Creativity
at the Center
of Learning
Photo: Gordon Miller
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News
$50,000 Awarded to Teaching Artists
To Engage Communities Around Climate Change Challenges
The first Thriving Communities Project Grants – each worth $10,000 – have been awarded to five teaching artists and artist teams to lead creative place-making projects that will engage their communities in an exploration of a local challenge related to climate change.
The projects include nine teaching artists working with 24 community organizations in four communities: Middlebury, Brattleboro, Marlboro and Burlington.
Peoples Academy
Creative Schools Initiative
Project
Vermont Public Radio featured a story on the project that teachers, students and community members in Morrisville are developing to answer the question: What makes my community sustainable?
Peoples Academy senior Cami Lowcock and high school art teacher Averill McDowell stand before some of the 23 banners created by art students, featuring people who make up the Morrisville community.
About
OUR MISSION is to empower communities to thrive by engaging people of all ages in projects that activate their creativity and inspire their social imagination.
Who We Are
Founded in 2011, the Community Engagement Lab is a leader in putting creativity at the center of learning. Our goal is for all Pre-K-12 students in Vermont to have greater access to high quality creative learning opportunities for developing the creative and critical thinking skills they need to succeed in school and life.
“I found out that I can be self-directed.”
- 6th Grade Student
Creative Schools Initiative project
What We Do
Our flagship program, the Vermont Creative Schools Initiative, has three key components:
Creative Projects This is what it’s all about: creative classrooms and communities in action. We award a seven-day teaching artist residency to each of our partner schools to help teachers and community partners provide more creative learning opportunities for their students. LEARN MORE
Professional Development for PreK-12 classroom teachers, teaching artists, expanded learning providers, and community leaders to develop more high-quality creative learning opportunities for Vermont students.
Community Network Building to align the programming of like-minded organizations for greater impact, and to build a shared vision and agenda for placing creativity at the center of learning. LEARN MORE
Where We Work
Since 2014 we have served 3,500 students, 110 classroom teachers in 37 schools from the Northeast Kingdom to Brattleboro. Our goal is to serve 3,000 students each year in all regions of the state by 2021.
"I have more motivation and more ability to go out and be an active member of the community.”
- 12th Grade Student
Creative Schools Initiative project
Creative Schools Initiative project at Randolph Union High School
Finnie's 41 sec. Creativity Pledge from the Creative Learning Forum
Lead Sponsors & Programming Partners
Bay and Paul Foundations
Hendrickson Family Foundation
© 2017 by Community Engagement Lab