INTEGRATIVE THINKING
Study the science of art. Study the art of science. Realize that everything connects to everything else. – Leonardo da Vinci |
Our antiquated, static, and restrictive cells-and-bells education and business models with their siloed disciplines and specialties are failing. Students and workers are not being adequately prepared to function, communicate, or create in our complicated, globalized, media-saturated societies. They need to learn to embrace complexity, tolerate uncertainty, and manage tension. World-changing insights often come from combining disparate elements in new ways. We need to develop an interdisciplinary culture of inquiry that fosters integrative thinking, nurtures collaboration, accepts alternative perspectives, and melds various methodologies. Kim Wheetley – Southeast Center for Education in the Arts, 2012
|
We build too many walls and not enough bridges. – Isaac Newton |
|
Chattanooga Museums Collaboration Three Chattanooga museums consolidated their human resources, technology, finance, marketing and retail operations in order to function more effectively and efficiently. The Creative Discovery Museum and the Hunter Museum of American Art each did not have the capacity to continue funding their own administration and the Tennessee Aquarium had some excess capacity. They created a model whereby the Aquarium provides services to the two other museums for a fee, saving the Creative Discovery Museum and the Hunter Museum over $1.5 million each annually, and creating a $1.1 million revenue stream for the Aquarium. Three added benefits of this collaboration have been that it has brought each museum more community visibility, it has encouraged other collaboration in the area, and it has led to further collaboration between the museums in various program areas. The three museum collaboration was a finalists in the 2009 Collaboration Prize, a national award presented to nonprofit organizations that collaborate effectively to gain greater impact. |
Developing Tomorrow’s Leaders Today |
||
Leadership Chattanooga is a 10-month leadership development program that identifies people of promise in early- or mid-career, familiarizes them with community issues and services, and develops their leadership skills to prepare them for prominent business, cultural, and political roles. |
 |
|
The program sponsored by the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce Foundation is informative, challenging, and motivational. It provides comprehensive training through interaction with the community's top leadership, experiential learning opportunities and community service team projects. Each month the Leadership Chattanooga class focuses on different issues including: economic development, arts and quality of life, civic and political leadership, education, planning and design, state government, and justice and human rights. Field experiences include joining Chattanooga police on patrol duty and meeting with state leaders in Nashville. |
||
The Bill Holmberg Arts Leadership Institute, conduted by Allied Arts of Greater Chattanooga, is designed for those who share a passion for advancing the arts in the Chattanooga community. The four-month program develops leadership skills necessary to prepare the participants for prominent roles within arts organizations. The Holmberg Institute educates participants about the mission and goals of Allied Arts and Chattanooga arts organizations; explores current issues facing the arts community; and strengthens individual talents and skills needed to serve as volunteers, board members and fund raisers. |
||
The Institute offers behind-the-scenes visits to cultural and educational institutions, panel discussions with community leaders, case studies of arts agencies, and a unique forum for pursuing shared goals among arts leaders, educators, business people, and foundations. Topics include non-profit governance, fund raising, public funding, arts education, cultural sensitivity, marketing, and audience development. |
 |
|
Site visits are made to institutions such as the Hunter Museum of American Art, the Chattanooga Theatre Centre, the Tivoli Theatre, Normal Park Magnet School, the Bessie Smith Cultural Center and the Center for Creative Arts. Additional benefits include a class project studying Daniel H. Pink's book, A Whole New Mind. Institute graduates are identified as potential board member and committee candidates for cultural organizations. |
||
Integrating the Arts in Physician Training Medical students traditionally engage in a rigorous scientific curriculum as they prepare for the practice of medicine. Over the past few decades, medical educators have begun to recognize the need for enhanced observational and interpersonal skills to improve care giving. Today many medical schools have programs to enhance interpersonal skill development that are generally located in preclinical training years (first and second years) and administered by psychiatrists and psychologists. Medical students traditionally engage in a rigorous scientific curriculum as they prepare for the practice of medicine. Over the past few decades, medical educators have begun to recognize the need for enhanced observational and interpersonal skills to improve care giving. Today many medical schools have programs to enhance interpersonal skill development that are generally located in preclinical training years (first and second years) and administered by psychiatrists and psychologists. |
The Southeast Center for Education in the Arts is partnering with the Hunter Museum of American Art and Chattanooga Campus of The University of Tennessee College of Medicine on an initiative designed for third year internal medicine student. A goal of current medical education is to implement innovative training programs that provide residents with both clinical and humanistic skills. The program is embedded in a series of weekly evening sessions held at the Hunter Museum of American Art for third year medical students and transitional residents from Erlanger Hospital. The focus is on visual literacy, identification of salient details in paintings, recognition of individual biases when approaching images in paintings and the transfer of those skills to interaction with patients. To help the participants embody their learning, a theatre-immersion specialist assists with critical kinetic issues at play in terms of movement, perceived space and nonverbal communication. These experiences are coordinated with the medical faculty’s lectures and seminars and gallery learning is co-facilitated by these physicians. |
Project Diabetes |
|
Six monthly workshops developed teachers' knowledge and skills in music and dance education; demonstrated instructional strategies integrating active engagement through music, dance, and literacy; and employed developmentally appropriate music and dance materials suitable for preschool children. The grant provided each site with support materials such as CDs, storybooks, pedagogical resource books, and props for classroom use. In addition to monthly professional development workshops, onsite individualized coaching was provided to model the effective use of these materials with children. |
 |
Participating child care programs included: ABC Child Care, Chattanooga Human Services Child Care, Children’s Academy for Education and Learning, Children’s Home/Chambliss Shelter, Little Miss Mag Child Care Center, Maurice Kirby Child Care Center, Newton Child Development Center, Pro Re Bona Child Care Center, Signal Centers, Volunteer Child Care Center, YMCA Downtown Child Care Center, and YMCA Henry Child Care Center. |
|
The National Center for Computational Engineering at UTC is a center for integrated research and education whose primary goals are to establish next-generation technologies in computational modeling, simulation and design, to educate a new breed of interdisciplinary computational engineer who can solve a broad range of real-world engineering problems, and to provide consequent leadership and national impact in critical technology areas affecting defense, sustainable energy, environment, and health. The SimCenter employs the new model it has pioneered for integrated research and education in a university setting. This model emphasizes interdisciplinary team research encompassing engineering analysis and design applications, scientific computing, and mathematics of computation. |
|
|
Its integrated MS and PhD programs in computational engineering offer a unique educational environment in which students can participate in interdisciplinary team research, with opportunities for significant student interaction with multiple researchers. |
