Julia Morgan Center for the Arts (JMCA) is the Northern California affiliate of the Lincoln Center Institute model for arts education. As one of eight participating Bay Area schools (one of two in San Francisco), Rooftop's teachers and parents are trained in special workshops, and work together with JMCA’s teaching artists to devise curriculum activities around selected works of art. The model focuses on developing students’ critical thinking skills, while building their artistic vocabulary and experience through classroom activities relating to the works of art being studied.
In fall and spring sessions, in classrooms with fully participating teachers, students will be receiving 8 sessions of instruction in the Lincoln Center model in preparation for the student's engagement with the selected works of art. In the fall, students will study theater and attend performances of Lunatique Fantastique's puppetry production "Reframing the Hourglass". A Spring performance by Crosspulse, featuring diverse styles of dance such as tap dance, clogging, and body music, will be the focus of study. Other classes interested in attending the theater performances at the Julia Morgan Theater in Berkeley will be supported by the Art Program, which will offer pre- and post- engagement art activities based on themes and concepts integral to these works of art.
WORKS OF ART STUDIED AT ROOFTOP
2005-2006
Lunatique Fantastique's "Reframing the Hourglass" (Theater)
Crosspulse (Dance)
2004-2005
Shotgun Player's"The Miser" (Theater)
Oakland Ballet (Dance)
2003-2004
Crosspulse, 7 songs (Music)
Ruth Asawa, 4 public sculptures (Visual Art)
Rooftop's study of Ruth Asawa culminated in a special event, "Transforming the Ordinary,” where students gifted their artwork to the school in tribute to the Asawa family.
Transforming the Ordinary (pages 1-4)
Transforming the Ordinary (pages 6-10)
Transforming the Ordinary (pages 11-16) - Poetry
JMCA at Rooftop Curriculum Sheets
"House on Mango Street" & Savage Jazz Dance Company
The JMCA Lincoln Center Institute program, working with Rooftop teachers during its intensive summer workshop, developed curriculum connections and prospective areas of study.
In the Fall, teaching artists, actors Dave Maier and Beth Donohoe worked with JMCA-trained teachers and the Rooftop Art Program in classrooms, preparing students for Word for Word's House on Mango Street. In Spring, dancer Jill Randall and Rica Anderson worked to prepare all additional classes for the Savage Jazz Dance performance.
Curriculum was developed by JMCA and the Rooftop Art Program and implemented in classroom art sessions. Classroom art activity sheets can be viewed and downloaded (.pdf files) from the links below.
Fall 2002 - "House on Mango Street" Sample Art Lessons
2001-2002
Facing East Dance and Music, "The Nature of Nature" (Dance)
African American Shakespeare Company, "Antigone" (Theater)
Julia Morgan Center for the Arts / Lincoln Center Institute
Concepts and Principals
Philosophy of Aesthetic Education
Aesthetic Education can be most simply defined as an educational program designed to enhance understanding of artistic expression. The Institute program represents a new way of thinking about the arts in education. It is predicated on the belief that the arts should be studied in an active, experiential way. The focus should be on developing skills of perception by using a created work of art as a "textbook", a focus for study. The instruction should be delivered by teachers, arts educators and professional artists working in partnership.
Works of Art as Objects of Study
Basic to the Institute's philosophy is the belief that works of art are inexhaustible: repeated encounters with the same work yields new insight. Encounters with works of art can change people, causing them to view the art work and the world in a new way. In addition, art works do not immediately reveal all that there is to be seen. Perception can be compared to peeling the layers of an onion. Art works can be seen on many levels and from many perspectives.
Learning to Look and Hear
The Institute is based on the belief that knowledge changes and enriches perception and that knowledge is gained through direct experience. Perceivers do not immediately see all there is to be seen in a work. One must learn to look—learn by participating, viewing, reflecting and discussing.
The Role of the Teacher
The teacher's role is to facilitate learning, while continuing to learn themselves. The teacher is the central figure in the students' school experience and can be a key agent for change in the way the arts are presented within a school. The teacher and artist collaborate to create the conditions for learning about a specific art work.
The Role of the Teaching Artist
The teaching artists helps to bridge the gap between the art work and the perceiver: he or she designs activities that enable people to more fully understand key features of the work.
Insights into the Process of Art Making
In working daily with professional artist and solving artistic problems posed during workshops, many teachers gain a heightened understanding of choices artists make throughout the process of creating works of art. A work of art does not spring complete into the artist's mind, but is created as the result of a deliberate, time-consuming, and at times frustrating process of choice-making. It is our belief that the perceiver will be better prepared to see the artist's vision worked out in the medium if they themselves have worked within a medium to execute their vision.
Connection Between Doing and Learning
One of the fundamental concepts underlying the Institute program is a belief that the only way one truly learns is through purposeful activity — solving real problems felt to be important. By solving artistic problems posed by teaching artists and creating simple works of art, teachers learn about the arts in a real, tangible way.
Collaborative Learning
One of the instructional methods often used by Institute teaching artists is problem solving within small groups. As a result of participating in this process, teachers and students gain an understanding of the collaborative process which is a part of artistic creation.
Encouraging Reflection through Keeping a Journal
Journals track the evolution of thoughts and experiences over time. Through this recorded journey, one has the ability to go back, to reflect on where one has been and where one is going. Writing down thoughts, reactions, perceptions, new information, and questions intensifies and makes individual life experiences more real .
Encouraging Reflection Through Questioning
Teaching artists ask questions to help teachers and their students examine their experieince of making aesthetic decisions as well as their perceptions of works of art. The result of successful teaching is that the teachers and students will begin to ask themselves questions about works of art that they see, clarifying and heightening their perceptions.
Encouraging Critical Thinking and Imagination
Opening works of art to perceivers involves all of the skills of critical thinking: asking questions, uncovering premises, and forming and testing hypotheses against observable facts. Participation in the Institute also fosters a critical perspctive that focuses on gaining insights through reflection rather than making quick judgements.
Repeated Viewing of Same Work of Art
Each time we see a work of art, we view it with a different set of eyes. New insights can be gained by comparing two viewings of the same work of art. What did you pay attention to upon the initial experience with the work of art? What was noticed during the second viewing, after discussion, analyzing, exploring, and reflecting on the work of art?
Desire to Share Insights with Students
In addition to growing and learning, participating teachers become more aware of how they could begin to open the world of the arts to their students. With genuine desire and concrete plans, they are able to help student experience whoat they themselves experienced.
Art Changes the Way We Look at Life
Many teachers discover that after learning to look carefully at art, perceptions of the everyday world can change as well. The aesthetic dimension is present not only in created works, but in nature, everyday activities, and utilitarian objects.
The Value of Art to Our Society
Art is one of the fundamental human activities. Teaching artists present students with their own questions about the visions of the world; our understanding of the human condition is deepened as a result of their work. We are then able to reflect upon the larger question of the place of art in society.
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