The William Penn Foundation, in partnership with WolfBrown and Creative Generation is pleased to announce their new collaboration to produce a professional development series titled, “Reinventing Strong Practices: Equitable Access to Creative Opportunity.”
The six-part series, Reinventing Strong Practices, fosters a re-examination of arts education as a tool for social justice and equity of imaginative opportunities for all learners. Led by Philadelphia and Boston artists and educators, participants will re-think what they bring to schools and classrooms and how they do that vital work. The installments will be available asynchronously for the Philadelphia teaching artist community to engage with in August before participating in planning conversations with WolfBrown at the start of the 2022-2023 school year.
“We are thrilled to be working with our close colleagues at WolfBrown and new colleagues at the William Penn Foundation,” said Jeff M. Poulin, managing director of Creative Generation. “We, at Creative Generation, believe there is tremendous power in collaboration to drive the systemic change our field needs.”
Creative Generation was founded in April 2019 as a research initiative and has grown its work throughout the United States and around the world. Through pioneering projects in the arts and cultural, education, and social change fields – and the relentless support of arts and cultural educators in their work to cultivate the creative capabilities of young people – the organization regularly produces impactful professional development for practitioners around the world.
“This project brings together earlier research we have done with the Foundation and the values that we share with Creative Generation,” said Dennie Palmer Wolf, Principal Researcher of WolfBrown. “This extension gives us the chance to re-examine and re-invent the field, its core strategies, and the ways we look at the impact of teaching artists in schools. What we reinvent in this series will form the basis for an in-depth collaborative research study supporting the work of the Foundation’s grantees working throughout Philadelphia Public Schools during the 2022-23 school year.”
WolfBrown’s Amplifying Creative Opportunities practice area, led by Drs. Dennie Palmer Wolf and Steven Holochwost, assists institutions and communities in designing, implementing, and evaluating creative learning programs spanning all age groups. Its innovative, sector-leading work in this area includes basic research, integrative landscape and literature reviews, participatory and summative program evaluations, all with the understanding of how these programs build the diverse creative capital in individuals, families and communities.
About Creative Generation
Creative Generation is a values-forward, global collective of artists, educators, administrators, researchers, storytellers, and activists that believes that youth create change. We serve as both a learning and capacity building organization that collaborates with young creatives and those who cultivate their creativity to take local actions towards global changes in pursuit of a more just world.
Learn more at www.Creative-Generation.org
About WolfBrown
WolfBrown helps funders, nonprofit institutions and public agencies understand their potential, set priorities and fulfill their promise. At the heart of our work is the belief that every human being has a unique creative voice of intrinsic worth and that every community has a responsibility to awaken, nurture, and sustain its cultural capital. Learn more at https://www.wolfbrown.com
About the William Penn Foundation
The William Penn Foundation aims to help improve education for children from low-income families, ensure a sustainable environment, foster creative communities that enhance civic life and advance philanthropy in the Greater Philadelphia region. Learn more at https://williampennfoundation.org