Visiting The AcademyOn Monday morning, Sebastian and I were up before dawn to catch a train to New York City to visit The Academy. As part of their professional development seminar series, we were invited to present about Community MusicWorks to participants in the post-graduate fellowship program jointly sponsored by The Juilliard School, Carnegie Hall, and the Weill Institute.
WIth everyone sitting in a large circle in Carnegie Hall's 6th floor Kaplan Space, Sebastian presented a compelling and detailed summary of Community MusicWorks' growth over eleven years, including the inspiration he drew from philospher Maxine Greene's writings, his realization early on that the goals he had set forth would take much longer than one year to begin to achieve, and his relief to learn of the "third year slump" at a talk given by anthropologist Shirley Brice Heath.
In the second half of the morning seminar, Sebastian guided the ACJW fellows through a kinesthetic excerise about "aligning interests." Through role-playing, this was an opportunity to see how a project can take shape by building alliances that work for all parties involved (without "pretzeling" to achieve one's goals). [Exiting Carnegie Hall through the entrance to the Weill Recital Hall brought back memories of the last time CMW had been on the premises.]
Because our 3 pm meeting at Juilliard was canceled, we were free to enjoy ourselves for several hours before catching the train back to Providence, including visiting the Apple Store, the Petrossian Cafe, the Joan Miro exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, and my personal favorite, lunch at Le Pain Quotidien (Thanks Rachel!). -Heath Marlow, CMW staff |
