A new organic conception of human capability

Apologies for the rather grandiose title, but this is essentially the text of Sir Ken Robinson's recent lecture at the Royal Society of Arts in London (where he received a special award). Sir Ken opened our specialist arts college in 1998 and has since gone on to chair national committees advising government on the importance of creativity in education and working at the Getty Centre in Los Angeles as a special advisor. Click here to watch a video of his speech. It's not short (about 50 mins) but it contains much wisdom about human nature and a powerful plea for an urgent paradigm shift in our thinking about education.

creative writers...

I have two pieces I'd like to share with you.
two of the images you've shared with me inspired
some very interesting prose.

I will type them up and share by next week.

do you think any of your photographers/artist would
like to take a poem or two for inspirational purposes?

if so, let me know.

I hope you are well.
~A

who said this?

'it's the fall
the unfallen
apple
holds its' brightness
a little longer into the blue air
holds the idea
it can
be
brighter'

How to Improve the World

Talking of new books, I've been looking for a suitable artifact our respective communities could use to begin some cross-cultural creative collaboration and yesterday happened across this book. I bought two copies for the knock down price of £10. It's a spiral bound sketchbook full of blank pages but it was the cover that caught my eye. I presume, since I bought it in the Royal Festival Hall, that it's part of the promotional material for an exhibition at The Hayward Gallery. I think the artwork is by Bob and Roberta Smith (the typeface is quite distinctive) who, you may not know, is actually one man who specialises in these kinds of text based messages. Anyway, I thought that maybe if I sent one of the books to Angel and kept one here, we could begin to fill them with ideas, drawings, photographs and dreams about "How to Improve the World", maybe just focusing on our own communities to begin with. The books could be passed around for a while and ownership of the book, even for a short period, would confer special status and a unique responsibility on the incumbent (see The Gift). Then perhaps we could swap books and compare notes, so to speak. What do you think?

a poems begins...

i picked up a new book today from reading reptile.

the title I will share later-- i left it in my car. ;-)

but it's a book for aspiring poets; I plan on using

it next monday at Cristo Rey High School in Kansas City MO.

The opportunity to work with creative writers at this high

school is an endeavor come true for me and I'm trying my

best to be prepared and such....

the book I bought is full of writing activities and on the

very first activity page...

read the quote, "a poem begins with a lump in the throat'.

by the infamous Robert Frost....

which instantly made me pause and think of Mr. Nicholls

and all the hopes we have and share.

cheers... to collaboration, eh?

si'.