I started FestiFools 4 years ago (with enormous help from Shoshana
Hurand, from the School of Social Work, and fellow art professor Nick
Tobier) with the primary intention of increasing my student's visual
literacy. Shoshana helped us to create a stage for showcasing the effect
that visual literacy can have on a community (and visa-versa) while
Nick raised the bar on what a group of students could produce given
ample imagination and substantial educational preparation. Naturally, I
also wanted a project that was both challenging for my students and
involved passionate community participation, while being understood and
appreciated by a broader audience.
Now the greater Ann Arbor
community is acting as our Petri dish for developing effective ways to
replicate a successful model of community/university engagement through
the visual arts. Ultimately, Ann Arborites are also helping to develop a
simple cure for visual illiteracy--in effect, a cure for what may ail
us all.
Since the FestiFools mission has always been educational,
we're particularly interested in improving visual literacy education
and delivery methods in the schools. We've just started to launch our
"Fools in Schools" arts education outreach program in the region, by
going to K-12 schools in southeastern Michigan to engage students in the
same activities we set up for our college students. But, we are really
just starting to get our bearings between what is fun to dream, with
what is actually feasible when it comes to arts education programming in
the K-12 arena.
FestiFools is a way to offer kids and schools an
appreciative public venue for showing off their student work, as well
as a possible way to help schools offer this kind of opportunity to
their students. Making work for FestiFools raises the bar and enthusiasm
for students who then go on to make some really great stuff--which in
turn creates some really special ways for kids to view themselves as
important, creative individuals. This spirit of creativity benefits our
event, while FestiFools acts as a catalyst for helping kids learn and
appreciate their new-found visual literacy skills.
In the end, we
hope this will end up making for healthier, more imaginative, kids, and
hopefully, healthier happier communities will result as well.
If
anyone is interested in learning more about our program and how you
could become a part of our mission to help bring visual literacy to the
broader community, please drop us an email at
festifools@umich.edu.