Welcome to Creative Leaps

Summer 2004

In this edition, we begin at the beginning: Making the Case for Arts Education. In the articles and links below, you’ll find testaments to the critical value of arts education and interdisciplinary approaches in these changing times. You’ll also find invaluable resources on how to preserve and enhance arts encounters; information on how to deepen their value as learning experiences; and programs that supplement curriculum and connectivity across disciplines. 

The Figure Within Us: A Case for Arts Education

by Jim Collins

I recently visited with my 22 month-old grandson, Jimmy. For the entire visit, I was obsessed with watching this little boy live life. As he went about his daily business of eating and playing, I could almost hear him thinking! Absorbing all that was around him at break-neck speed, he was full of curiosity, constantly trying to make sense of the world, testing his own personal theories on how “things” work, developing his own talents of self-expression, learning from his own successes and failures, and embracing challenges as a very normal part of life. He was transforming before my own eyes!

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New Era Ushers in Deeper Understanding of Learning

by Ray McNulty

 

For the past several years, the "Information Technology Era" has framed many of the challenges of the day in schools and workplaces. But I'd like to contend that we've breezed through the Information Technology Era and have arrived at a new period, which I call the "Learning Era."

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Apericolea, or ‘In the Absence of Beauty’

A Word from Creative Leaps President John Cimino

 

…The word is apericolea, a Greek word referring to “a lack of experience of things beautiful.” I was watching public television late one night and heard Bill Moyers in conversation with renowned historian and scholar, Joseph Campbell. They were talking about contemporary attitudes towards beauty. Far too many of our youth, our leaders and our communities suffer from apericolea, Campbell said. Beauty isn’t cool, commercial or controversial anymore. Or so some would have us believe.

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Imagination, Education, and Social Change: Interview with Philosopher Maxine Greene

Master Teacher and Champion of Social Imagination

By John J. Cimino, Jr., and Krista Apple

All of us who work in the realm of learning appreciate the staggering depth and complexity of the values and relationships which shape our world. On a daily basis, we witness the clash and tangle of cultures and the coarseness of a thousand human shortcomings. At the same time, we are privy now and then to the emergence of bright new ways of being in the world, compassion beyond all reckoning—a sense of the future about to be born. Come what may, we strive to be peacemakers, to be agents of hope, possibility, empathy and understanding. This, according to philosopher Maxine Greene, is precisely what she means by social imagination in action. You see and value what is “not yet” and work to bring it into being. 

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Partnering Equals Success

Best Practices for Successful Arts Partnerships and Granting Opportunities (And how The Learning Arts can help)

At a time when arts education in our schools and classrooms is fast disappearing, partnerships with outside arts organizations and individual artists have become an increasing source of opportunity for educators and districts to enhance curriculum standards with creative thinking and development.

The Learning Arts Spring 2004 Program Highlights

This spring, The Learning Arts has been busy providing arts programming and creative encounters across New York State and the Mid-Hudson Valley. Below you’ll find a list of recent programs provided for partner schools, many of which were custom-designed to fit schools’ curriculum needs and interests. A three-month residency addressing The Performing and Creative Arts as Expressions of Freedom, Democracy, and Human Rights is highlighted; as well as programs on Number Sense and Telling Time;The World of Cervantes and his Legacy; and Confidence, Honesty, Trust: Personal Character Development. These are just a few of the programs currently offered by The Learning Arts. Each program combines dynamic performing arts experiences with in-depth interdisciplinary learning at its finest—and can be customized for nearly any age group or curriculum.

Summer Reading List: Books for Educators and Arts Enthusiasts

Deep Play by Diane Ackerman; Theater Games for the Classroom by Viola Spolin; Releasing the Imagination by Maxine Greene

                   

What follows is a short review of books we recommend for anyone interested in reflecting on the importance of the arts, and the importance of play, in education and development. Whether you are hoping to incorporate the arts in your classrooms, or just wondering why you should, pack one of the following books into your suitcase before you take off for summer vacation!

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