Crystal Bridges
I just spent the week in Arkansas at a beautiful museum called Crystal Bridges. Why would I go to Arkansas? The National Art Education Association held the first annual School for Arts Leaders and I was one of the 25 selected to participate.
It was an incredibly wonderful and intense week of learning, creating and bonding. I feel like I have 25 new teacher friends. Plus I have a ton of new tools for leading groups, dealing with conflict, make strategic plans and visualizing change. We had time to look at the wonderful collection at Crystal Bridges along with time to visual journal.
The second night, after a long day of learning, we went to this installation called, “The Way of Color” by James Turrell. It is a circular building with a perfectly round hole in the ceiling. You go at sunset or sunrise and the time activated computers begin a light show that creates an impressive optical illusion. The sky exposed by the hole appears to change colors, when in fact it is only the ceiling surrounding the hole that changes. Here are just a few of the color changes that occurred, and a picture of our group sitting in the space.
The museum only holds american art and is organized in chronological order. Of course my favorite was the contemporary art section including pop art and women’s art. There was a special exhibit of Andy Warhol. http://crystalbridges.org/exhibitions/warhols-nature/  Plus we were there when a new Louise Bourgeouis Spider was installed.
The location was so inspiring and the activities were excellent. I look forward to my leadership homework and the continued collaboration with the SAL group.
