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Artful Learning Update - Summer 2024
Posted September 26, 2024
SUMMER 2024 UPDATE
Summer symbolizes so many things like barbecues, swimming, warm weather, and the long-awaited summer vacation for students and teachers. But when school is out, Artful Learning is working, full speed ahead. In the summer of 2024, from June through August, our Artful Learning specialized trainers were scurrying around the nation, providing the highly customized, engaging, and rigorous professional learning we've been known for, to four schools in three states.
The Artful Learning team spent a week in Rogers, Arkansas, for Arkansas Arts Academy's Year 3 training. A week before we stepped on campus, we entered a city ravaged by seven tornadoes. It is inspiring that Arkansas Arts Academy remains a resilient and vibrant learning community despite such devastation.
The new 'Wishtree' ritual melds imagery, literature, and pageantry with sound and vibrant fabrics. This approach will continue this year with AAA families. It is elegant and powerful. To further explore the tasty topics of "process" and "influence," the Academy’s staff visited the state's world-class museum, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The focus was on one of their featured exhibitions: "Exquisite Creatures" by Christopher Marley, which showcased colorful animal and plant designs, demonstrating a rich intersection of art, science, and stellar design principles. Marley's intricate pieces and compositions inspired the Academy’s staff as they constructed their own "Exquisite Creations." The educators used a variety of wooden shapes and sizes to assemble their designs using color-shifting and glow-in-the-dark spray paints. The results were stunning – plus, of course, the teachers were galvanized to imagine ways to replicate their own experience for their students in the fall.
Next, the Artful Learning trainers traveled to Atlanta, Georgia, for West Clayton Elementary's Year 2 training. West Clayton's staff participated in a workshop that explored the overarching concept of “relationships” to explore how that idea resonates across the curriculum – very much including math and science. Among other projects, educators learned about Ghanaian artist El Anatsui and his use of found objects to create intricate tapestries that resemble traditional Kente cloths. West Clayton's staff constructed a multicolored and multidimensional tapestry inspired by El Anatsui's philosophy of shared artisans working together to create a larger, magnificent composition What a wonderful approach for the students this was going to be!
After Georgia, the Artful Learning team landed in Napa, California, for Unidos Middle School's Year 3 training. The Unidos staff had an intense week of interdisciplinary learning, revolving around the concept of “synergy.” To launch the week, the Artful Learning and Unidos teams spent a full day at The Donum Estate in the neighboring community of Sonoma, exploring 60 art installations across 220 acres of land featuring world-renowned artists like Yayoi Kusama, Ugo Rondinone, Keith Haring, El Anatsui, and Louise Bourgeois from The Donum Collection. The winemaking team shared their unique processes that champion sustainability using academic principles within ecology, meteorology, chemistry, and mathematics -- all critical in producing Donum's exemplary and award-winning wines. In the fall, Unidos educators will connect their experiences to many projects in their classrooms. Indeed, The Donum Estate was a prime example of endless learning outcomes, and is, in fact, a Masterwork in and of itself. As part of bringing these large concepts into a potential classroom, the Unidos team engaged in a science-based fermentation Inquiry Center using different household products and techniques to see firsthand which products create carbon dioxide better than others. The Unidos team also created their own wine labels from an assemblage of materials, to contemplate how to balance symbolism with design principles.
Finally, Artful Learning rounded out the summer by facilitating an intensive two-day training for Roosevelt Middle School in Oceanside, California. Veteran teachers from Artful Learning's previous work at Roosevelt, pre-pandemic, were now absorbing students from a neighboring middle school, as well as new teachers. There were now over eighty participants!
Our team rose to the occasion in many ways: an overview of the model using our ingenious Artful Learning Design Deck; exploring the concept of "relationships" through theatre and music linking Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, and the workings of an orchestra; two inquiry centers related to mathematics and science aligned with California's academic standards and presented remotely from Minnesota and Colorado in coordination with live teams on-site; and ways of using visual art for understanding and harnessing mathematics standards. Results included colorful multiplication towers made entirely of Legos; moveable models expressing eclipses, seasons, and lunar phases; and art prints using the sun, heat-sensitive paper, flowers, herbs, and water to express the dynamics of personal relationships. The students are going to love this stuff!
It is always a privilege to meet with each school before their academic year begins; we love to see the renewed energy and enthusiasm for the Artful Learning model reverberating throughout each campus as students arrive. We feel profound gratitude and awe for all our educators as they demonstrate their endless intellectual curiosity, and their passion to share our revolutionary learning model with their students.
Written by
David Jeffers and Patrick Bolek
National Design Team & Trainer Cadre
Executive Director- Patrick Bolek
Project Coordinator - David Jeffers
Distinguished Trainer - Ann Ott-Cooper
Distinguished Trainer - Jo Ann Isken
Master Trainer - Keith Carames
Master Trainer - Dr. Shannon Hattyar
Master Trainer - Beth McCoy
Master Trainer - Beth Orme
Master Trainer - Pam Perkins
Advanced Trainer - Joanne Emmons