Frankenthaler, Unillustrated

Rowley, Alison
Helen Frankenthaler: Painting History, Writing Painting
London: I. B. Tauris, 2007

I am fortunate to have seen the 1989 Museum of Modern Art exhibition Helen Frankenthaler, A Paintings Retrospective (read the very informative 1989 press release). For me, Frankenthaler’s paintings have the feeling of an environment; many are 8 to 11 feet wide, with light, color, and space that reach beyond the canvas to touch the viewer’s senses. At the time of the exhibition, I wrote many notes in the catalog; the photographs were not capturing what I observed, such as the jewel-like light, bending space, and visual freedom. So I looked forward to revisiting the atmosphere of Helen Frankenthaler’s painting through the writing of Alison Rowley, in her book Helen Frankenthaler: Painting History, Writing Painting. However, this book is not about a direct visual experience of Helen Frankenthaler’s painting. Rowley’s personal Frankenthaler journey charts areas around the paintings, while exploring different conceptual layers of meaning. This book seems aimed towards academic circles, with the goal of building a persuasive case for looking more deeply into the paintings of Helen Frankenthaler, especially in the art world of England and Ireland.

Imagination First Comes Out in Paperback

In their 2009 book Imagination First: Unlocking the Power of Possibility, Eric Liu and Lincoln Center Institute‘s Executive Director, Scott Noppe-Brandon, debunked a few myths, took imagination off its lofty pedestal, and made their premise clear: everyone has imagination! It is an essential cognitive skill that this society needs in large supplies if it is to meet the future head-on, and since it is a skill, it must be practiced.

The pragmatic approach, resulting in the description of actual imagination practices that are at the core of the book, paid off: the readers were at the very least intrigued, at best they were inspired to change their work strategies, their academic practices, even their private lives. They came from fields of interest as diverse as those of the imagination practitioners described on the book’s pages: think food retailer, teacher, marine corps officers.

Imagination First has just been reprinted in paperback edition. There was a specific purpose to this second edition: to reflect on what had been learned since the first edition, to “enhance” the book with additional texts and information, and, given its original success, to make sure that it reached the widest audience ever.

Hamlet: Poem Unlimited and Shakespeare Unbound

Hamlet and the Gravediggers by Pascal Adolphe Jean Dagnan-Bouveret (1883)

Bloom, Harold
Hamlet: Poem Unlimited
New York: Riverhead Books, 2003

The slender profile and short stature of Hamlet: Poem Unlimited, by literary scholar and critic Harold Bloom, is highly deceptive, for this book has weight and dimension far beyond its diminutive size. The small volume was written as a companion piece to the large scale analysis of the bard’s oeuvre, Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human after Bloom, a self-professed practitioner of “bardolatry,” recognized that he had devoted disproportionate attention to a single argument of authorship within the initial work and had left much unsaid. Taking its subtitle from Polonius’ exhaustive list of genres in which the newly arrived troupe of players is proficient (Act II, Scene 2), Hamlet: Poem Unlimited covers this lost ground with a collection of twenty-five meditations on the play that reveal, and revel in, the inexhaustible possibilities for inquiry and connection in the play between the characters, the playwright, and the world beyond. Corey Atkins, the adapter and director of the Hamlet production that will soon serve as centerpiece for Lincoln Center Institute’s work in area schools, professes that he always turns to Bloom’s Invention of the Human when in the creation process for a Shakespeare production. Indeed, both of these resources provide many rich thematic elucidations and hypotheses that provide the reader with new lenses for thought.

Lincoln Center Institute’s Capacities for Imaginative Learning

Image by Nancy Bareis

A growing number of blog visitors have been seeking information about Lincoln Center Institute‘s Capacities for Imaginative Learning.

LCI has created the Capacities for Imaginative Learning as a framework for student learning, applicable to the Common Core Standards across the curriculum. The Capacities operate as both strategies for, and outcomes of, study according to LCI’s practice.

The Capacities for Imaginative Learning are:

Noticing Deeply to identify and articulate layers of detail in a work of art or other object of study through continuous interaction with it over time.

Embodying to experience a work of art or other object of study through your senses, as well as emotionally, and also to physically represent that experience.

Questioning to ask questions throughout your explorations that further your own learning; to ask the question, “What if?”

Making Connections to connect what you notice and the patterns you see to your prior knowledge and experiences, to others’ knowledge and experiences, and to text and multimedia resources.

Identifying Patterns to find relationships among the details that you notice, group them, and recognize patterns.

Exhibiting Empathy to respect the diverse perspectives of others in the community; to understand the experiences of others emotionally, as well as intellectually.

Living with Ambiguity to understand that issues have more than one interpretation, that not all problems have immediate or clear-cut solutions, and to be patient while a resolution becomes clear.

Creating Meaning to create your own interpretations based on the previous capacities, see these in the light of others in the community, create a synthesis, and express it in your own voice.

Taking Action to try out new ideas, behaviors or situations in ways that are neither too easy nor too dangerous or difficult, based on the synthesis of what you have learned in your explorations.

Reflecting/Assessing to look back on your learning, continually assess what you have learned, assess/identify what challenges remain, and assess/identify what further learning needs to happen. This occurs not only at the end of a learning experience, but is part of what happens throughout that experience. It is also not the end of your learning; it is part of beginning to learn something else.

Click here to download a copy of LCI’s Capacities for Imaginative Learning (pdf)

Ten Imaginative Thinkers to Follow on Twitter

“What is the root of creativity and how can we unlock the power of imaginative thinking?” Here at Lincoln Center Institute’s Resource Center we think about this question quite often. We turn to books and Web resources to gain insight into the subject, with authors discussing the latest theories in cognition, creative problem solving, and intrinsic motivation. After compiling a list of some of our favorite authors I noticed that quite a few of them are actually talking about this subject on a daily basis. So I have put together a list of these authors who are exploring the concept of imaginative thinking in their work—and in their lives—and posting about it on Twitter.

Twitter is a valuable tool that should not be overlooked! This social network creates communities through shared interests, and can help you connect with people and exchange ideas instantaneously. So take a glimpse at some of these imaginative thinkers and see what they are up to, what is inspiring them, and what they have to say at this very moment. I have also included a recommended book by each author, in case you wish to explore their theories in more detail.

30 Education Twitterers to Follow

Twitter can be a valuable tool in education: it can link unrelated people together by shared interests and common goals. Educators have embraced Twitter, and it is now one of the hot spots to talk about topics related to teaching and learning. One of the reasons Twitter is flourishing among educators is because it can act as a “virtual staffroom.” Educators can share ideas and receive instant feedback by tweeting about what has captured their attention and what is happening inside their classroom.

There is no end to what people can share (and are sharing) on Twitter. So how does this exchange between teachers begin? First sign up for a Twitter account if you haven’t yet. Make sure to include a picture and a description of yourself in your bio. Then follow your colleagues and other people you know locally who you admire.

Then comes in the power of Twitter! Look for recommended users in the field (through lists such as the one we will be presenting) and add those users who look most interesting. Then look at who they are following and who follows them. You can easily preview a user’s tweets by clicking on her or his profile, and if that user doesn’t prove useful, with just a click of a mouse you can “un-follow” them and no longer receive their tweets.

Next, look for hashtags (keywords prefaced by #) related to education. Hashtags organize information so that people can quickly find posts on that topic using Twitter’s search feature. A few of the top educational hashtags are #educhat (general education), #edchat (general education and a Tuesday discussion at noon and 7pm), #artsed (arts in education), #edtech (technology in education), #education, #books.

We have scoured the web to select 30 interesting education-related twitterers. We have put together educators—ranging from the president of Ohio State University to a computer science teacher—who regularly post about education. And we have sprinkled in a few high profile twitterers who also have some connection with the education world, just to add a little spice! We have looked at their tweets, their interactions with other users, and their contributions to the field of education, and believe that these users are exciting examples of what is going on Twitter.

Hopefully you will find someone you want to follow! While you are at it, post your Twitter account link on our Facebook fan page so we, and others, can check you out!

Graphic Hamlet: Three Illustrated Works

Sexton, Adam and Tintin Pantoja
Shakespeare’s Hamlet: The Manga Edition
Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley, 2008

Appignanesi, Richard and Emma Vieceli
Hamlet (Manga Shakespeare)
New York: Amulet Books, 2007

Babra, Neil
Hamlet (No Fear Shakespeare Graphic Novels)
New York: Sparknotes, 2008

In his book, Shakespeare’s Hamlet: The Manga Edition, Adam Sexton starts off with a brief essay about the appropriateness of the manga medium to the text of Shakespeare.

“Manga are potentially more visual than a stage production of one of the plays of Shakespeare. Unbound by the physical realities of the theater, the graphic novel can depict any situation, no matter how fantastical or violent, that its creators are able to pencil, ink and shade.” (p. 2)

Sexton is well aware of the formal distance between manga and theater, finding the former more like “a contemporary film with a colossal special effects budget than anything produced in the Elizabethan era or since” (p. 3). Not only that, but manga is also more accessible than a film, as it is a portable medium and requires no electricity. Without doubt, the three illustrated versions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet considered in this blog entry serve as valuable resources for exploration of theatrical productions of the play, including the Spring 2011 Lincoln Center Institute repertory work, The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, created and directed by Corey Atkins for study in NYC-area classrooms.

An Outside/Inside Guide to Two Flamenco How-to Books, Or: How Can a How-to-Play Book be a How-to-Listen Book?

Graf-Martinez, Gerhard
Flamenco Guitar Method: For Teaching and Private Study, Volume 1
Mainz, Germany: Schott Music, 2002

Röttger, Martin
Studies for Cajón
Pacific, MO: Mel Bay, 2009

What is it that makes flamenco guitar sound so different? How are the hands doing all of those quick flourishes and dramatic embellishments, those “rasquedos,” or attacking of the strings? And the cajón—that deceptively simple wooden box that serves as both seat and instrument—how did it evolve and why is it still used? And how does a percussionist get so many sounds from one surface?

In their books, which each include accompanying DVD and CD, Gerhard Graf-Martinez and Martin Röttger explore the guitar and the cajón through aural and visual presentations of the techniques used in playing each. For students of the guitar or for wannabe cajón players, both method books are laid out in a clear and comprehensive fashion. But what if you are not a guitarist or percussionist already? Or what if you are not a musician at all? How could a “how-to-play” book serve as a “how-to-listen” book, enabling us to more fully experience these two instruments and their vital roles in the flamenco music sound?

¡Flamenco!

Edwards, Gwynne (text) and Ken Haas (photography)
¡Flamenco!
New York: Tames & Hudson, 2000

Like any art form that has been around for awhile, the excitement around flamenco has generated a huge amount of literature and audio-visual material related to its history and artistic form. Part of the challenge that both educators and teaching artists face when working with students to explore a specific work of art is finding contextual resources that best serve specific grade levels and curricular concerns, as well as deepening students’ engagement. When I find a book like Gwynne Edwards’s and Ken Haas’s ¡Flamenco!, I’m delighted, because so much of what I find useful is contained in a single volume. In addition to a wealth of high quality, large format, full color images, the text provides a range of historical detail that is clearly laid out and accessibly written. In my experience, such a book is an invaluable source for facilitating inquiry-focused learning that connects the music to its context, the specific work of art to the curriculum, and the students to their innate curiosities.

Can You Picture This?

© Picture Window Books, a Capstone imprint

Loewen, Nancy
Show Me a Story: Writing Your Own Picture Book
Minneapolis, Minn.: Picture Window Books, 2009

McCannon, Desdemona, Sue Thornton and Yadzia William
The Encyclopedia of Writing and Illustrating Children’s Books
Philadelphia: Running Press, 2008

This year LCI has something new in its repertory: picture books! Along with other wonderful performances and works of art, Frederick by Leo Leonni and The Arrival by Shaun Tan are offered through the Imagination Lesson Plans as subjects of imaginative learning.  As our learning community finds meaning in these books through our shared practices and Capacities for Imaginative Learning, we cannot help but reflect on our personal associations with picture books.