art/vision/voice - Maryland Institute College of Art

case study: columbia college chicago 45
in the spring and then continue in the summer. The kids would say
to me, “You know that show we did in the spring? It was okay, but
this one this summer is great!” And I’d say, “Really? The show in the
spring was good.” “No, we did much better this time!” They used
the spring program as a stepping stone to get to that next step.
They used it to make an even bigger leap for the summer show.
That was exciting to hear.
The Urban Missions partnership approach had been used to develop and
implement many projects before this one, but this was the first that
involved creating a service-learning course at Columbia College Chicago
through a reciprocal, ongoing college-community partnership. As this
is one of the Center for Community Arts Partnerships’ primary goals,
this course was a test of the effectiveness of the ccap approach.
That a course that held so much potential for chaos (the various
philosophies of three different instructors, the age of the participants, the
setting, the nature of experimental, youth-generated theater, and more)
went as smoothly as it did spoke well to the effectiveness of the approach.
It was clear to the instructors that the long, careful partnership-building
process that preceded the project was time well spent. The environment
of respect, openness, equity, and trust built through that process allowed
the instructors to confront their differences and move forward when
conflict arose, and to adjust their teaching as the situation required.
When the course was again offered in spring 2004, several changes
were made in response to issues that arose the first time. The Columbia
students had complained that they did not get enough actual teaching
time, as only two students were able to teach each week. Midway through
the 2003 course, the instructors paired each Columbia student one-on-one
with an Association House student, to serve as a personal acting coach
of sorts. This worked well, allowing the Columbia students to teach in
some capacity every day, and giving the Association House students
invaluable individual attention. This on-the-fly adjustment was
intentionally incorporated into the 2004 course.
Additionally, the problem of realizing they had only a few weeks to
go and no final piece to perform was addressed directly. Instructors
were more attentive to generating a script and performance from the
beginning. While allowing for a balance of experimentation and
progression remained important, the shift in focus that occurred late
in the first semester was deliberately moved up to the midway point
the next year.