The Creative Advantage kicked off the 2016-17 school year with its third annual Summer Institute in partnership with Seattle Art Museum. Over 100 teaching artists, administrators, classroom teachers, and youth development workers gathered for a day of learning, community building, and practice. Sessions were facilitated by local artists, instructors, and national partners with topics ranging from Healing Justice in Arts Education (inspired by the work of Shawn Ginwright), The Entrepreneurial Teaching Artist, to Trauma-Informed Practice. Participants also had opportunities to creatively engage and reflect by art discipline.
The morning plenary centered the role of racial equity and social justice in curriculum and approach. This included a deeply moving poem on structural barriers within education by Carlynn Newsome the 2016 Youth Speaks Seattle grand slam champion, followed by music and a story from Shontina Vernon, a mentor teaching artist with 4Culture’s Creative Justice program. Robyne Walker Murphy, Cultural Access Program Director at Cool Culture in Brooklyn, gave a stirring keynote entitled, “Empower, Create Connect: A Framework for Liberatory Education.”
The institute put front and center the values of practitioners working for creativity and justice in education, calling for narratives that position student voice and perspective as fundamental to high quality teaching and learning.
Next up: The Creative Advantage Professional Learning Series, beginning in January 2017. For more information, sign up here.
Photo Jenny Crooks.