Arts Engagement

Activate your big ideas 

We feature arts throughout the Big Ideas Fest. From performances to artist installations to experiential Action Collabs to the interactive Media Lounge, we invite you to activate your big ideas by engagement with the arts.

Collaborative Art

Book Labyrinth Walking a labyrinth of 2,000 books, attendees reflected on and re-imagined the schools of today.

Learning Still is an interactive art installation created by more than 175 participants at Big Ideas Fest in Half Moon Bay, California, and hosted by ISKME. As an opening activity, participants were asked to write a few words or draw an image or pattern on a translucent acrylic shape about a memorable learning experience that impacted their lives. The pieces were anonymous but included the age of the participant when the memorable experience took place. The culmination represents a powerful story of collective learning from earliest memories to present day. Learning Still demonstrates the power of collaborative art-making through storytelling, and reconnects us to the experience of being a learner, both inside and outside the classroom.

EduTrees Participants interacted with Sculptor/Installation Artist Robert Bengtson’s art installations that use the blank leaf as a starting point to collect and share your ideas, concepts, and inspirations. EduTrees are clustered in thematic groves throughout the Fest. 

Deconstructed Pianos Mauro Di Nucci deconstructs pianos to invent new sounds and sculpture, which will inspire us throughout the Fest. Join the discussions at oerarts.ning.com to see how ISKME’s Teaching Fellows are applying his approach of remix and creation, integrating his unique art form into multidisciplinary K-12 lesson plans and activities

Media Lounge: This is your space to innovate. Use a flip cam to capture Fest moments and upload them to our YouTube site. Interview fellow participants for our radio station bigideasfest.fm. Brainstorm on the SmartBoard. Create, mix, and share. 

Improv We use Improv techniques in Action Colabs to get the Big Ideas flowing.  

 

Tenets of Improv

Film: Documenting and reflecting the experience

Roadtrip Nation is a movement that empowers students to hit the road and interview leaders from all walks of life to learn how they got to where they are today. In 2009, RoadtripNation.org was created along with an educational curriculum, The Roadtrip Nation Experience, to help students explore pathways relevant to their individual interests. This past school year, The Roadtrip Nation Experience guided more than 50,000 students across the nation to interview leaders in their local communities to explore pathways and opportunities for their futures. Come see Roadtrip Nation in action. You are invited to have a cup of coffee with the Roadtrip Nation team every morning at their Green RV, located on the roof of the parking garage just outside the Big Ideas Fest Foyer. They’ll be interviewing people throughout the Fest, so make some time for this amazing group of students.

Inspiring Performances

Nilaja Sun’s No Child Solo show based on her experiences teaching in the challenging environment of a New York City high school. She embodies personae ranging from a security guard, school administrator, student, and teacher. Sun’s performance was an off-Broadway smash, garnering several awards including a Lucille Lortel Award, an Outer Critics Circle Award, an Obie, and the Best One-Person Show at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival. As a solo performer, Nilaja’s projects include critically acclaimed Blues for a Gray Sun (INTAR), La Nubia Latina,Black and Blue,Insufficient Fare,Due to the Tragic Events of...and Mixtures. Recently, she made her film debut in The International, alongside Naomi Watts and Clive Owen. A native of the Lower East Side, she is a Princess Grace Award winner and has worked as a teaching artist in NYC for eight years.

Center Moves This San Francisco based group of internationally-renowned movement artists, teachers, and technologists, performed both an introduction and a reflection piece at the Fest. The group offers tools, teachings, and performances in support of creating active, real-time connections with the body. Center Moves is comprised of Brenton Cheng, Christine Cali, Vitali Kononov, Laura Stokes, and Albert Mathias.