The Commons
The Intensive: Integrating the Arts
Imagine a place where you can release your inhibitions, face your fears, and see yourself the way others see you. For Utah teachers, this place exists in Westminster’s Arts Education/Integration “Intensive” series. The Intensive invites teachers seeking to incorporate elements of the arts into their curriculum to spend two weeks in June working with exceptional professionals within the field of music, theatre, art, and dance.
"We want to engage people and give them a powerful aesthetic experience,” says David Dynak, Beverley Taylor Sorenson Endowed Professor of Arts Education and director of the Westminster Center for Innovation and Creativity. Phase I is the two-week session on campus. Phase II is conducted online. During fall semester, students design an integrated 30-hour arts project for their school. Phase III (also online, in spring) is when teachers enact the curriculum they designed in the fall. They may choose how many of the three phases they would like, and the price is the same: free.
During the two-week-long program, 33 teachers from Utah—and one from Washington—worked with experts and each other to choreograph a dance performance, write and compose a song, and design 24 panels of a graphic novel. “They were forced to think in a way they aren’t used to,” says David. The transformation that took place in such a short period of time was nothing short of magical. Through the Intensive, they shed their fears, grew wings, and took flight, unafraid to expose themselves and try things that at the beginning of the program they deemed themselves incapable of doing.
About the Westminster Review
The Westminster Review is Westminster University’s bi-annual alumni magazine that is distributed to alumni and community members. Each issue aims to keep alumni updated on campus current events and highlights the accomplishments of current students, professors, and Westminster alum.
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