RECENT POSTS
For almost 20 years, I have observed firsthand what art-making and creative education does for people of all ages. Having said that, every time there’s some new research or a book that I can sink my teeth into I get super excited. Last week I came across the New York Times bestseller Your Brain on Art: How…
April is Autism Awareness month and this cause is quite personal to me because I am the parent of a 27-year-old with profound Autism. The young lady you see pictured with me is Hannah Rose Weissman, an instructor at our school in Allendale. Hannah painted this extraordinary mural titled “The Sun Shines on Everyone”…
Over the last two weeks, we have opened new exhibitions in our Allendale and Montclair locations celebrating the work of Mary Devincentis. I am enamored with Mary’s artwork and after watching her connect with students at our schools, I’m a huge fan of her as a person as well. I started following Mary on…
Ten years into building One River School, there is a prevailing theme that continues to surface. We think of artmaking as great for kids, but we don’t prioritize it for ourselves when we get older. Recently, I was on Facebook and noticed that my friend updated his cover photo to show four colorful abstract…
As I reflect on our 10th anniversary, one of the things that I’m most proud about is the Summer Camp Experience that we built at One River School. What started off as a small, boutique menu of weekly camps has grown into the most compelling creative camp program anywhere. All of our camps have been…
As part of our 10th anniversary year, I am going to reshare some previous Monday Thoughts from the past…I thought this one from five years ago was “timely”. 😊 Why do we spend so much time thinking about really silly things when time is the most precious resource we have? The basic answer is…
Over the last 10 years, I have developed so many relationships with artists that I treasure. In some cases, we have had the chance to exhibit their work as well. This past weekend was really special because I happened to be lucky enough to have a West Coast trip timed perfectly to visit the opening…
This is one of my favorite images from our 10 years at One River school. First of all, you could see the pride on this boy’s face when he shared his completed drawing . And he is as cute as can be. This particular project was a form of self-portrait with a wrinkle. We asked…
Yes, it is the 16th of January and I am still talking about goals, but I am going to keep it simple. Happiness. There I said it. Isn’t this the baseline of what we all strive for, but we never really define what it is that makes us happy and we rarely set “maximizing happiness”…
As I reflect on our learnings over 10 years, one of the things that I am most proud of is our mission to “be the best place to work in the arts”. This is at the core of why I started One River and remains central to our goal of transforming art education®. The…