I am delighted this year to be working with Marcelo Staricoff, founder of JONK Thinking and Learning (JONKTL) and our newest MAF trustee, on a national schools project called “Image of the Week”.
JONK The Joy of Not Knowing™ is a philosophy of education and of school leadership that uses innovative pedagogical principles, theories and initiatives to build emotional wellbeing and resilience and to transform children’s perception of themselves as individuals and as intrinsically motivated lifelong learners with an unquenchable thirst for curiosity and for analytical, creative, critical and philosophical thinking. The initiative known as the ‘Image of the Week’ is currently used by schools to promote creative and critical thinking skills by presenting students with a weekly work of art such as a sculpture, painting, drawing. The students then have all week to use the work of art as a source of inspiration for their creative thinking, critiquing the work, expressing how it makes them feel, what the artist may have been trying to portray.
Our new collaboration between JONKTL and MAF is taking the concept a step further. The Pilot Project that launches in the Summer Term of 2020 provides the pilot schools in Suffolk and Norfolk with images of the works of art of MAF’s Aldrich Collection of contemporary art. At the end of the term, the schools will then exhibit the real works of art, set up as a Gallery in their schools, curated by the students’ comments of each work. All the families, students and staff will then invited to look through and enjoy the Exhibition in the evening and even meet some of the artists too.
We are very excited for this new project which will be a unique way to share the Aldrich Collection with a wider audience and allow schools to readily access real works of art. By including artists and makers in the project, we aim also to support new creative businesses.
Steve Gallagher of Jumpstart, who designed the original The Future Perfect Company website, has done a great job designing the identity and project folders for us.
It is hoped that the Pilot Study will lead to a national programme.
Want to know more? We will be talking about the “Image of the Week” project and reporting progress to date at the International Festival of Learning on 3 July 2020.