OUR HISTORY 1971-2018 20 100 CONTENTS 1 From the Founder 4 A Poem by Aaron Stern 6 Our Mission 6 Academy Timeline 8 Academy Programs 22 20 Years in Pictures 26 20 Years in Numbers 26 Where We’ve Worked 27 20th Anniversary Events 28 20th Anniversary Images Send correspondence to: Laura Pancoast, Development Coordinator 133 Seton Village Road Santa Fe, NM 87508 [email protected] ON THE COVER & LEFT: Academy for the Love of Learning photo © Kate Russell 20 YEARS of the Academy for the Love of Learning Copyright © 2018 Academy for the Love of Learning, Inc. 2018 has been a very special year, as it marks the 20th anniversary of FROM THE FOUNDER the Academy’s official founding in 1998. 2018 is also, poignantly and coincidentally, the 100th anniversary of Leonard Bernstein’s birth. Lenny, as I knew him, the great musician, the 20th century giant with whom, in 1986, I conceived the Academy, was one of the first people with whom I engaged in dialogue about “this thing,” as he called it, just before proposing that we call our “thing” the Academy for the Love of Learning. “Why that name?”, I asked – and he said: “because you believe that if we truly open ourselves to learning, it will liberate us and bring us home, individually and collectively. So, the name is perfect, because the acronym is ALL!” I resisted it at first, but soon came to realize that the name indeed was perfect. This and other prescient dialogues have helped us get to where we are today – a thriving, innovative organization. Hopefully, a light in the darkness. I have learned many things from the conversations and experiences I have engaged in and the people I have met along the way in this 20-plus-year journey of the Academy, and the two preceding decades that lead to my founding of it, formally, in 1998. One essential thing I have learned is that in order to open and engage with others and all of life we must take the lid off learning and bring ourselves into that capacity to transform. This is learning that leads us, by nature, to kind-hearted, peaceful, vibrant communities, telling stories of wellbeing. My hope is that this beautiful booklet will bring you into a fuller understanding of the story of the Academy as I have lived it from 1971-2018. I look forward to engaging, listening and working together to waking ourselves up by bringing light, steadfastly. As Henry David Thoreau tells us so beautifully: “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us even in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man [sic] to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts.” Aaron Stern Founder & President Academy for the Love of Learning aloveoflearning.org 1 The Impulse Exercise…was very profound “ for me. The way it touches on relationship, connection and self-awareness is so enriching that the exercise has become a basis for my own teaching.” —Livia Vanaver 2 20 YEARS of the Academy for the Love of Learning © Academy for the Love of Learning Next to learning to read, Leading by Being has been the most important “learning experience in my life.” —Mary Ellen Petrisko aloveoflearning.org 3 A POEM BY AARON STERN In 1986 Leonard Bernstein helped to launch Aaron Stern’s vision of what would become Academy by hosting an event at his home at the Dakota building in New York City. Aaron wrote this poem for the occasion. Almost Filled horray olive oil, woody, shamu the whale kids and here comes humpty my fave squealing glee and wonder full-filled with glorious helium drop-jawed flying almost free hope-hearted 12 stories high whole ham sandwiches in hand strings attached wriggling, darting through a sea of taller grasses up there sometimes meandering like the giant balloons up there flat the balloons will lie repacked yawning fathers in their lonely crowded cartons mothering mothers unfilled dutiful uncles and aunties down there filled with the need to cut it short and humpty my fave looking everywhere but up there winded veiled against the giant airborne images of their childhood waiting for the next time yearning for symbols when and if it comes envious when all the kings horses...... hard hand in hand with little nancy hanging on to protect and to try and connect with ancient icons ©1986 Aaron Stern His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Aaron Stern and Richie Davidson 4 20 YEARS of the Academy for the Love of Learning Leonard Bernstein Program Cover; Thirteen Anniversaries >> >> Thirteen Anniversaries, Music Score for Aaron Stern Academy Co-conceivers Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Stern at Tanglewood, early 1980’s © Academy for the Love of Learning aloveoflearning.org 5 OUR MISSION The mission of the Academy for the Love of Learning is to awaken, enliven, nurture and sustain the natural love of learning in people of all ages. We seek to encourage and cultivate the powers of critical thought, imagination, curiosity, innate sense of purpose, wonder and inspiration, and an ongoing awakening of the heart. To achieve our mission, the Academy exists as a nonprofit educational organization developing and disseminating a transformative curriculum and methodology – our learning field inquiry approach to learning – through an integrated set of programs, conferences, organizational practices and research. The overarching intent of our work is to help stimulate and support the rebirth and renewal of learning and education in America. In the words of American poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti, we are seeking to foster a perpetual “rebirth of wonder.” An Academy 1971 TIMELINE KENNEDY CENTER PREMIER OF MASS The Academy for the Love of Learning was Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Stern meet for the first time at Bernstein’s birthed from an intense, ten-year collaboration MASS (A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers). MASS was composed at the request of President Kennedy’s widow for the between Academy President Aaron Stern and his inauguration of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. on September 8, 1971. mentor Leonard Bernstein. A collaboration which began while Stern was the Dean of the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago. 6 20 YEARS of the Academy for the Love of Learning Aaron Stern playing piano in Leonard Bernstein’s >> Connecticut Studio First and foremost, what I uncovered/tapped back into/understood in a new way/ “discovered in the workshops has had a real and profound impact in my personal life. It has propelled me to investigate/be with and act in the world differently and still does. I cannot thank you enough for creating space to allow that to happen. Secondly, I have been using some of what I learned from you when I am facilitating; in particular moving folks through practice, individual reflections (writing and non-writing), various structures of dyad and small group and then scaffolded opportunities to make meaning. In some ways, it feels like I have seen from masters and that unlocks a sense of permission for me to tread this ground myself. I am left with a sense that your work/your practice/your efforts and their impact on me have gone on to impact many others in the world. What a wonderful cycle to be a part of! Wishing you deeply, deeply well, —Chad McGehee Learning & Development Program Lead Healthy Minds Innovations Center for Healthy Minds University of Wisconsin / Madison In 2016 The Academy began a collaboration with the Center for Healthy Minds with the intention of developing an evidence base for our Foundation Programs. 1978 1980 AMERICAN CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC A TRIP TO CHINA In 1978 Aaron Stern became Dean of the American Conservatory of Music China trek takes a giant step toward cultural harmony in Chicago and served through the early 1980’s. It was here that he began by John von Rhein, Classical Music Critic, Chicago Tribune to focus on learning and educational processes, developing creative, experiential curricula that won national acclaim. “The “Gang of Five,” as the delegation of administrators from the American Conservatory of Music might be called, were Charles Moore, president; Aaron Stern, dean; Adia Ghertovici, director of pedagogy; Idilia Jurco, comptroller; and husband, attorney Stephen Jurco. Their mission was to observe teaching methods in three of China’s largest conservatories, give master classes, and listen to student performances. The visit, apparently the first ever by an American conservatory, paved the way for a group of 10 teachers and advanced students from Chinese music schools to begin a course of study next January.” Aaron Stern playing piano in Leonard Bernstein’s >> aloveoflearning.org 7 Connecticut Studio ACADEMY PROGRAMS Encounter Learning as a Practice through the Academy’s Foundational Programs The Academy Foundational Programs invite community members to explore and develop the learning impulse as a practice for “waking up” through a variety of intensive workshops, community conversations and longer courses. We believe that lasting, positive change can occur when we liberate the learning process from the four walls of our schools and institutions. To begin, we need to bring our attention and awareness to the learning impulse itself.