River of Words: Art & Poetry for Our Watershed

Aboard RiverQuest's Explorer This multifaceted professional development opportunity for educators provides authentic learning experiences designed to enhance participants’ abilities to make discoveries about their world through art and science. River of Words is focused on developing an understanding and appreciation of our region’s watershed through hands-on discovery, reflection and writing, and creative self-expression. Inspired by a national organization also called River of Words, our program involves teachers, parents, and the community in a unique regional collaboration.

In 2007, four organizations—The Arts Education Collaborative, Carnegie Museum of Art, RiverQuest and 3 Rivers Wet Weather—formed a collaboration to implement a regional version of the international program. The international River of Words (ROW) organization was co-founded in 1995 by Robert Hass, who served as U.S. Poet Laureate from 1995-1997, and writer Pamela Michael.

The two-day workshop was offered for the first time in the Fall of 2007 and has been repeated in the Spring of 2008 and Fall
At Carnegie Museum of Art of 2009, attracting more than 50 teachers from 15 school districts across the Pittsburgh region, often with art and science teachers from the same school attending as a team.

This workshop provides teachers with:

• Direct experiences of scientific and artistic creative processes using standards-based science, art, and language arts curricula;
• Presentations by scientists, artists, and poets about their work and opportunities to practice their instructional strategies;  
• Opportunities to design custom classroom and field study experience for students on the river and at Carnegie Museum of Art to investigate and make discoveries related to understanding the local watershed and its significance;
  

2009 River of Words Workshop Slideshow Chris Lisowski, a visual art teacher from Shaler Area School District, reflects on the experience that he had after attendin the workshop and subsequently receiving a grant award to do a project in his district with his students: “Finding plankton on the RiverQuest boat and exploring the International Exhibition at Carnegie Museum of Art transformed how we looked at our rivers and the world around us.  We all learned a lot from our field trips and had an enriching experience that will last a lifetime.” Mr. Lisowski’s comment reflects the importance of exploring the crossroads of art and science and the parallel skills involved in scientific investigation and the work of analyzing or making art. 

Check our online calendar often for upcoming River of Words workshops. Questions about this program should be directed to Dana Casto at castod@artsedcollaborative.org.