Presenter Cynthia Weiss discusses images created representing labyrinths
Photograph by Sophie Barbasch

In the summer of 2010 educators, artists, and organizational leaders gathered to participate in the Habla Teacher Institute. Participants collaborated with a team of international artists in multiple artistic disciplines to explore the concept of labyrinths through contemporary and classical art works and literature. Participants created original work in various art forms considering how labyrinths resonate as a metaphor in our lives today. Through this process educators envisioned how to transform educational settings into cultural communities rich with writing, reading, and art making.

Habla partnered with CAPE (Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education) to document the teacher institute. Arnold Aprill, founder and creative director of CAPE, led a team of researchers–Rebekah Bergman, Maggie Thulson, Sophie Barbasch, and Jessica Vosburgh–to thoroughly documented the institute with video, images, and transcriptions of presentations.

Visit CAPE/Habla's collaborative website here to see the full Habla Teacher Institute documentation.

The 2010 Habla Teacher Institute partners included CAPE, The ArtsLiteracy Project at Brown University, Project AIM in The Center for Community Arts Partnership at Columbia College, and Manigua.

A primary emphasis of Habla's work is documenting teaching practices and student learning to share beyond the walls of the school. In 2010 teacher and artists visited from around the world to collaboratively teach at Habla's summer lab school.  The students in the school, ages 8-12, explored the concept of "Labyrinths." Each week was shaped around a different aspect of the concept: labyrinths of the self, city, natural world, and imagination. At the end of each week, students presented performances and exhibits for the community.

With the support of NALAC (National Association for Latino Arts and Culture), Habla partnered with CAPE (Chicago Arts Partnership in Education) to document the summer experience so that the student and teachers might reflect on their own experience and for educators beyond Habla to use the concepts and activities in their own classrooms.

Click here to visit the CAPE/Habla website to see extensive images, videos, and text of the full experience.

A special thanks to Arnold Aprill, the founder and creative director of CAPE, for spending two weeks at Habla leading a team of documenters and working with the teachers and students.

Morris Bowie photographs the teacher institute. Photograph by Arnold Aprill.

Through our work with Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) and Reggio Emilia we've learned the importance of thorough documentation of the teaching and learning process. During the Habla 2009 teacher institute, "Cabinets of Wonder," we were lucky to have with us Arnold Aprill, the creative director of CAPE as well as Chicago photographer Morris Bowie. Habla director Kurt Wootton, Arnold, and Morris collaborated with the participants to document the institute through field notes, photography, and video. CAPE donated space on their website to host the curated institute documentation. See the full documentation here and join us next year for the 2010 Habla Teacher Institute "Into the Labyrinth."

On June 15th-19th, 2009 Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE) and Habla collaborated to design a new kind of professional development institute for teachers at the Walt Disney Magnet School in Chicago, Illinois. The staff for this week-long institute involved many of the artists and educators who work with Habla on a regular basis (and who will be involved in the Habla Teacher Institute "Cabinet of Wonders" July, 2009). These artists and educators included Arnold Aprill, Cynthia Weiss, Kurt Wootton, Morris Bowie, Robert Possehl, Sarah Roodhouse, and Catherine Mann.

CAPE and Habla documented the entire process with video, photography, and text.

Visit CAPE's website to view the process (and to learn about thorough ways to document teaching and learning).

In his talk “New Standards for a New Century: Contemporary Arts Education and Contemporary Teaching and Learning” given at the 2nd Annual International Education Summit, Mr. Aprill talks about teaching and learning organized around Big Ideas and contemporary concepts in anticipation of future demands on education.

To watch the video of this talk click here.
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To listen to the audio of this talk click here.
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To download the text of this talk click here.