Tuesday, May 18, 2010

The Right Brain Initiative First Photo Shoots

I had a blast photo documenting my first three Right Brain Initiative events. The first was the unveiling of two fabulous murals that the students enthusiastically and proudly created with Artist in Residence Rodolfo Serna at Meriwether Lewis Elementary School. Rudolfo also invited a group of Aztec dancer performing ceremonial dances to kick off this fantastic and totally inspiring event. The unveiling coincided with the entire school's Annual Art Night. I was absolutely blown away to see the huge turnout of supportive parents, teachers and students, who all see the immense value of the arts in the school as an integral part of the holistic learning model that The Right Brain Initiative promotes.

The following week I spent two days following the teams at The World Forestry Center as they met and shared the projects the dozens of schools were involved in this year. Teachers, Principles, Art Liaisons, Artists in Residents and other people involved in the Right Brain Initiative presented the multi-media approaches they employed, with in intention of integrating the visual and performing arts into the reading, writing, science, history and other standard curriculum subjects. Selected students were evaluated before and after participating in the Visiting Artists units, to see the impact the programs had on their learning. I was overwhelmed with the extent of participation and the outcome of growth shown by the students. I did not even get to absorb the full extent of the program, since I had to hop from room to room to document the many events taking place on film. I am so excited about this program, and look forward to many more events that I can participate in with the Right Brain Initiative.

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