Ranch, Writers Around The Campfire

November 20th, 2007 at 09:14pm Post Staff 3

SOURCE: Anderson Ranch Arts Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Snowmass Village, Colorado

AT DECEMBER 5 EXHIBITION, STUDENTS WALK IN EACH OTHER’S STORIES TO GAIN COMPASSION
The Aspen Writers’ Foundation and Anderson Ranch Arts Center Launch “Story Swap”

Aspen, CO … Compassion and creativity collide on December 5 as an innovative, cross-cultural program of the Aspen Writers’ Foundation (AWF) and Anderson Ranch Arts Center (ARAC) makes its debut. The program, known as Story Swap, uses storytelling, creative writing and the visual arts to generate understanding between native and non-native English speakers at the high school level. The work of approximately 40 Basalt High School students will be featured in a gallery exhibition and presentation at 5 pm at the Red Brick Center for the Arts in Aspen . The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
Aspen, CO … Compassion and creativity collide on December 5 as an innovative, cross-cultural program of the Aspen Writers’ Foundation (AWF) and Anderson Ranch Arts Center (ARAC) makes its debut. The program, known as Story Swap, uses storytelling, creative writing and the visual arts to generate understanding between native and non-native English speakers at the high school level. The work of approximately 40 Basalt High School students will be featured in a gallery exhibition and presentation at 5 pm at the Red Brick Center for the Arts in Aspen . The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.

The idea for this program grew out of a brainstorming session between Jordan Dann, Education Programs Coordinator of the AWF, and Sarabeth Berk, Children’s Program and Outreach Coordinator of ARAC, who wished to collaborate together. Pulling from her acting background, Dann suggested a drama exercise in which participants pair up and share a deeply meaningful and revelatory story from their lives, the kind, Dann says, that “you would put in a time capsule if the world were going to end tomorrow.” Each listener in turn then recreates their partner’s narrative, assembling the emotional hairpins into a sketch of the storyteller.
 
After students “swap” their stories, they are asked to write their cohort’s story, using any perspective they wish, and then create a portrait of the storyteller using chalk pastel or pencil. The goals of Story Swap are to exercise the imagination; improve writing and art skills; and develop mutual understanding through taking ownership of another person’s story and telling that story in their own voice.

“In a day and age where students are immersed in text messaging and classrooms are infused with diversity, when do students have the opportunity to stop, look and listen to each other?” asks Berk. “The Story Swap writings and portraits are unique to each author/artist, but also capture a momentous merge of two individuals — the creator and the muse.  The success of this project lies not only in the documented work of each student, but within its ability to engage students as citizens in the fabric of society.”
 
“Imagination is at the heart of Story Swap,” adds Dann.  ”It is imagination that allows us to see the potential for change within the community and to envision solutions and possibilities among diverse socioeconomic and cultural groups.”
 
Dann and Berk thought that the Valley’s diverse population would provide interesting contrasts that could generate creativity and, as a positive by-product, compassion among students. They decided to adapt the exercise to include writing and visual arts and integrate it with a high school curriculum.
 
Story Swap’s pilot program was adopted by Tim McNulty, an English teacher at Basalt High School (BHS), who incorporated it into his “Voices from the Valleys” course for creative writing students. The idea is to use literature to spark discovery of the diverse cultural backgrounds of the region. When Dann and Berk approached McNulty with the Story Swap idea, he immediately saw that it was “a natural fit into what I had envisioned as a way for my students to see first hand what the course was set up to do.”
 
Supported by BHS principal Jim Waddick, the Wyly Community Art Center and Springboard, Story Swap got underway on October 8 at the Wyly studio, located down the street from the high school. Nearly 40 BHS students gathered to meet their partners, exchange stories and share pizza after school.
 
During the nine class sessions that followed in October, Dann and McNulty worked with the pairs to develop their stories (written or oral, depending on the ELL student’s level of English writing skills), while Berk introduced students to a crash course in portraiture, both of which were followed by a period of peer review and editing. On November 8, the students turned their work in to Berk and Dann, who began compiling them for a webzine (which will be featured on both organizations’ websites) and the gallery exhibition.

Dann and Berk hope this will be the first of many Story Swap projects and that the program will take root in schools up and down the Valley, and possibly beyond. It’s an idea that resonates not only with students and teachers, but also with funders.
 
As Morley McBride of Springboard says: “We were interested in the Story Swap project because of its unique nature. It combines community building with student participation; writing with art; and native English speakers with second language learners. An especially intriguing part of it was that all these combinations were catalyzed by the simple act of telling a story face-to-face — an exchange that seems increasingly rare in a world reliant on technology and electronic transactions.”

More information on Story Swap is available from Jordan Dann at 970.925.3122 and Jordan@aspenwriters.org and Sarabeth Berk at 970.923.3181 x204 and sberk@andersonranch.org

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The Aspen Writers’ Foundation, Colorado ’s oldest nonprofit literary organization, has been bringing readers and writers together since 1976.  The organization’s mission is to provide programs that encourage writers in their craft and readers in their appreciation of literature.  Through its repertoire of eight year-round programs, the Aspen Writers’ Foundation annually serves 17,000+ literary enthusiasts of all ages. More information is available at www.aspenwriters.org .

Anderson Ranch Arts Center is a learning community dedicated to creativity and growth through the making and understanding of the visual arts. We promote artistic development through workshops, residencies and public events. A café, studios, galleries, summer classes and slide show lectures attract over 5000 artists, art-lovers, students and faculty each year to this historic mountain ranch near Aspen .  www.andersonranch.org  

Entry Filed under: Snowmass, Pitkin County, Spirituality, Non-Profits, Women, United Post, Colorado, The West, Education