ART INSIGHTS: ONCE UPON A SCHOOL

Following our week's stint of introducing to you various art insights, today we'd like to bring to you an eye-opening dream of Dave Eggers, (TED Prize winner 2008) which has much relevance to CAIS in both purpose and call.

Once Upon A School is a community initiative by Dave Eggers, determined to bring about positive change and communal support to public schools through programs catered specifically for each school's individual needs. The strength of this initiative is not in the programs itself but rather in the very act of a community coming together and working towards contributing back into the lives of its students. What started off as an after school tutoring program (826 Valencia) with professionals in the field contributing personal hours into tutoring students soon became a well received and appraised phenomenon. Quoting from the site, "The students come to 826 because it’s fun, it’s warm, it’s full of people who care — but who don’t HAVE to care. That is, the average students knows his teacher has to help with his schoolwork, and he knows his parents have to help. But there’s something very new and transformative about meeting a member of the community — a professional journalist, a radio disc jockey, a graduate student, an advertising copywriter, a software developer, a retired lawyer — and have that person give them 2-3 hours of undivided attention. Almost without exception, student achievement and understanding leaps when they are given this concentrated one-on-one attention. Teachers and parents love the help, and the students get to ask a hundred questions until they truly understand a concept."

Take a look at this talk by Dave Eggers, challenging the public to personally and creatively engage with local public schools. With spellbinding eagerness, he talks about how his 826 Valencia tutoring center inspired others around the world to do likewise.





We are truly excited with this movement that has started as CAIS Project with Stella Maris seeks to be a reflection of a similar cause. By initiating an alternative space that brings artist (click to view artist's list) who are professionals in their fields to come in closer contact with the students of a particular community and engage deeply with them, we hope to grant an opportunity for students to be exposed to contemporary art through the experiential learning of close interaction with artists.The significance of CAIS is valued in the method in which the next generation is reached, informed and educated about the importance of contemporary art.

In addition to this interaction, the project also introduces an exhibition unlike any other. By installing site specific works of local and foreign contemporary artist works at Stella Maris, the project sets an atmosphere and experience unlike that of a traditional gallery, but rather, a location where students get to ‘coexist ‘ with the artworks daily, allowing them to simply engage with the artworks on a regular basis in a familiar environment.

Do take some time with us as we journey to discover more and more of this community art's project's potential, one of which we truly believe has much calling for. At the meantime, do take a browse at this awesome community platform just mentioned above and find more insights on the direction we're heading. As we journey, it becomes more and more evident of how much a band of brothers we are across nations. Multiple ideas, similar cause.

Have a good read!