Our Educational Philosophy

Our central mission is to support each individual’s artistic development. The teacher’s primary role is to spur curiosity, encourage self-reliance for creative endeavors, and create an atmosphere that supports reflection, dialogue, and integration. Some of our strongest influences include Seymour Sarason, Henry Schaefer-Simmern, Juanita Sagan, Joseph Renzulli, Elizabeth Cohen, Frances Hawkins, and Robert Fried, who in their diverse teachings share the seemingly radical notion that our interests and passions are the best motor for learning and that our job as teachers is to find and nurture that spark within each individual. By continuing to reflect on our own and our students’ work we discover new questions and develop our ideas further in concert with the people we teach.