down, listen to what we carry, and reconnect with parts of ourselves that can become buried beneath survival, expectation, and the noise of everyday life. That same spirit carries into the afternoon’s mask-making experience. Sometimes moving forward begins by returning to ourselves. Artist Reception After the workshop, stay with us for a free Artist Reception from 5–6 PM. Friends, community members, Longville Wellness patrons, and anyone curious about the exhibition are invited to join us, meet Niki, experience Return to Self, and spend some time in conversation around the work. The reception is FREE and open to the public. You do not need to purchase a workshop ticket to attend the reception. Event Details Sunday, November 1, 2026 3–5 PM Mindful Mask-Making Workshop Ticketed | Limited to only 15 participants 5–6 PM Return to Self Artist Reception FREE + Open to the Public Longville Wellness Fort Lauderdale, Florida Workshop Tickets $65 Individual $120 for Two Your workshop ticket includes: All art materials Your completed mask to take home Guided artist-led experience Music + aromatherapy Light refreshments + wine Wine is available to guests 21+. Non-alcoholic refreshments will also be available. About Niki Lopez Niki Lopez is an Afro-Latina, queer interdisciplinary visual artist, curator, social practitioner, and teaching artist based in South Florida. Her work moves across mixed media, sculpture, masks, painting, photography, installation, writing, and community-engaged practice, exploring memory, identity, ancestry, spirituality, healing, belonging, and transformation. Masks and sculptural self-portraiture are among the most recognizable elements of her practice, serving as spaces for inquiry into what we reveal, conceal, inherit, survive, protect, and reclaim. Niki is also the founder of What’s Your Elephant™, an arts and education 501(c)(3) nonprofit that uses art and dialogue to create spaces around difficult and often unspoken experiences. nikilopez.art whatsyourelephant.org Instagram: @nikilopez19 Sensory + Accessibility Note This is a welcoming, artist-led creative experience for participants of all creative levels. Gentle aromatherapy will be used to help create the sensory environment. Guests with fragrance or scent sensitivities are encouraged to reach out in advance so we can discuss accommodations.