< Previous28CHILDART“The first week’s paycheck felt so good,” she said. “I have a job, something to wake up to and look forward to.” Ashley tells me she likes meeting new people. She’s the funny one, and she’s great with foreigners. It hardly sounds like the person who walked in the first day of the program. “Youth come in very angry at where they are in life,” says Christina Ralls, director of workforce development and social enterprise for Art with a Heart. WELLBEINGART WITH A HEARTSarah PitcockArt with a Heart is more than a place to learn art and crafting skills, though its 11,000 community classes are certainly popular. It’s a place where many young people come to make a major change.Sarah PitcockWalking into the Art with a Heart store and workshop space is like opening up the windows for the first time after a long winter. The airy, light-filled former police stable is decorated from floor to ceiling with handmade crafts and works of art. Dozens of mirrored mosaics bounce bright colors from wall to wall. It’s easy to see how the time spent here can be so restorative. Art with a Heart is more than a place to learn art and crafting skills, though its 11,000 community classes are certainly popular. It’s a place where many young people come to make a major change. “Antonio and me, we’re woe,” said Ashley Knofski, a recent graduate of Art with a Heart’s jobs program, using a slang term for “best friend.” “He wants this as much as I do.” What is “this?” I ask. “A life,” she says.Ashley is 21 years old and experiencing homelessness. She and Antonio know each other through their connection to Youth Empowered Society (YES), a nonprofit that provides youth experienc-ing homelessness with a comprehensive set of health, education, housing and employment services. Art with a Heart works with groups like YES, providing jobs and training to their clients. Ashley shows me the Dr. Seuss-themed table and chair set she’s working on for a customer. This project has tested her patience. She is having a hard time painting the lines straight. She tells me she has come close to throwing the chair at the wall a number of times. But, she hasn’t. Christina says Ashley might not have been so successful at the beginning of the six-week program. Art therapy has opened the door for Ashley to build deeper relationships and essential coping, communication, workplace and life skills, which are also part of the jobs program. Ashley and Antonio earned the coveted apprentice spots at the end of their jobs program, gaining eight additional weeks of employment and a percentage of the sales of all of the art they make. Ashley is studying for her GED diploma and thinking about careers, perhaps something in the culinary arts. Though she’s not interested in becoming a professional artist, the skills she’s learned can be applied anywhere. 29Perhaps most importantly, the relationships and trust she has developed have given her the confidence to believe she deserves something better. “I’ve had jobs before where you had to work hard to make your family,” Ashley says. “Here, you’re family when you walk in the door. It brings out my best side. You can trust people if you put your mind to it.” Readabout itDo You Know Who You Are? Megan Kaye and Allison SingerBetween Shades of Gray Ruta SepetysScience of the artsVisiting an art gallery can reduce production of cortisol known as our stress hormone.Feeling good - when you produce art you increase the neurotransmitter, dopamine.Involvement with the arts can help you get better grades!When you focus on the type of art you love, you strengthen your brain’s attention networks.Art heals – it helps us to produce healthy levels of cytokines, helping to boost our immune system.Think of someone you want to make a gift for. Imagine what you might create.What would you need? What are the steps for making the gift?It could be simple or complex.How do you want the person to feel that you are designing it for?Making and sharing boosts positive self-image and connection. Try thisTHE ARTS + MINDArt With a Heart30CHILDARTimprovisational acting techniques to tell stories collaboratively. They decided to produce a video to educate and inform the community about positive changes liquor stores can make to limit underage drinking, using a combination of text, music, graphic elements and narration to inspire and influence residents and city leaders to take action. Their story will bring problems to life while focusing on solutions when screened at an upcoming town hall meeting. Participants are also working with the Baltimore Good Neighbors Coalition to advocate changes to city law such as the zoning requirements for liquor stores. They’ve learned it won’t be easy to build consensus, but they’ve got the social design tools and experience to stay the course. Alira offers sage advice for others interested in social design. “If you have a good idea, don’t just keep it in your head. Make it something people can see.”Social design requires imagination and creativity, but you don’t have to be an “artist” in a traditional sense. It also requires listening, observing, plenty of team work and the confidence to speak up. Students decided that liquor stores were a major contributor to the issue of underage drinking. According to their research, they attract crowds of loiterers on the sidewalk; often don’t enforce laws or check IDs and sell snacks and candy that attract young people. Still, liquor stores serve a purpose, too. They needed a solution that worked for teens, adults and communities. Students explored underage drinking a number of ways, visiting local businesses, neighborhoods and government officials; designing cardboard models of commu-nity centers and liquor stores and using WELLBEINGMICA“It’s not enough to say we’re teaching design to make the world a better place. We’re saying these disparities are not accidents. Someone designed this. How can we un-design this?”Diamond JamesFor seventh grader Alira Abdullai, it was an open and shut case. She was no artist. “I don’t draw. I’m not artistic. I’m not good at any of that,” she said. She figured she had no place in an art school, until she was introduced to a program at the Center for Social Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). “I learned you don’t have to be an artist to use the arts to inspire people,” she said. Students from St. James and John School spend their Tuesdays after school studying design and activism at MICA. Their charge? Design solutions for the problem of underage drinking. Before digging into their own issue, students studied and met activists who addressed other issues in their commu-nities. De Nichols, a social designer from St. Louis, shared her Sticky Note to Self, Mirror Casket and Design Serves projects. Will Watson, a local artist, shared his mural projects designed to bring hope to communities. For Alira, learning about the power of one person to make a change was inspiring. Funded by Behavioral Health System of Baltimore, the program introduces seventh and eighth graders to the social design process, giving them the tools to think critically about complex social problems and inclusive solutions for change. “It’s not enough to say we’re teaching design to make the world a better place,” said project lead Diamond James. “We’re saying these disparities are not accidents. Someone designed this. How can we un-design this?” Think about something you believe needs to be changed in your community. Safer streets? Better lighting? Consistent quality schools?Define the problem and create a list of ways you would address it.Try thisImages matter. The psychological effect of a direct gaze in a photograph makes the viewer more responsive.The colors red and blue are linked to enhanced cognitive performance.We process visual stimuli entering the brain (i.e. faces and words) through pattern matching. Warning labels can evoke visceral avoidance responses in the brain.Design thinking is a model for clearly identifying social, education and economic problems and creating solutions.Science of the artsRead about itDesigning For Social Change: Strategies for Community-Based Graphic Design Andrew Shea and Ellen LuptonLooks Good Feels Good Is Good How Social Design Changes Our World Anne Van Der ZwaagMICAthe arts teach us“We do not need magic to change the world. We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already. We have the power to imagine better.” J.K. RowlingNovelist, screenwriter, film producerTali Yalonetzki34CHILDARTLike many middle schoolers, seventh grader Khamani Lewis wanted to be a professional athlete. He was focused on football until an injury forced a pause in his plans. Lewis had at least one lucky break—his school was home to one of six OrchKids programs throughout the city.“My family and friends are jealous and proud at the same time,” Khamani said. OrchKids is not your old-fashioned band program. The program was created by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra to bring the love of music into the school day and the high-risk afterschool hours. Starting as early as three years old, more than 1,000 young people across six Baltimore City Public Schools participate in a program that connects them to music and instruments and provides opportunities to compose music and perform alongside professional musicians through innovative collaborations. “Young people are the driving force in this program,” says OrchKids Artistic Director Daniel Trahey. “Instead of coming in and saying, ‘this is the type of music we’re going to play,’ we ask them what they are interested in to represent their communities and their cultures. The OrchKids program has a more urban feel with elements of hip hop, classical and jazz music,” Trahey said. Traveling to different schools, states and countries to perform and meet other musicians is a big part of the program’s goal to grow educated musicians. Students often play side-by-side with professional musicians and write and perform their own original music with their friends. Khamani’s brass ensemble is known for playing its remix of “We Got That Fire,” a traditional New Orleans second line song that the group re-interpreted while on a workshop residency at the King School in Connecticut. Trahey recently visited New Orleans to research brass bands for inspiration and authentic sounds for his students.It’s hard to believe, but Khamani has only been playing the drums for two years and has already performed at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, written music with musicians from England and performed his first solo under the direction of a professional percussionist. He spends his Saturdays rehearsing with a concert band and taking lessons at the famed “Tuned In” program at The Peabody Institute. He loves the chance to get out of the house and meet new people. He says OrchKids has helped him feel more confident. “Music energizes me,” he says. “Sometimes it’s hard to stop playing.” ORCHKIDSScience of the artsMusic impacts areas of the brain that affect how we pay attention and make predictions.Heart healthy –music causes tissue in the inner lining of blood vessels to dilate to increase blood flow.The beat goes on! Slow the beat and the brain goes into meditative state or speed it up and the brain is more alert.Keep fit! Music during dinner soothes brain activity and helps you eat less.Don’t forget! Music helps your memory, stimulating neural networks that help sustain attention and cognitive control.Try this: Create unique playlists for the things you do – studying, eating, working out and more. Have other family members do the same and share.Make a homemade instrument to play when you want to change your mood – drum from a bucket or maracas from beads in a water bottle.12LEARNING35THE ARTS + MINDJULY – SEPT 2017Read about itThe Mysteries of Beethoven’s Hair Russell Martin and Lydia NibleyStory of the Orchestra-Listen While You Learn About the Instruments, the Music and the Composers Who Wrote the Music Robert Levine Meredith Hamilton Khamani isn’t the only one feeling more confident. OrchKids provides near-peer mentoring as early as third grade, with older students serving as mentors for younger students, building confidence and leadership skills. OrchKids participants attend school an average of 10 days more than the average student in Baltimore City Public Schools. Students are motivated to play music with their friends every day and meet report card, behavior and attendance requirements for the program’s travel opportunities. OrchKids also helps power the brain to handle academic classes and other stressors. “Music promotes flexibility in thinking and abstract thinking because there isn’t one right answer,” says Trahey. OrchKids is offered in some of Baltimore’s most at-risk neighborhoods, where crime and instability can create stress. Trahey says the program creates a space for peace and passion. Khamani is making the most of the opportunity. He’s set his sights on Baltimore School for the Arts for high school, and he’ll be practicing and playing every chance he gets. You might not find Khamani catching a football to the sounds of a thunderous crowd, but there’s a great chance he’ll be creating the thunder in a concert hall near you. OrchKids36CHILDARTLEARNINGLEARNING LANDSCAPESWhat does that it mean when you hear the statement, “learning is everywhere?” We hope that learning occurs in schools, but did you know kids only spend about 20 percent of their waking time in formal learning settings such as school? What happens the rest of the time? Think about when you play a video game. Are you learning? What about when you figure out the train schedule into the city or the discount at a store? Are you learning then?A community of researchers over the past 20 years have found that children learn best through play and practice in environments where learning occurs in meaningful context, where children can make choices and are encouraged to follow their interests. They have also found that guided play, where parents and caregivers take advantage of their children’s natural abilities, supports learning within prepared environments that encourage exploration and action. Most of this play and learning happens outside of a school setting. How do we create informal learning environments for all children? One example is Too Small to Fail’s and Tulsa Educare’s “Talking is Teaching” campaign. The program uses visual images, compelling graphics and engaging art to help parents and caregivers change their interactions with children during everyday events – describing objects seen during a walk or bus ride, singing songs while playing in a park or counting while in the supermarket. These materials are placed throughout the city to build awareness around the benefits of playful learning. Another innovative approach is Urban Thinkscape. As part of the Learning Land- scapes initiative at the Brookings Institution, Urban Thinkscape is one among a number of changes that cities can champion to change parks and other public places into learning environments. The first Urban Thinkscape is being developed in Philadelphia’s Belmont neighborhood. The idea is to marry architectural design with the evidence-based knowledge from the science of how people learn. The proposed space will promote curiosity and playful learning and encourage families to engage rather than merely observe.Imagine a streetlight where when you turn the wheel it projects an animation on the ground and you need to figure out how it works, or playing on footprints embedded in the ground to challenge children to experiment with jumping patterns. These inventive structures designed by architect Itali Palti help caregivers and children talk about what they see happening and help develop curiosity as they play. The goal of Learning Landscapes is to transform city and public spaces into venues for learning through interaction. “Once we change the lens on how we view everyday environments, we can begin to see the learning potential there. We can design environments that foster The goal of Learning Landscapes is to transform city and public spaces into venues for learning through interaction.Roberta Golinkoff 37Science of the artsTry thisChange your lens: Visit three of your favorite places, the laundry mat, the supermarket, the trainstation, your kitchen.What knowledge or information in science, math and engineering could you learn at each place?Placing signage in supermarkets increases conversation among families and boosts language development.Enjoyable play generates dopamine which is made by cells in the brain’s core.Physical activity activates the brain by creating neural networks throughout the body and making the entire body a tool for learning.Play has to be nurtured to grow and develop neural pathways essential for deep learning.Read about itBecoming Brilliant: What Science Tells us About Raising Successful Children Roberta Michnick Golinkoff PhD and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek PhD How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character Paul Tough Play changes neuron connections in your brain.a breadth of skills—from communication, to collaboration, to critical thinking—on our everyday walks and in our everyday neighborhoods,” said Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, director of Temple University’s Infant Language Laboratory, Stanley and Debra Lefkowitz faculty fellow in the Department of Psychology at Temple University and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.THE ARTS + MINDUBPNext >