OVERVIEW

This summer institute teaches basic social justice concepts and advocacy through integrated work and exploration in the arts. Participants engage in hands-on learning in storytelling, movement and dance, image theatre, designing and painting, creative writing, social media and technologies, and film/video.  We use the arts to emphasize concepts learned in dialogue and reflection that culminate in a group mural project.  Our social justice work framework uses power, privilege, and difference to engage participants about their identities, histories, and communities.  We emphasize collaborative learning among community educators, students, and faculty through team building, intercultural dialogue, nurturing individual and collective voice, and fostering communication across differences.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand the role of art in social justice advocacy through intercultural dialogue.
• Recognize and see each other in various roles as individuals and creators of community.
• Nurture individual and collective voice through the creative process while teambuilding and problem solving.
• Encourage open exploration of identity and community to support belonging and trust.
• Build relationships and connections to feel heard and understood.
• Understand the importance of equity, access, and justice within and across communities.
• Envision, create and design a community mural and present about the work and the process.

The Parking Space:  The Parking Space is an area in the room, usually a board of some type, where participants can anonymously vent, share ideas, rant, comment, quote, insight, jokes, or other musings.

Social Media Station:  A computer will be set up in the classroom for participants to post blogs, photos, videos, doodles, sketches, poems, and other uploads to our website.