COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

ARTS AND EDUCATION INSTITUTE: LEADERSHIP — Posing New Solutions and Actuating New Directions in Arts and Education
Week One: June 17-23
It is well established that intelligence and thinking ability are far more complex than what we choose to measure on standardized tests, even though standardized testing seems at present to be the major focus of teaching and learning, since the partial enactment of “No Child Left Behind” legislation.

In many ways “No Child Left Behind” is only the conclusion of a long series of misconceptions about the needs of our students and the nature of real learning and real thinking. Habits of thinking, as well as processes of conceiving, developing, shaping and refining ideas and concepts, are an essential part of training in the arts; and they develop, in the students, mental processes and intellectual abilities that deepen and strengthen critical, creative and layered thinking in all other domains.

The focus of the Institute is Leadership. And this summer we will take an offensive posture, by defining and exploring these critical intellectual processes that training in the arts develops. We will examine the unique offensive rather than defensive Leadership Role teachers must play in the articulation and promulgation of these essential thinking skills so significant for their students’ development and growth in all domains.

Leadership is essentially about effecting significant CHANGE. And this CHANGE most often means a change of mind, the way we conceive or perceive problems.

The Institute will bring together Outstanding Guest Faculty and Leaders who will (within their domains) present their individual perspectives and processes for effecting significant Changes in Thinking in order to solve problems. Art/Drama/Music 582, Sec. 80, 2 credits

THE INTERPERSONAL AND INTRAPERSONAL INTELLIGENCES: THE DRAMATIC AND PEOPLE INTELLIGENCES
Week Two: June 24-30
These two personal intelligences are probably the most neglected in educational practice, and yet they are probably the most critical to our classrooms and our lives. It truly is The Never Ending Story of human interaction in the classroom and in life. The dramatic stories and events of our students’ lives and the way they inform and intersect with their teachers’ lives are critical to learning and human development for both student and teacher. This dramatic interpersonal interaction is the bedrock of our everyday classroom situation and all of our worldly social situations.

The work of this seminar is the study and practice of interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities, especially through story and dramatic interaction, so that teachers can guide their students to understanding and practice of these critical abilities. The concepts and practice of “beginner’s mind” and reflective thinking will be tools employed in this study. The study and exercise of Narrative (story) abilities will be another important tool employed in this study of the personal intelligences. Jerome Bruner, noted cognitive psychologist and researcher, has found that seventy to eighty percent of learning and processing happens in our Narrative abilities. Story is a significant way we make meaning in the events and interactions of life. In fact, our story abilities can be a self-making activity—our way of making sense of our world, our experiences, and the experiences of others. Art/Drama/Music 583, Sec. 80, 2 credits

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY IN THE ARTS
Week Three: July 1-7
The emergence of digital technology in the arts requires students to develop a thorough understanding of its technological evolution (both in hardware and software), artistic adaptation, historical significance, and expanding capabilities. In order to properly prepare them to engage in the constantly evolving relationship between aesthetics, education and digital technology, students must be capable of analyzing significant advancements of the 20th and 21st centuries, and exploring the methodology of the associated artistic applications, such as the resulting compositing and still image programs that are at the heart of today’s digital creative output. From audio/video ipods to evermore powerful cell phones, to the cultural and aesthetic consequences of an emerging social networking internet environment, the 21st century student/artist must be capable of evaluating digital technology within a cultural framework through an understanding of its historical events and consequences. Art/Drama/Music 584, sec. 80, 2 credits

FROM WHALES TO HUMANS: MUSIC AT THE CORE OF BEING
Week Four: July 8-14
Roger Payne, internationally recognized whale researcher, has come to the conclusion that singing is “far, far older than our species.” Through his analysis, he has observed “whales use many of the same laws in their composition of songs that human composers use in their compositions.” For instance, whales use rhyme! There is a commonality of musical expression between whales and humans that indicates the vertebrate brain has chosen music as one of the things that works for the species. Yet, music has no apparent function in survival or explicit communication. Why do humans engage in this complex act that involves both the intellect and the emotions? What is this phenomenon that anthropologist Lévi-Strauss deems intelligible but untranslatable? These questions may be unanswerable, but music is at the core of our being and, thus, an essential part of education. Music has much to offer. As teachers, we will consider a quote from Plato, “in the patterns of the arts are the keys to all learning.” Session participants will actively engage in music making followed by reflection on the process and potential of musical creation. Art/Drama/Music 585, Sec. 80, 2 credits

THINKING IN CULTURAL ENVIRONMENTS
Week Five: July 15-21
Unsettled by accelerating globalization? Buried in mounting quantities of information? Intimidated by the growing hegemony of science and technology? And, demoralized by the constant clash of civilizations? You are not alone! These vast changes place special demands on the contemporary educator, and call for revitalized cognitive abilities that will command a premium in the years ahead. Once again...Howard Gardner to the rescue! This seminar tracks the demands of disciplinary, synthesizing, creating, respectful, and ethical ways of thinking and learning as outlined in his latest contribution, Five Minds for the Future—directly addressing characteristics Gardner maintains are essential for emerging leadership.

A case study for our investigation of these cognitive demands, we will turn our attention—surprisingly—to the jungle ruins of a fascinating ancient American culture. This culture’s leadership designed communication and learning along much the same lines as Gardner suggests, in a cultural environment facing educational quandaries unexpectedly similar to today’s. We will explore historic performances as cultural practices that conservatively re-inscribed, or passionately re-invented, the ideas, symbols, and gestures that shaped social life in our past. Comparing these art acts with those of other civilizations, we gain a consciousness of the past as a means to make sense of our own present. The examples offered in this seminar help illuminate the processes by which humanity, from whatever age, can summon unto full conscious focus its fundamental view of reality, and suggest concrete ways to guide contemporary students in creative and efficacious thinking in today’s complicated world. Art/Drama/Music 586, Sec. 80, 2 credits

STUDIO: APPRENTICESHIPS
• Creative Movement
Week Two: June 23-27, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Art/Drama/Music 588, Sec. 80, 1 credit
• Creative Writing
Week Two: June 23-27, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Art/Drama/Music 588, Sec 81, 1 credit
• Integrated Digital Art Production
Week Three: June 30-July 3, 8:40 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Art/Drama/Music 588, Sec. 82, 1 credit
• Digital Photography
Week Three: June 30-July 3, 8:40 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Art/Drama/Music 588, Sec 83, 1 credit
• Acting for the Theatre
Week Four: July 7-11, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Art/Drama/Music 588, Sec. 84, 1 credit
• West African Drumming Workshop
Week Four: July 7-11, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Art/Drama/Music 588, Sec 85, 1 credit

STUDIO: PRACTICUM (PERSONAL PERFORMANCE AND FIELD PROJECT PRESENTATION)
Week One: June 16-20, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Art/Drama/Music 587, Sec. 80, 1 credit

STUDIO: PRACTICUM (PERSONAL PERFORMANCE)
Week Five: July 14-18, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m., Art/Drama/Music 587, Sec. 81, 1 credit

[Back to top]