Vision
Inspired by the scientifically proven and personally experienced healing, transformative power of the Arts, Nature, Beauty and Poetry — on and off the page.
Mission
ETSF is a small, non-profit family foundation at the intersection of art, mindfulness and neuroaesthetics. We celebrate Poetry, Nature and the human Spirit through partnerships, practices, programs, and films.
ETSF is inspired by the ancient practice of pratyhara, and creates opportunities to hone and harness the power of our six senses (Sight, Hearing, Smell, Taste, Touch, and Intuition) through the poetic arts.
We are devoted to demonstrating the necessity of disengaging from that which sensationalizes, agitates, and commodifies our attention, and sharing the transformative and healing power of attuning our senses to Beauty in all its forms.
We believe that Poetry is a kind of everyday magic, an experience that lives both on and off the page, and:
- Makes us aware of belonging to something infinite and mysterious
- Illuminates the often overlooked Beauty hidden in the ordinary
- Is made of rhythm that the body recognizes at a cellular level
- Is to our Spirit as water is to thirst
- Is an untapped source of healing and transformation
- Is available to all who seek it
We invite you to join us in experiencing the ways in which Poetry, Beauty and attention can transform ourselves and our world.
There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it.
– Gustave Flaubert.
Films & Featured Projects
The Story of Everything
Experience the creation story connecting consciousness and science; past and present; the environment and the arts. Written and conceived by Hawaiʻi Poet Laureate Emeritus Kealoha and produced by Engaging the Senses Foundation.
Poetry is Not a Luxury
Poetry is Not a Luxury is a uniquely powerful portrait of contemporary poetry’s richness. It illustrates the importance of art and literature to the development of the human brain and spirit, and the significance of the writer’s role in society through interviews and readings by some of today’s most inspiring poets, along with experts in the field of neuroaesthetics.
California’s Poets Laureate Web Portal
Experience and connect with the resonant poems of California’s Poets Laureate through this media-rich web portal that captures the 2018 event produced by Engaging the Senses Foundation.
The Story of Everything
Experience the creation story connecting consciousness and science; past and present; the environment and the arts. Written and conceived by Hawaiʻi Poet Laureate Emeritus Kealoha and produced by Engaging the Senses Foundation.
Poetry is Not a Luxury
Poetry is Not a Luxury is a uniquely powerful portrait of contemporary poetry’s richness. It illustrates the importance of art and literature to the development of the human brain and spirit, and the significance of the writer’s role in society through interviews and readings by some of today’s most inspiring poets, along with experts in the field of neuroaesthetics.
California’s Poets Laureate Web Portal
Experience and connect with the resonant poems of California’s Poets Laureate through this media-rich web portal that captures the 2018 event produced by Engaging the Senses Foundation.
Education
Engaging the Senses Foundation (ETSF) works with literary organizations, art councils, universities, cultural institutions and non-profits in the belief that engaging the senses and awakening mindfulness through the arts educates and enriches society as a whole. Ongoing and historical initiatives have included:
The Story of Everything
Poetry & The Senses
A historical partnership with UC Berkeley’s Arts Research Center (ARC) entitled Poetry and the Senses convened community poets, faculty, graduate and undergraduate students to foster education and poetic expression, and to engage the senses as an act of care and mindful awareness.
Lost & Found
A long-term and ongoing partnership focused on reclaiming women poets and writers of note who are unjustly overlooked in today’s active poetry discourse.
ETSF helps supports such projects by Lost & Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative of The City University of New York Graduate Center, which publishes unexpected, genre-bending works by important 20th century writers unearthed from personal and institutional archives in the United States and abroad.
Gathering of California Poets Laureate
A day-long gathering of California regional and state poets laureate, the 2018 Gathering of Poets Laureate was conceived by then California State Poet Laureate Dana Gioia, and sponsored by ETSF in partnership with the California Arts Council and McGroarty Arts Center.
As representatives of literacy appointed by their cities, counties, regions, and the state, the poets offered readings that were open to the public. Additionally, they shared best practices and discussed educational initiatives and goals.
Our Partners
ETSF works towards our goals by developing films, narratives and initiatives in partnership with literary organizations, art councils, universities, cultural institutions and non-profits to support the healing and transformative power of the poetic arts.
Skirball Cultural Center is a place of meeting guided by the Jewish tradition of welcoming the stranger and inspired by the American democratic ideals of freedom and equality.
ETSF has helped to support offerings such as the Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Ai Weiwei: Trace exhibitions, Jewish meditation sessions, and readings by poetry luminaries such as former U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, and former U.S. Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman.
Lost and Found: The CUNY Poetics Document Initiative of The City University of New York Graduate Center publishes unexpected, genre-bending works by important 20th century writers.
Unearthed from personal and institutional archives in the United States and abroad, these unique projects are edited by doctoral students at the Graduate Center, CUNY and published by the Center for the Humanities. Aimed at a general readership, these chapbooks expose and provoke new archival research and connections.
ETSF provides support to Lost & Found for their events, staff, and the research and publication of lost documents.
Kauai Writers Conference is an intimate experience held yearly on the island of Kauai where participants have the opportunity to study craft, the writing life, and publication from top authors, agents, and editors in in the field.
ETSF sponsored award-winning poetry master Jane Hirshfield at the 2019 Kauai Writers Conference, Poets Laureate Emeritus Kealoha (HI) and Tim Seibles (VA) at the 2023 and 2024 conferences respectively, and continues to provide support to the conference each year, including scholarships to students and teachers that help facilitate attendance at each year’s gathering.
As a state agency, the California Arts Council supports local arts infrastructure and programming statewide through grants, programs, and services. CAC is committed to advancing California through the arts and creativity, envisioning a California where the lives of all Californians are enriched by access to a diverse spectrum of cultural experiences.
In 2018, ETSF and the CAC collaborated for a day of comprehensive workshops, filmed conversations, and readings with eighty past and present local and state California Poets Laureate, under the direction of former California Poet Laureate Dana Gioia (past National Endowment for the Arts Chairman). In 2021, ETSF partnered with the CAC to support the production of DREAM Magazine, a publication that featured voices and stories from across the state.
Arion Press is the only printer in the United States to make books entirely by hand from under one roof. Founded in 1974 as the successor of the renowned Grabhorn Press, Arion invites the world’s leading artists to reimagine literary classics in collaboration with expert bookmakers.
Each Arion title is crafted in the last unified hot-metal type foundry, letterpress workshop, and book bindery in America, employing the same historic machines that cast the U.N. Charter in 1945 to produce contemporary artist books. Arion Press creates books that push the limits of traditional craft to ensure the relevance of the printed word in a digital century.
Past Partners
ARC of University of California Berkeley, Arts Humanities Division, is a think tank for the arts, acting as a hub and a meeting place, a space for reflection where artists, scholars, curators, and civic arts leaders from a variety of disciplines can gather and learn from one another.
ETSF supported a historical partnership with UC Berkeley’s Arts Research Center (ARC) entitled Poetry and the Senses, which brought together faculty, graduate students, undergraduate students, and community poets to create meaningful opportunities for education on the connection between poetic expression and the value of engaging the senses as an act of care, mindfulness, and awareness.
Engaging The Senses Foundation, A 501(c)(3) Organization | All Rights Reserved © 2025