November 2015 Newsletter: Notes from the Field

This year’s Turnaround Arts Summer Leadership Retreat was our largest and most adventurous to date. As is true each year, the conference kicked off with a collective “Ahhh” as our 180 participants stepped off the shuttle bus into the beautiful and serene Airlie Center in rural Virginia. For five days, participants roved the grounds as they went from one engaging session to another led by excellent presenters from many of the nation’s leading arts and education organizations, including Visual Thinking Strategies, Crayola, Little Kids Rock, Jacob Burns Film Center, Focus 5, Wolf Trap Institute for Early Learning Through the Arts, National Dance Institute, iTheatrics, Music Theatre International, and Urban Arts Partnership. In the evenings, we gathered to dine, share talents, create art, and celebrate our growing and enthusiastic community that is so deftly using the arts to bring their schools back to life.

An educator from one of our new Turnaround Arts: Hawai`i schools, Anna Winslow, shared her experience of the retreat:

“Thankful, Inspired, Excited, and Hopeful! These four words describe my experience at the Turnaround Arts Summer Leadership Retreat this past June. But you should know that before the retreat, these four words were my thoughts: ‘Must I be there?’ As a principal with only three weeks after the retreat before the new school year, I couldn’t help ask this question. Also, my son was graduating from college, and the date of the retreat was in conflict. So my heart was heavy! How could I miss my son’s graduation? Is this a sign that we shouldn’t be in Turnaround Arts?

“Then, the blessings came. First, it turned out the dates of my son’s graduation and the retreat did not conflict after all. The second blessing happened during the retreat…my team and I realized we were participating in the BEST professional development workshops we had ever attended. We were inspired by what we learned, as well as all the new tools and ideas we were given to help our school and our students succeed. And we were so excited to share all of this with our staff back home (third blessing).

“I realized the most important blessing on the last day of the retreat. In the last circle, while I was in the presence of amazing, passionate, and committed educators from around the country, for some reason I started to share an old story. The story was about a man waiting for God to rescue him from the middle of the ocean. The man turned away three boats that passed by, because he was so certain that God was going to rescue him. As he began to drown, the man cried to God, ‘Why did you forsake me?’ God replied, ‘What do you mean? I sent you three boats and you turned them all away.’ And I realized that for us, Turnaround Arts is that boat. I am so glad I did not turn it away because of everything that was already going on at my school and the thought of missing my son’s graduation. This boat, this blessing, is Turnaround Arts for my school and all the other schools in this wonderful program. There is hope for our students, teachers, and community! I am so thankful for this blessing that has been bestowed on us. Mahalo to the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and to Turnaround Arts and all its partners!”