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Center for Playful Inquiry

What's Happening in September in the Studio?

Published about 2 months ago • 1 min read

Studio for Playful Inquiry

September 2024: Refuge
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We hope you'll join us in September for our Through Line exploration centered on REFUGE. Xitlali Zárate, Alicia Bustamante, and Vanessa Esquivel Martínez of Nest Tijuana will be our Guides. We'll be in conversation with them on September 2 and members can join us live or listen to the recording when convenient .

After two months of thinking together about how holding the arts at the heart is such a vital part of any effort to cultivate flourishing in living and learning, we're moving forward with a focus on what it means for the communities we serve to be places of refuge. Margaret Wheatley might call them "Islands of Sanity" These are places designed for human flourishing - the kind of spaces we need to feel safe and welcome. It is this sense of safety, trust, and belonging that allows us to face challenges with courage and creativity. Because so many children, families, and teachers can't count on open invitations to islands of sanity - we'll spend time this month contemplating ways in which we can cultivate and develop those conditions for ourselves and for those in our care. We'll reflect on ways to design that kind of invitation - and sustain the life of such a community through imagination, curiosity, and accountability.

All membership plans include the opportunity to join (or watch a recording of) our Guideline conversations, weekly reading guides, and discussion within the private online studio space. Some plans include live meetings, journal prompts, more robust opportunities to connect within this amazing community, courses, and practical advice about the use, organization, and possibilities of materials of the arts. This month, we'll be exploring the language of WEAVING.

Recent Reads

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Your Brain on Art

by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross​
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In July and August, we read this incredible synthesis of research in the field of neuro-aesthetics and considered the role of the arts in flourishing as human beings in communities.

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Deviate

by Beau Lotto​
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An incredibly important book for teachers to read about the science of perception. An explanation of why we dislike uncertainty so much, and how we can learn to find the courage to embrace more of it - and why we need to.

“It's a wondrous thing to know each other as humans being fully human.”

​Margaret Wheatley​

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3950 NW St. Helens Rd. , Portland, OR 97210

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Center for Playful Inquiry

Pedagogical partnership inspiring courage, community, change.

Susan Harris MacKay and Matt Karlsen provide consulting, coaching, and mentorship to educators who are seeking companionship and community in creating and sustaining inquiry-based, aesthetically rich, democratic learning environments and experiences for young children and themselves. Former directors of Opal School in Portland, Oregon. Author: Story Workshop: New Possibilities for Young Writers (Heinemann, 2021). Membership is open at the Studio for Playful Inquiry.

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