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chicken drawing

 

 

 

butterfly drawing

 

 

 

 

drawing of figure

 

Upcoming Activities
Spring, 2010

Queens Botanic Garden

Listening and Speaking:
The Dialogue of Children with the Natural World

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

Queens Botanic Garden
43-50 Main Street
Flushing, NY 11355
718-886-3800
www.queensbotanical.org

Listening and Speaking:
The Dialogue of Children with the Natural World

10 AM – 12:30 PM

A workshop, presented by Richard Lewis, founder and director of The Touchstone Center, for anyone interested in bringing the natural world into the lives of children—through the arts and the imaginative process. Examples of the work of the Center in New York City public schools will be shared, particularly in the use of elemental images as a catalyst for children to enter into their own, often poetic conversation, with the nature of nature itself. Participants will be invited to fashion their own dialogue with the natural world as a means of understanding how this use of the imagination can be integrated into our learning—as well as within the everyday lives of children.

In Our Backyard
A Tree Lives

2 – 3:30 PM

A family workshop, with Richard Lewis, assisted by Karen Fitzgerald, for children and their caregivers exploring how a tree lives —and the unique knowledge a tree gathers as it experiences the many seasons of its own life. After reading Richard’s poem, A Tree Lives, each of us will find a special tree in the garden we can reflect upon, and through drawing and writing, create our own hand-made books, about all that a tree knows—and sees and hears and feels. Recommended for children 5 and up.

REGISTRATION FORM

There is no charge for these workshops but there is an Admission Fee for the Queens Botanical Garden: $4 for adults; $3 for seniors; $2 for children ages 3-12 and students with ID

This series of workshops is part of the Outreach Programming of the of The Touchstone Center and was made possible be a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

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Spring 2010 postcard

The Touchstone Center
in association with
Poets House

presents

How Does a Bird Imagine?
What Does a Tree Know?

A Celebration of
Poetic Spaces in a Public School

Poets House
March 20th to May 29th
Opening Reception: March 20th 3 to 5 PM

This interactive exhibition for all ages celebrates and documents the creation, over nine years, of a group of outdoor poetic spaces around the images of a bird, a tree, a labyrinth, a place to play, and the rivers of our thoughts, in a New York City Public School building – by artists of the Touchstone Center in collaboration with children, teachers and parents of the East Village Community School and the Children’s Workshop School.

Curated by Richard Lewis, with site-specific designs and constructions by Noah Baen, Kathy Creutzburgh, Carol Grocki Lewis and photographs by Susanne Michelus.

How Does a Bird Imagine, What Does a Tree Know, is an invitation, through the writings and art of both children and adults, of experiencing and finding the poetry of the natural world – everywhere, around us.

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Special Workshops and Performances

Saturday, May 1st,
at Poets House:

How Does A Bird Imagine?
What Does a Tree Know?

A performance, and art and writing workshop, for children and their families with Richard Lewis and the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble – celebrating our trees of knowing and our birds of imagining.
11 AM

“It’s About Nature”
Children’s Learning
and the Poetic Experience

A conversation with teachers, parents and artist-educators – reflecting on the importance of creating outdoor poetic spaces centered around the experience of the natural world – and how they can affect both the life of a school and the learning within it.
2 PM

For further information:
Poets House
10 River Terrace
New York, NY 10282
212-431-7920

www.poetshouse.org

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Fall 2009

Fall 09 postcard

Old Days, New Days:
A Celebration of Daylight

Children and their families are invited to join members of the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, Richard Lewis, Harry Mann and Clea Rivera, as they perform “And So It Was Day,” a retelling, with a specially commissioned mask by Ralph Lee, of an ancient Hawaiian chant about the emergence of life on earth and its bountiful first day. With poems and artwork, each child will then create a Book of Days that celebrates the music and magic of daylight.

Saturday, October 17th, 11 AM
Poets House
10 River Terrace
New York, NY
Admission Free
For further information: www.poetshouse.org
(212)-431-7920

All of the Earth.
All of the Sky

Based on a poem by Richard Lewis, this performance by The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, for children and their families brings to life the spaces of the natural world – where sun and moon and stars –hills and waters and seeds eventually lead us to the infinite spaces of our dreams and imagining. Following the performance, join us in creating a gift of a small book with one’s own imagined spaces of the many splendors of our earth and sky.

Saturday, December 19th, 1 PM
Irondale Center
85 South Oxford Street
Fort Green, Brooklyn
For ticket information: (718) 488-9233
www.irondale.org

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Mural

Photo: By Susanne Michelus of the Play of Playing Mural, designed and created by Kathy Creutzburg and Noah Baen, and based on the artwork and writing of children who participated in Touchstone Center’s Play of Playing Project in the spring of 2008 at the Children’s Workshop School and the East Village Community School.

Trees of Knowing, Birds of Imagining:
A Workshop on the Imaginative
in Learning and Teaching

In this four-session workshop, Richard Lewis will be exploring teaching as a poetic gesture and an act of imagining – and the importance of playful improvisation, conversation, and questioning as a means of deepening the ever-evolving fabric of children’s thought and learning in school settings.

Thursdays,
May 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th,
4:30 to 6:30 PM

Roberta Valentine’s Art Room
East Village Community School

610 East 12th Street
4th floor

There is no fee for this workshop but registration is required. Click here for brochure and registration form (as PDF).

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A Drop of Water,
A Splash of Sound

Children and their families are invited to a poetry and art-making workshop with Richard Lewis, bringing to life the splendors and enchantments of water as it reflects its own very magical and mysterious worlds.

A Family Workshop for Children sponsored by
Poets House at the NYPL Mulberry Street Branch
10 Jersey Street (bet. Lafayette and Mulberry St)
Saturday, May 9th, 2 PM, Admission Free
For further information: poetshouse.org or
212-431-7920

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The Imagined World:
Children and the Life of Nature

A workshop, led by Richard Lewis and Noah Baen, Leader of the Wave Hill Family Art Project, on how children imaginatively interact with the natural world – and express, through their instinctive artistry, the various ways nature becomes and transforms itself. Both adults and children (ages 3 to 9) are invited to attend, sharing and independently pursuing hands-on and reflective activities.

Saturday, May 30th
Wave Hill House
9:30 AM – Noon
Registration: 718-549-3200, Ext. 305


And So It Was Day/Entonces…finé el día

A retelling of the Hawaiian creation myth through an interactive performance by the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble – Clea Rivera, Harry Mann and Richard Lewis, using an original mask by Ralph Lee – followed by a Family Art Project workshop led by Noah Baen, for children and their families, to create their own mask embodying one of the elements of nature.

Saturday and Sunday, May 30th and 31st
1 PM and 2:30 PM
Ecology Building
For further information:
Wave Hill
675 West 252nd Street
Bronx, NY 10471
718-549-3200

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Fall/Early Winter 2008/9

Once,
When The Wind Was Very Young

Writing our wind swept poems and drawing our windy thoughts, we will, in a moment of quiet stillness, imagine with poet and teacher Richard Lewis, accompanied by musician and composer Harry Mann, what it's like to be the dancing and singing of air, the delighted wind  - scurrying across the sky.

A Family Workshop for Children sponsored by
Poets House at the NYPL Mulberry Street Branch
10 Jersey Street (bet. Lafayette and Mulberry St)
Saturday, November 15th.
2 PM, Admission Free
For further information: poetshouse.org

 

The Other Side of Knowing: Art and Origin

Mythic and poetic worlds are brought to light, in this teacher workshop, as participants discover the new Oceanic galleries with museum educator, Rebecca Arkenberg, story-teller Tom Lee, and performing and teaching artists from the Touchstone Center for Children, Richard Lewis, Harry Mann and Clea Rivera.  This workshop includes conversations, readings, performances and hands-on art making so that teachers may deepen their understanding of works of art from the South Pacific Islands to create possible connections with student learning and creativity.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Saturday, January 24th, 2009

10 to 4 PM
Fee: $80

For further information: (212) 570-3985, or e-mail at teachers@metmuseum.org.
or by submitting the Registration Request Form

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Spring 2008

spring 08

Trees of Knowing, Birds of Imagining
A Workshop on the Imaginative
in Learning and Teaching

For the second year of this five-session workshop we will be focusing on ways to integrate playful thought into the evolving fabric of learning in school settings. Guest teachers will include Vivian Gussin Paley, who will take part in a conversation around her book, A Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play—and Kristin B. Eno, founder and director of Digital Story Workshop.

Wednesdays, May 7th, 14th, 21st, & 28th
& Monday, May 12th, 2008, 4:30–6:30 PM

The Art Room
East Village Community School
610 East 12th Street
New York, NY 10009

There is no fee for this workshop but registration is required. Click here for brochure and registration form (as PDF).


Wondrous Light, Wondrous Air

Poetry and art-making workshop for children and their families with Richard Lewis and The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble exploring the magical and playful worlds of light and air.

Saturday, May 10th, 2008, 2 PM
For information: 212-431-7920 Ext.2219

Poet's House at Mulberry Street Branch
NY Public Library
10 Jersey Street
www.poetshouse.org

 

Playing in the Fields of our Imagining

Workshop for parents, children and teachers discovering how the natural world plays—and the ways children playfully relate to the smallest of creatures and phenomena. Led by Richard Lewis and Noah Baen, Leader of Wave Hill’s Family Art Project.

Saturday, May 31st, 2008, 9:30 AM-Noon
For registration 718-549-3200 x305


Play, Said the Earth/Juguemos, dijo la tierra

For children and their families to delight in the playing of the elements of the natural world with a performance of Play, Said the Earth to Air by Richard Lewis and members of the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, Clea Rivera and Harry Mann—followed by an art workshop with Noah Baen.

Saturday and Sunday, May 31st and June 1st, 2008, 1PM and 2:30 PM, Family Art Project

Wave Hill
West 249th and Independence Ave.
Bronx, NY
www.wavehill.org

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Fall 2007
The Touchstone Center and Touchstone Center Publications in association with Poets House, New York City Art Teachers Association, and the Abrons Arts Center presents:

The Play of Imagining
a series of conversations,
workshops and performances on the occasion of the publication of
 I Catch My Moment:
Art and Writing by Children on the Life of Play

Child playing 1

Saturday, October 20th
Poets House
72 Spring Street

Through A Marble Brightly
Richard Lewis invites children to look through their own very magical marble, and create playful poems and drawings about everything that plays: ourselves, trees and birds, colors and air – and all the many universes beyond.
11 AM -12:30 PM

The Thread at Play:
A Poetry of the Simplest of Objects
A discussion with poet and visual artist Cecilia Vicuña, reflecting on Ms. Vicuña's video The Thread At Play documenting her workshops with children in a small mountain village in Chile, on the innate ability of children to play and to infuse their playing with the very elements of poetry itself.
1 PM – 3:00 PM

For reservations and information
Poets House:
212-431-7920 Ext. 19
www.poetshouse.org

 

Children playing

Saturday, October 27th
NYCATA/UFT Artworks Conference ‘07
LaGuardia High School of Music and Art
108 Amsterdam Avenue

Children, Art Making, and The Play of Imagining
A conversation with Richard Lewis, in conjunction with a showing of Geoffrey Jones’s video In the Spirit of Play, focusing on ways participants can share their own playfulness as an entry point for their students to express themselves through and with the arts.
9 to 10:15 AM

For registration and information
NY City Art Teachers Association/
United Federation of Teachers
212-598-7772 

Child playing 2

Sunday, October 28th
Abrons Arts Center
Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand Street

What  Is Our Play?
Delights and Imaginings
An afternoon for children, parents, and teachers
interested in sharing the questions of what makes our playing such a marvel of untold possibilities – and its pivotal role in how we learn and imagine.

Child playing 3

Secret Wisdom, Magic Days
A conversation and discussion with William Crain and Richard Lewis on why play and playing are the vital underpinnings of childhood learning – and how we might incorporate play and the imagination into the core of schooling and education.
12:30 to 2:45 PM

Did You Ever Think A Book Could Dance,
Your Thoughts Could Play?
A performance for children and their families, beginning with Play, Said the Earth to the Air presented by the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, followed by noted
book- artist Susan Share performing her solo piece in which playful papers, colorful colors, and imaginative transformations are brought to life.
3:00 to 4:15 PM

I Catch My Moment
Immediately following the performances all participants are invited to a family workshop, facilitated by book-artist Susan Share, to make an accordion book to remember and take note of the many splendid moments of our play and playing.
4:30 to 5:30 PM

There is no fee for the workshops and performances at the Abrons Arts Center
– but registration is requested
A registration form can be downloaded here
or by emailing The Touchstone Center at
rlewis212@aol.com

 

Artists and Speakers Participating
The Play of Imagining

Cecilia Vicuña is a Chilean poet, artist, and filmmaker living in New York. She is the author of 15 books of poetry, published in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. She has exhibited her work at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Belgium, at the Castello di Rivoli in Italy, and in the Whitney Biennial. Her books include Instan, El Templo (translated by Rosa Alcalá), QUIPOem/ The Precarious, and The Art and Poetry of Cecilia Vicuña (edited by M. Catherine de Zegher, translated by Esther Allen).

William Crain is a professor of psychology at The City College of New York. He is the author of the textbook, Theories of Development, now in its fifth edition and Reclaiming Childhood: Letting Children Be Children in Our Achievement Orientated Society. He is also the editor of the journal Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice. Dr Crain has been a political activist on many fronts, including the defense of nature and animals.

Susan Share is a book-artist, presently living in Anchorage, Alaska, who has performed and exhibited her books throughout the United States as well as in England, Ireland and Hungry. Her work is in included in collections as diverse as the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London – and she has taught at the Penland School of Crafts, the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and the Visual Studies Workshop. Concurrent with her performance at the Abrons Arts Center, she is exhibiting her artwork at the Center for Books Arts in New York.

 

SPRING 2007 Activities

birds

Trees of Knowing, Birds of Imagining
A Workshop on the Imaginative in Teaching

Emphasizing the vital role the imagination plays in children’s learning, this four-session workshop, led by Richard Lewis in collaboration with Roberta Valentine, will explore the unfolding of imaginative thought and art-making in childhood—and their importance throughout our adult lives.

Wednesdays, May 2nd, May 9th, May 16th, & May 23rd; 4-6 PM
The Art Room, East Village Community School
610 East 12th Street, New York, NY 10009
There is no fee for this series of workshops but registration is requested. 212-831-7717 www.touchstonecenter.net
brochure & registration form

Other Projects and Public Programs of The Touchstone Center, Spring, 2007

The Sound and Movement, Word and Image Project An Arts and Education residency with Clea Rivera and Harry Mann of The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, uncovering the beginnings of language, and the depth of music, gestures and imagery within our words.

March 1st – May 3rd
East Village Community School
610 East 12th Street, New York, NY
For further info call Mary Talbot, Parent
Coordinator, 347-563-5102

Telling Time: A Clock-Making Workshop
A workshop with potter Carol Grocki Lewis, as part of the Parents as Art-Partners program at the East Village Community School, in which participants will have the opportunity of making their own functioning clay clocks.

Saturdays, April 21st & April 28th, 11-2 PM.
East Village Community School
610 East 12th Street, New York, NY
For further info call Mary Talbot, Parent
Coordinator, 347-563-5102

Sea Whisperings from the Smallest of Seashells Workshop for children with Richard Lewis, discovering, as we listen to seashells – abundant flying birds and diving fish, and the most ancient of our thoughts and poetries. Saturday,

May 5th, 11 - 1 PM
72 Spring Street
New York, NY
www.poetshouse.org
For further info 212-431-7920

THE SUN RETURNS, THE DAY BEGINS: A JOURNEY OF POEMS
World Financial Center, in association with Poets House, as part of WORD OF MOUTH FESTIVAL presents The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble in readings of poetry written by children (accompanied by audience participation) and culminating in a performance of poems ‘In The Space of the Sky ‘and 'A Tree Lives.' by Richard Lewis.

Saturday, May 19
11am-12:30pm
Winter Garden, World Financial Center

What If: The Dreaming of Childhood Into the Natural World Workshop for parents, children and educators sharing and independently pursuing hands-on and reflective activities into how and why children use their imaginative abilities to link themselves to the natural world. Led by Richard Lewis and Noah Baen, Leader of the Wave Hill Family Art Project.

Saturday, June 9th, 9:30 -12 PM
For registration 718-549-3200, Ext. 305

Plant the Sun in Your Hand / Con el sol en sus manos The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble’s presentation, for children and their families, of a poem celebrating our innate abilities to become a part of nature’s transformations. Attend a performance, and then create a mixed media banner filled with the marvels of the natural world.

Saturday and Sunday, June 9 and 10,
1 and 2:30 PM, Family Art Project
WAVE HILL
West 249th and Independence Ave. Bronx, NY www.wavehill.org

tree

Fall 2006 Activities

3-4 Grade Tree Painting

The Touchstone Center
in collaboration with
The Abrons Arts Center,
Henry Street Settlement
is pleased to
present

Trees of Knowing:
An Exhibition of Paintings by Children from the East Village Community School

Based on a Project of The Touchstone Center
Directed by Richard Lewis

Reflecting on the Imagery of Trees
Noah Baen, Markus Baenziger, Amy Bay, Joanne Howard, Deanna C. Lee, Felicia D. Megginson, Luis Serrano, Illene Sunshine, Benjamin Swett, EdieWinograde

Curated by Jennifer McGregor
(more info on artists and curator)

October 20th - December 29th, 2006
Opening Reception: October 26th, 6-8 PM

Abrons Arts Center
Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand Street
New York, NY 10002
212-598-0400

About the Exhibit

In collaboration with the Abrons Arts Center, The Touchstone Center is pleased to present its newest exhibition, Trees of Knowing from October 20th – December 29th, 2006. The exhibit consists of a selection of large acrylic paintings, along with original writings, created by children from the East Village Community School in New York as part of The Tree of Knowing Project, undertaken by the Touchstone Center at the school from 2003-2005. In addition to the exhibit of the children’s paintings, ten artists, chosen by Jennifer McGregor, have been invited to show artwork that concerns itself with each artist’s vision and expression of trees.

The Tree of Knowing Project, an Arts and Education residency of The Touchstone Center, under the direction of Richard Lewis and Claudia Keel, consisted of a series of ten weekly workshops that took place in the art room of the East Village Community School in conjunction with the school’s art teacher, Julie Kirkpatrick. Working with four classrooms of children from the 1st through the 6th grade, the project’s intent, beginning with a reading of Richard Lewis’ poem, A Tree Lives and Noah Baen’s accompanying sculptural painting, was to explore, through art and writing, the unique ways a tree has experienced elemental forces and the subsequent ‘knowledge’ such a tree, and the natural world at large, has acquired from this kind of ‘knowing’.

As part of the ongoing exhibit, Geoffrey Jones’s video rendering of A Tree Lives will be shown, along with a variety of workshops being offered to all those interested in the life and knowledge that trees share, so abundantly, with us

Special Programs related to the exhibition

Leaf Eyes, Root Listenings:
Exploring the Natural World from Another Point of View

Sunday, October 29th, 11 AM – 4 PM

This workshop, led by Richard Lewis and Claudia Keel, is designed for teachers, artists, parents and any persons interested in exploring, both through discussion and hands-on activities, the importance of perceiving the natural world through our imaginative abilities. Examples of the work of the Touchstone Center will be highlighted – with particular insights drawn from The Tree of Knowing Project as well as the Center’s concern for the integration of the imagination at all levels of learning.

The Eternal Tree:
A Conversation with Artists on the Image and Meaning of Trees

Sunday, November 12th , 3:15 – 5:15 PM

A panel discussion, moderated by Jennifer McGregor, with Noah Baen, Felicia Megginson, and Benjamin Swett, three of the artists represented in The Trees of Knowing exhibition, discussing the role the image of the tree has played in their artistic development. In addition a larger conversation will focus on how and why artists from diverse cultures have always used the tree image – both as a metaphor and personal expression - to suggest symbolic and universal meanings.

Becoming a Tree, Knowing the World

Sunday, November 19th, 3:15 – 5:15 PM

All members of the community, children and adults alike, are invited to a performance of A Tree Lives by the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, followed by a workshop in which all participants will be able to create their own ‘tree of knowing’ through a variety of art mediums. Join us for a celebration of the knowledge that is a tree – and the wisdom we, and trees, share with each other.

All the Special Events take place at the
Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street
New York, NY 10002
212-598-0400

To register for any of the Special Events
please use the Registration Form and send to
The Touchstone Center
141 East 88th Street
Apt. 3 E
New York, NY 10128

For further information please contact The Touchstone Center
at 212-831-7717 or rlewis212@aol.com

More Fall 2006 Programs

art from the book CAVE

From the Beginning:
Reflections on the Origins of Art-Making

Based on his recent book and accompanying video-tape, CAVE: An Evocation of the Beginnings of Art, Richard Lewis will explore our understandings of the beginnings of art-making, both in ourselves – and in the world at large. In addition linkages will be made to how reflecting on the sources of art can be a means of helping students consider their own vital and necessary part in the evolution of the arts and imaginative thought.

Saturday, October 28th, 2006
9:00 -10:15 AM
NYCATA/UFT Conference
Fiorello LaGuardia High School
100 Amsterdam Ave.
New York. NY
For further information:
www.uft.org

A Pebble, A Stone,
and the Gift of Stars
A Poetry Workshop for Children
with Richard Lewis

We will begin by looking at a pebble and a stone, and entering each of their worlds. From there we will move from their silences to their ancient and glowing stars - gathering all the while new enchantments and thoughts to write our poems from. And when we have finished writing we will make a small clay vessel for our discoveries - along with our own pebble and stone - to keep as a gift of our imaginings.

Saturday, November 18th, 2006
11:00 – 1:00 PM
Poetry in the Children’s Room
Poets House
72 Spring Street
New York, NY 10012
For registration and information:
www.poetshouse.org
212-431-7920

Garden Installation

The Tree of Knowing Garden
Dedicated and Opened on October 19th, 2006

The Touchstone Center is pleased to announce the opening of The Tree of Knowing Garden at the East Village Community School in New York City.  Begun in the winter of 2006, The Tree of Knowing Garden, was an arts and education project to renovate the school’s inner courtyard into a space that could be used for a broad range of learning activities - with particular emphasis on children’s imaginative and poetic relationship to the natural world.

Based on Richard Lewis’ poem A Tree Lives that speaks of the knowledge a tree has of worlds both within and outside itself, The Tree of Knowing Garden project involved visual artists, Kathy Creutzburg, Claudia Keel and Noah Baen, assisted by Carol Grocki Lewis. Working with children in two classrooms apiece, from Kindergarten through the 6th Grade, each of the artists, in conjunction with classroom teachers and the school’s art teacher, emphasized various qualities of the “tree of knowing” theme.  Kathy Creutzburg focused on children making clay tiles expressing the many shapes and structures of trees, which she then embedded into her steel tree sculpture sheltered by a large mosaic tree shadow.  Claudia Keel, using colored pencils and oil pastel drawings, asked her group of children to depict through their drawings, the inner world of trees and leaves – which she then incorporated and translated into her painted wall mural.  And Noah Baen asked his two classrooms of children to being into being, through their clay tiles, the many creatures that live in and around a tree – which he then fused into seven planters surrounded with his mosaic designs and filled with flowering plants.  Throughout the project children were asked to write and reflect upon the ‘knowingness’ of trees – and a selection of their writings has been inscribed on the walls of the garden.

Garden Installation, mural view

 

Touchstone Center Publications
announces
Two New Publications

Living By Wonder A Tree Lives

Touchstone Center Publications is pleased to announce the paperback edition of Living By Wonder: The Imaginative Life of Childhood by Richard Lewis – as well as the publication of A Tree Lives – an interpretive video created by Geoffrey Jones based on the book A Tree Lives by Richard Lewis and illustrated by Noah Baen. The video is narrated by Richard Lewis and accompanied by music by Harry Mann - and is available, as is Living By Wonder, through Touchstone Center Publications.

 

Activities Spring 2006

The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble

The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, consisting of Richard Lewis, Harry Mann, and Clea Rivera, and is scheduled to perform Each Sky Has its Words at Wave Hill on May 6th  and May 7th at 1 PM and 2:30 PM.  Each performance will be followed by a Family Art Project conducted by Noah Baen.

In addition,  Richard Lewis, Director of The Touchstone Center in association with Noah Baen,  Leader of Wave Hill’s  Family Art Project, will be presenting a special workshop on Saturday, May 6th for both adults and children entitled, The Child and the Natural World. This workshop will explore the arts as a vehicle for children to build a vital relationship with the natural world – and will consist of hands-on and reflective activities appropriate for both children and adults. Participants are invited to join the performance of Each Sky Has its Words and art-workshop in the afternoon.

Wave Hill,675 West 252nd Street, Bronx, New York, 10471-2899

For further information and registration: www.wavehill.org or 718-549-3200
                                   
Ensemble Performance

The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble will also be performing The Sun Returns,The Day Begins: A Journey of Poems, at Poets House on Saturday, May 20th at 11 AM to 1 PM.  The performance consists ofthree poems by Richard Lewis, Each Sky Has Its Words, A Tree Lives, In The Space of the Sky – and will be followed by a workshop for children to write their own poems  - which will then be spoken and performed in conjunction with members of the Ensemble.

Poets House,72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012

For further information: www.poetshouse.org or 212-431-7930

Living By Wonder book cover

Touchstone Center Publications is pleased to announce the publication in May 2006 of the paperback edition of Living By Wonder: The Imaginative Life of Childhood by Richard Lewis. Originally published by Parabola Books in association with Touchstone Center Publications in 1998, Living By Wonder, was awarded the Parents Guide 2002 Classic Award for Outstanding Achievement in Parenting Materials. Made up of essays by Richard Lewis centered around the importance and necessity of the imagination, this book reflects upon the diverse role of language-making, play, art, stories and poetry in the imaginative life of children.  For further information about Living by Wonder, please go to Publications.

DVD cover

Touchstone Center Publications is also pleased to announce the publication this spring of its DVD, Ways of Imagining – which now makes available three of the Center’s most recent videos created by Geoffrey Jones and based on three of Center’s publications, Each Sky Has Its Words, The Bird of Imagining and Cave: An Evocation of the Beginnings of Art.  For further information about the availability of this new DVD, please go to Publications.

child's leaf painting

As part of the Arts and Education programming the Center has begun The Tree of Knowing Garden Project in association with the East Village Community School. Three artists, Kathy Creutzburg, Claudia Keel and Noah Baen will be working with children during the spring of 2006 in order to create a series of murals, tiles and a large steel sculpture to be placed in an outdoor courtyard within the school. This project will compliment The Bird of Imagining sculpture, created by Kathy Creutzburg and children from the Children’s Workshop School, now displayed in another courtyard in the same building.

As part of the Center’s Outreach Program, recent teacher and parent workshops  by the Center’s Director, Richard Lewis, have been given in conjunction with  Sarah Lawrence College, Marquis Studios, and the Virginia Marx Children’s Center at Westchester Community College.

For a look into activites of the Center in the recent past, click here.

 
   

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