Category: Art

Alliance Theatre Offers Collaborative Residency for Teachers

An honors student pursuing a double major in world languages and business at Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas, Texas, Zoe Reardon received a four-year merit scholarship through the Second Century Scholar program. Before enrolling in SMU, Zoe Reardon taught theater to children at a camp operated by the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia.

An organization that provides a wide range of theater and dramatic arts programming for children and adults, the Alliance Theatre features year-round classes, summer camps, and training for teachers. The Alliance Theatre Institute Residency is a program that pairs a professional teaching artist and a classroom teacher for collaborative learning. Using this model, the teachers create joint lessons and instructional strategies to fulfill the arts-integration standard set by the Georgia State Department of Education.

After the planning and coordination portion, the Alliance Residency continues with eight to 12 classes of arts-integrated instruction. The program has a built-in reflection and evaluation period, and concludes with teachers and students attending an Alliance Theatre production.

Why Does Abstract Art Make Some People So Uncomfortable?

An undergraduate student at Southern Methodist University, Zoe Reardon divides her time between academic responsibilities and professional experience as a summer theater instructor and business analyst for The Alliance Theater camps in Georgia. Passionate about photography and other creative pursuits, Zoe Reardon is the daughter of an abstract artist.

Due to humans’ natural penchant for solving problems, viewing abstract art can often be a challenge. This is because abstract art does not tell a particular story to viewers. It does not always have a meaning or narrative, and is often open for interpretation. Because of their inability to find a tangible meaning in abstract art, many viewers will instead avoid such artwork, or claim that it is simple to recreate.

However, despite having no narrative, abstract art does not lack a purpose. The point of abstract art is to encourage imagination and involvement among its viewers. Rather than creating a shareable experience, it strives to create an emotional experience for viewers that varies depending on each person’s state of mind and personality. For many, embracing this emotional experience is difficult and may even feel threatening to them, thus furthering their avoidance.

When viewing abstract art, it’s essential that individuals leave themselves open to the experience. Since there are no recognizable objects in an abstract piece, viewers need not worry about what other people around them are seeing. Rather, they should only focus on their own personal meaning and appreciate the artwork for how it affects them personally.