Creative Arts Academy
In continuing one of my recent posts on conquering fear in your art..
I made a list earlier this year of things that scared me that I needed to do.
At the top of that list was "teach a photography class"... and this year I've now taught not one but now two.
The recent experience was at a weeklong immersive creative workshop for high schoolers... something I was incredibly excited to be a part of. Ozark Christian College (conveniently located 5 minutes from my house) put it on, expanding their existing summer music/worship program in a huge way to include visual arts tracks and an added staff of skilled and very diverse teachers. Graphic design and illustration, filmmaking, storytelling, improv, even animation were included... and, of course, photography.
Ozark was learning on this one and so was I, so of course it didn't go perfectly. But it went well. Very well. We hoped for 100 students and hit exactly that... 100 students signed up. Let me say how proud I am of the school for taking a huge risk and trying something totally new, in a way to reach out and provide an environment for often overlooked creatives of a vulnerable age.
All week, the kids were full immersed in 100% creativity, experiencing Crystal Bridges art museum, working on multiple projects, listened to speakers at night who talked through what it means to be an artist and contribute to your culture through your gifts. Not just in the "well you could lead worship or design devotional covers" way, but "you could change the world with your gift, and here's 100 different ways that could look."
The end product of that week of artistic immersion was a program whose lighting, singing, videos, photos, set design, sound design, instruments, improv entertainment and animations were designed BY the students. My friend Lance described it like he was watching something being birthed; in spite of our tired brains, miscommunications throughout the week, teaching mistakes and the cracked voices or missed cues on stage from budding young performers, we all felt the intoxicating excitement of having inspired these highschoolers...and of having experienced the beginning of something big.
Most of the kids expected some lecturing and some worship. They left almost overwhelmed in the best way with finished projects, guidance and encouragement from career artists, and a way of thinking they’d likely never experienced before. One student was singing to himself in the dorm one night and a teacher who overheard him went out of his way over the week to repeatedly tell him to NEVER stop singing. Receiving that kind of endorsement from a respected adult when you’re that age and an insecure creative- it could just be the push to create artists and performers out of these kids who go on to change the world.
All that to say, there's no hint of "did that work"... only how are we going to do it even better next year?
Teaching is one more thing to cross off my list of things I'm not qualified to do and therefore hadn't tried. And already, I can see the 'importance' of my own work fading in the face of what I can electrify in the next generation to create. That's ok with me.
SHOOTING
Of course, I shot the week too for the school, as part of my continuing partnership for them, building up a library of images they can use for marketing this next time around. Here's a few of my favorite shots from throughout.
