A few words for Arts-in-Education advocates, clients, and friends:

Learning is healing, growing, change. It is more than method, more than information. Learning is an affair of the heart as much as the mind. It is the linking of ideas and the creation of heart-felt meaning. It is the discovery of differences that make a difference and the re-assembly of the hundreds of “disconnects” we study into greater, more wonder-inspiring wholes. It is the “ah ha” of self-recognition discovered in the poem, the flower, the equation, the just-revealed relationship with the world. Learning, in its essence and daily promise, is life-celebrating, life sustaining, life-infusing, life-changing for both the teacher and the student.

Here at The Learning Arts, we’re passionate about learning and bringing ideas to life, especially in ways that can take us by surprise. In fact, “learning by surprise” is exactly our special strategy. And that’s where imagination comes in. Einstein said it best—you know the phrase—Imagination is more important than knowledge. We are absolutely in love with this simple but provocative idea, and it’s at the heart of everything we do…and here’s why.

Imagination creates possibilities and envisions the future. Imagination leads the way to the only learning potent enough to change the way we think, perceive and act. Imagination unleashes our intuition, extends the capacities of our senses and helps us to see through baffling chaos to what Stewart Kaufmann of the Santa Fe Institute calls “the adjacent possible” -- the countless breakthrough ideas just one metaphor, one catalyst, one mental picture away from “ah-HA”! It’s the future waiting to be born!

As individuals and as a society, we need the vision and courage that is born in our imaginations. We need that life-changing heart-mind connection which begets not only creativity, but also our most redeeming personal values—leadership, wisdom and compassion. For us at The Learning Arts, this is the heart of the artistic process and the meaning of art in our lives. In our world, the arts are no longer some parallel experience you have along the way, but rather a powerful source of insight and transformation feeding directly into the thinking, feeling and acting of daily life -- full of possibility, truth and optimism.

The arts and learning: How else shall we reach for the stars, or know the gifts that live within us? Einstein, I think, would agree. His violin was his inspiration. Here at The Learning Arts, we are committed to helping children find theirs.

John J. Cimino, Jr.
President & CEO