Innovative Educators Institute: Re+stor+ation

July 8, 2019 - 10:00am - July 12, 2019 - 4:00pm

Innovative Educators Institute: Re+stor+ation
July 8-12, 2019
Faculty member: Rina Kundu
Participating artists: Rosemary Ollison, LaNia Sproles, Arianne King Comer, Jenna Knapp, Evelyn Patricia Terry, and Molly Hassler

Admission to the IEI is by invitation. If you are interested in participating, please contact Anna Grosch at agrosch@lyndensculpturegarden.org

Lynden operates as a laboratory at the intersection of art, nature, and culture. We have been working with UWM's Art Education program for several years to develop a place-based K-12 curriculum that provides hands-on experiences that integrate our collection of monumental sculpture and temporary installations, as well as our community of artists, with the natural ecology of park, pond, and woodland Thanks to the generous support of the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, we have been able to build the IEI into an intensive, hands-on, year-round professional teacher development experience that tests approaches to sustaining and supporting early career (years 1-5) teachers who are committed to teaching through the arts.

The institute runs in three-year cycles, and is built around cross-disciplinary, school-based teams. These teams are typically made up of an art educator and one or two generalists or teachers with other academic specializations. The focus is on teaching interdisciplinary, arts-integrated strategies and methodologies that are easily adapted to the classroom. We also believe that making time for art and reinvigorating one's personal art practice have a positive impact on teachers and teaching—whether or not you are an art specialist. In addition, we make resources and opportunities available to the classrooms of participating teachers throughout the year, including hands-on field trips to Lynden and school-based residencies with Institute artists.

Each year the Institute is built around a different theme. The 2019 Innovative Educators Institute focuses on the theme of restoration. "Repairing," “rebuilding," “reconstructing,” and “returning” are processes associated with restoration; they allow us to reconnect to self, re-imagine others, and rediscover our relationship to the land. The summer lab will use an experiential, interdisciplinary approach to learning while developing skills, confidence, and understanding of the value of place. It will build cooperative learning strategies that involve members of a place in the process of education; enable listening and learning from the community and the land; and facilitate restoration through art-making and myth-making. Rosemary Ollison will be one of the featured artists for the workshop. She is a self-taught artist who creates drawings, sculptures, quilts, jewelry, and environments by repurposing collected materials. Her art often works at a catalyst for well-being with restorative possibilities.


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