Social Artistry at Horace Mann
Social Artistry is an approach that links personal and professional growth. Dr. Jean Houston, one of the leading founders of the human potential movement, originated it.
Social Artistry is grounded in the idea that we can deepen and expand our capacities throughout our lives by engaging in intentional practices that "exercise" our body, our mind, our imagination and our creativity.
Social Artistry is an eclectic, generative and open-minded approach. It isn't a brand or a set program that tells us what to do. Rather it is a set of tools or practices that enables us to engage our full capacities in our work and in the art of social transformation.
Members of the Horace Mann faculty have brought Social Artistry into our curriculum, classroom dynamics and community engagement since the fall of 2006. The initiatives and supportive contributions of our Social Artists have included a wide range of activities.
Social Artistry is about all of us together co-creating the human and social changes needed to make a better world.
Dr. Houston has written, " The work of Social Artistry is evolving and open-ended, striving to provide a dynamic balance between inner understanding and outward expression. The Social Artist is one who brings the focus, perspective, skill training, tireless dedication and fresh vision of the artist to the social arena…. The Social Artist learns to think like a planetary citizen; to appreciate cultures and cultural stories and myths, while searching for the emergence of a new story, a new myth; to offer new models and paradigms of organization; to exhibit the joy of being a lifelong learner; to bring laughter and delight to learning and change."
Jean Houston: What is Social Artistry?
Re-Imagining Education: The Teacher as Social Artist Conference
The School-wide Teaching/Learning Community