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Spotlight: Learn Art. Get Messy. Make Beauty. How Brentwood Art Center Grows Artists

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And this happens because of a really well orchestrated partnership with 118 people, including teachers and artists and administrators and staff and also assistance. It's an amazing organization, and the fact that she has been able to coordinate this so successfully is one of the reasons why we wanted to speak with her today, and my hope is that we can all be a little bit more inspired to bring art into our lives at a really active level

Adrienne Luce - Executive Director - in discussion with us about art classes for all ages. NO LIMITS! http://bit.ly/Brentwood_Swell #swellinterview

@luceinla
Adrienne Luce
@luceinla · 2:48

Reply to @DBPardes my week has been joyful and inspiring

So whether it's in our children's classes or our adult classes, I get to see the artistic process in action and to see students do more, be more express, more than they ever thought they could here at the Brentwood Arts Center, we truly believe everybody is born an artist. I think everybody's an artist. We all have something creative to express
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Veterans and art

That specific program. I think it's really powerful and I've worked with veterans myself in the writing world. So I really love that focus. Can you tell us how you started that and how it's going and advice for people who want to do it in their own communities
@luceinla
Adrienne Luce
@luceinla · 4:58
So one vet, for example, Leon, he was very interested in drawing detailed scenes, kind of nautical scenes with helicopters and planes and boats. And so when I visited the program and met Leon, I actually ended up buying a couple of books, the eyewitness books that have many different because he told me I would love more pictures of planes and boats. So we got those for him. So I think one of the keys to a program like this is to be very flexible
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Customization and COVID

I hate that expression, but you know what I mean. It's wonderful because it's just a holistic organization for sure where nothing happens by accident and there's dialogue and there are choices that are made and lives that are really impacted by this customization. To that point, I want to ask you about the adult learner in general, and then we'll get to kids in a second. But the model you just described in terms of knowing these different populations and knowing how to teach them
@luceinla
Adrienne Luce
@luceinla · 4:55
There are many, many online classes offered by very prestigious art schools through their community programs, but we're really trying to reach and support people that maybe they took an art class in middle school 40 years ago. Maybe they made art when they were young and then life happened and they are retired and have always wanted to find the time and space to be creative and also the more advanced intermediate or advanced art enthusiasts and art hobbyists who really do have developed a rigorous artistic practice
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Family doing art - all in?

It wasn't my favorite activity, but I really valued the narrative of the way she spoke us through the exercise, how it became its own sort of meditation. It was beautiful. I want to talk a little bit about the family unit and then also specifically the kids. But it seems like Bretwood Art Center is positioned to help an entire family connect to art during this time. Do you have any stories about families getting involved with the courses as a way to complete this big circle? Not anyone
@luceinla
Adrienne Luce
@luceinla · 3:50

@

Deborah, the interesting thing is in the midst of this pandemic and having to move all our programs online in May, the online classes actually have been an extremely extraordinary way for families to connect. So I'll start with anecdote from when we had in person classes, and then I'll share what I'm thinking about that I was just starting to talk about with our in person classes. I remember we had a mom who was going through Chemo and she and her son
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Core philosophy for teaching kids

And I wanted to ask about the shoulders of Giants that I know we all stand on. And I know that Shelley tries to bring in some of the great painters of our time to let the kids understand how somebody like Picasso would draw versus somebody like John Morose versus somebody like Montreal. So think there's an opportunity to educate while they're still getting delighted
@luceinla
Adrienne Luce
@luceinla · 4:15

The importance of creativity

So even though the student might not certainly is not aware that we're making very deliberate decisions, we are trying we're very much trying to draw upon what their experiences might be in the classroom and then build upon that knowledge base
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Non-dominant parts / social emotional learning OPEN to all for discussion

Wow. This last answer is like a template for how other art centers should or could create programming that really has a long tail impact on anyone taking these classes because it's about the intersectionality of what you learn as an artist and how you apply it as a thinker into the world. And I think we can all use that all the time
@luceinla
Adrienne Luce
@luceinla · 5:00

Art is vital to our humanity

And I think it's a very essential part of being human. I also think one of the interesting things about creative expression is if you can suspend your expectations and your judgments, which is really hard for adults to do to be honest with you and embrace the safe space that our faculty so adeptly create and foster. They foster this very safe community and safe space for creative expression. What I find is art
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