The Aesthetic Education Program — modeled after Lincoln Center Institute in New York City — places the arts at the center of inquiry-driven learning experiences that include attendance at McCallum performances and exhibits. Teachers and students who partner with the Institute are encouraged to be curious, ask questions, and rigorously explore works of art to awaken imaginative learning.




A curriculum in aesthetic education, then, is always in process, as we who are teachers try to make possible a continuing enlargement of experience. There must be open-mindedness and a sense of exploration; there must be breaks with ordinariness and stock response. If this is how we approach curriculum, there may be a new readiness, a new ripeness in our students and even in ourselves. There may be an increasing awareness of things in their particularity, of beauty and variety, and form. People may be brought to watch and to listen with heightened attentiveness and care. The questions may keep coming. We can ask no more of ourselves.”       — Maxine Greene


Intensive professional development courses for educators, artist residencies in the classroom and encounters with live performing works of art and exhibits, allow students in grades K through 12 unique opportunities to be actively engaged in dance, theatre, music and the visual arts.

Students' critical thinking skills and perceptual abilities are sharpened by aesthetic education methods, which lead to improvements in subject areas across the curriculum.

The Aesthetic Education Program offers educators an opportunity to learn how to integrate the arts with an existing curriculum. Participants grow as professional educators by expanding on instructional methods, strategies and tools that support students' learning.

The Aesthetic Education Program consists of the following components:
  • Exploring the Work of Art -in the first phase, educators from affiliated schools participate in an intensive Professional development workshop at the Institute in which they explore specific works of art with teaching artists. At the core of this phase is the participants’ engagement in a firsthand experience of the creative process - dancing, acting, making music and painting. In addition, the artworks are analyzed through inquiry, reflection and research of context; discussed, and written about in order to be understood from a variety of perspectives.
  • Designing a Curriculum - in the second phase, educator teams are paired with teaching artists in an enriching partnership for the benefit of student learning. The teachers use the knowledge and skills they acquired during the first phase to design a classroom curriculum in collaboration with the teaching artist. Each curriculum is based upon a performance/exhibit from McCallum Theatre Institute’s annual repertory of focus works, and is built around four classroom sessions with the teaching artist. A lesson plan is custom-tailored to the particular group of students depending on their age, strengths and needs, and integrated with topics they are exploring in other subject areas.
  • Awakening the Imagination - the final phase brings educators and teaching artists to the classroom, where students study the focus works in the same way their teachers did: through hands-on artistic experience interwoven with reflection that can lead to imaginative leaps and interpretations. The teachers and the teaching artists jointly deliver the curriculum which they co-created.
2013 SUMMER SESSION AT THE MCCALLUM
Professional Development in Aesthetic Education


Introductory Course
June 17-21, 2013, 9am-5pm

New enrollment in the Aesthetic Education Program requires participation in a five-day introductory course. The Introductory Course components are:
  • • Aesthetic education workshops in Dance, Music, Theatre and Visual Arts designed to illuminate properties of the focus works, explore broad concepts in various art forms, and expand on teaching tools and strategies
  • • Performances of focus works in Dance, Music and Theatre, and an exhibit of a Focus Work in Visual Art, which serve as texts for study
  • • A lecture by Dr. Sue Teele, UC Riverside, on the Theory of Multiple Intelligences
  • • Maintaining a journal to record experiences and ideas
  • • Submission of an essay including three sections – one summarizing the journal’s most significant ideas, one analyzing and discussing one of the works presented during Summer Session, and a final section commenting on the Aesthetic Education practice and philosophy
Attendance is mandatory for the entire five-day Introductory Course.

Advanced Workshops
June 17-21, 2013, 9am-5pm

Partners who have completed the introductory course and are returning to the Program remain enrolled by fulfilling requirements in Advanced Workshops. Returning partners may choose to enroll in a variety of different workshops. The Summer Session requirements for returning partners are:
  • • Active engagement in a minimum of one and up to five specialized aesthetic education workshops in dance, music , theatre and/or visual art designed to illuminate properties of the focus works, explore broad advanced concepts in the various art forms, and expand teaching strategies and tools
  • • Attendance at a minimum of 3 focus works in dance, music, theatre and/or visual art which serve as texts for study
  • • Maintaining a journal to record experiences and ideas
GRADUATE CREDIT
Graduate credit is available for both new and advanced participants though Californian State University San Bernardino and UC Riverside.

California State University San Bernardino
Credentialed participants as well as CSUSB interns and pre-interns are eligible to earn 4 units of university professional development credit at the post baccalaureate level by fulfilling the credit course requirements/evaluation. Please note that these units are not applicable toward a multiple or single subject credential. Advanced partners also have an option to earn 2 units of university professional development credit.

UC Riverside
New and returning participants are eligible to earn up to 4 graduate credits from UC Riverside by fulfilling the credit course requirements. The credit course will be taught by Dr. Sue Teele. This course may also serve as a 2-unit elective for the Certificate in Visual and Performing Arts offered though the UCR Extension.
COST FOR PARTICIPATION
  1. Full enrollment — professional development with classroom services during the program year (school and/or district funding necessary): A “per teacher” fee is paid by the school or district, or shared by the school and district. The fee is $825 per teacher for 4-7 teachers at the same school and $775 per teacher with 8 or more teachers at the same school. Multiple teachers at a school site collaborate on certain aspects of the program. Teachers are not required to pay anything unless taking the course for credit.
  1. Professional development participation: $500 per person for the five-day introductory course (space subject to availability).

  The files above are in PDF format. If you do not have Acrobat Reader installed, you can get it here.
   
2013-2014 program year registration begins April 22, 2013.

Kevin Walter
Program Coordinator
McCallum Theatre Institute
73000 Fred Waring Drive
Palm Desert, CA 92260
Phone: (760) 346-6505, Ext. 141
Fax: (760) 776-6197
Email: kwalter@mccallum-theatre.org

Introductory Online Registration


Space subject to availability.
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Introduction to the Aesthetic Education Program
View Summer Session 2012 Slideshow
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