Dimensions of the Heart
Teaching Artist Residency at North Shore Elementary, 2009
TO BRING LESSONS OF LOVE AND TOLERANCE TO THE CLASSROOM
Class Acts, the Education arm of the Progress Energy Center for the Arts- Mahaffey Theater, brings its literary and visual arts residency, “Dimensions of the Heart” to a North Shore Elementary fifth grade classroom starting next week.
Class Acts, in its fifth year of partnership with North Shore Elementary, organized “Dimensions” as a means to educate students about both the physical and emotional aspects of the heart, exploring both its scientific functions, as well as more “heartfelt” and significant themes such as tolerance, slavery, civil rights, and the Holocaust.
The students will be exposed to the material in a variety of nontraditional and interactive environments, thereby creating the highest level of engagement possible in terms of educator guidelines.
The first of these exciting learning opportunities takes place Tuesday, March 3 at 9:50 AM. Students will have the rare opportunity to experience a live webcast from France of Simone Liebster, a Holocaust survivor who, as a child, was sent to reform school when she would not “Ziek Heil.” Ms. Liebster is the author of “Facing the Lion”, which the students read in class.
Between March and the end of the school year, the fifth graders will have regular interactions with legendary literary and teaching artist, Nan Colton, who will guide the students in the artistic aspect of the residency.
In support of their classroom studies as guided by their classroom teacher, students will visit the Leepa-Rattner Museum to view Pablo Picasso’s Guernica and watch as Nan Colton depicts Dora Maar, the French photographer and painter that Picasso met and fell in love with in January 1936.
They will also visit the Holocaust Museum to meet with Holocaust survivors, and then to Progress Energy Center for the Arts-Mahaffey Theater to see the ArtsPower Nat’l Touring Company performance “My Heart in a Suitcase”, the story of a family who sent their daughter away on Kindertransport.
Participating students will work directly with their classroom teacher, visual art instructor and Nan Colton on creative writing, script writing, acting, and visual arts projects as a means to document their field trip and classroom explorations.
“Dimensions of the Heart” culminates in an “Artists and Writers” reception on May 14th at 7 PM in the Media Center of Northshore Elementary School. This event showcases and celebrates all of the participating students’ writings, performances, and trunks that were created throughout the course.
Support for “Dimensions of the Heart” and other Class Acts programs provided by Progress Energy, the Division of Cultural Affairs, Florida Arts Council, Florida Department of State, Pinellas County Arts Council, the City of St. Petersburg, SMG, the Mahaffey Theater Foundation, North Shore Elementary, Nan Colton, Donorchoice.org, Pinellas County Schools, and ArtsPower National Touring Company.
Class Acts is a program of "Mayor's Mentors & More.”