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Visual artist turned medical educator Alexa Miller will host this salon centering experiences with visual art as a catalyst for expansion, innovation, connection, bias awareness, and shameless enjoyment.
Something ineffable happens when a group comes together to behold a work of art and lets things emerge by way of language and careful attention. Observations become questions become ideas become dialogues, and then new observations materialize new meanings right before our very eyes. We make contact with new parts of ourselves, others, the world, and — if we are lucky — the artist, too.
This series centers the skills, surprises, and shameless enjoyment of just that: rich experiences with humans and great works of art. The primary vehicle for our exploration will be the Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) methodology. A facilitation method based in social science that operates as a powerful community builder, VTS was originally created for K-12 learners and is increasingly applied in medical professional training.
The main focus of our sessions will be the arts experience itself, though nerds of VTS and teaching methodologies are warmly welcome to reflect on practice and technique.
This series has 6 episodes, running on the first Friday of each month, at 1-3pm EST.
Dates: February 4th, March 4th, April 1st, May 6th, June 3rd, July 1st
Depending on availability, the host might release tickets for each individual salon, too.
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| # | Date | Episode |
| 1 | February 4th | Great Works of Art and Powerful Questions: The Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) Approach This Salon will introduce the VTS method by way of brief didactics, conversation, and close engagement with art. What distinguishes art from illustration or entertainment? What is it that is happening within, among, and between us – not to mention the work of art itself, and sometimes even the artist! – that so uniquely catalyzes learning? And, where is that learning individualized and where is it collective? We’ll start our journey with this series getting to know each other by way of these questions. |
| 2 | March 4th | What Did the Water Give? This salon centers a selection of works by artist Frida Kahlo that truly, delightfully, and sometimes painfully confound. After close looking at these works, we’ll work as a community to address some of the questions they raise. |
| 3 | April 1st | Works Made in Secret This salon centers a selection of works of art that artists made and, for whatever reason, hid away. After lively close looking, we’ll work as a community to harvest the unique insights at play in what happens when we make from a place of audience-less curiosity and need. |
| 4 | May 6th | What’s in a Name? This salon centers a selection of works of art that work in particularly dynamic ways with the titles the artist gave them. After lively close looking, we’ll work as a community to harvest the unique insights at play between “the map” and “the terrain.” |
| 5 | June 3rd | Re-Creation What makes one form become another? What is it that happens in recreation, or the avocational play away from work, that is elemental vocation and creation itself? We’ll look at a sequence of works by visual artists, and explore as a community what it is they have to say. |
| 6 | July 1st | The Joy of Looking The works of art in this final Salon will be selected based on the themes and questions that emerged throughout the series. We’ll enjoy a last deep dive together, and have extra time to extrapolate takeaways and celebrate the learning and voices that made this series what it was. |
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