EFA's Aesthetic Education Program (AE) is a process-based program that develops perceptual abilities of students in visual and performing arts through greater understanding of art forms, insights into how artists make choices and how these understandings relate to other aspects of life. Through experiential workshops, the program builds critical thinking, supports inquiry-based and student centered learning. Exceptional art works are used as primary resources around which the workshops are jointly designed by the Teaching Artist and classroom teacher.
For more information, call (269-488-6267) or email Nick Mahmat, EFA's AE Program Coordinator.
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Lincoln Center Institute The model for EFA's AE Program is the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education (LCI), located in New York City. Founded in 1975, LCI is the educational cornerstone of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Inc, and a global leader in education and the arts. Since its inception, it has reached over 3 million students and 50,000 educators. It is a model for 24 affiliated programs in the United States, Australia, Mexico, Hong Kong and SouthAfrica, which have collectively reached 13 million students since LCI was founded.
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Brief History of EFA's AE Program The AE pilot program began in February 2002 with twelve schools in six of Kalamazoo County's nine school districts, grades K-8. EFA's AE Program became a full LCI affiliate member in 2003. Today, the AE Program encompasses 33 schools representing all nine school districts, 150 teachers and 3,500 students.
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Basic Philosophy Aesthetic Education philosophy maintains that understanding a work of art exists in the transaction between the viewer and the art object and not in the object itself. AE involves perception, cognition, affect and the imagination. AE philosophy and practice is informed by LCI's Philosopher-in-residence, Maxine Greene, John Dewey, Howard Gardner and others.
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Works of Art At the heart of AE practice is the work of art, serving as the objects of study in both the visual and performing arts. EFA creates a repertoire season of high-quality works of art. Schools choose a work of art to study in each of the two semesters and have the option of adding a third bonus work of art for the year. EFA's repertoire ranges from the classics to cutting-edge works, drawn from a variety of cultures and disciplines, created by professional artists.
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Teaching Artists Composed of working professionals from various art disciplines, EFA's staff of 20 AE Teaching Artists partner with classroom teachers to guide participants through experiential investigations of a work of art. Teaching Artists work only on works of art in their own discipline. All Teaching Artists undergo a rigorous selection and training process.
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Educators Working in partnership with 150 classroom teachers in Kalamazoo County, the AE Program reaches 3,500 students a year. A partnership begins with an extensive five-day training: exploring and experiencing AE and choosing the works of art they will use with their students. Educators partner with teaching artists to guide their students through experiential investigations of a work of art.
For us, education signifies an initiation into new ways of seeing, hearing, feeling, moving. It signifies the nurture of a special kind of reflectiveness and expressiveness, a reaching out for meanings, a learning to learn. - Maxine Greene, LCI Philosopher-In-Residence
