Seth Compton

Part of the activities of Aardvark Arts is to develop international cooperation, work towards building a cultural facility in Wroclaw, and to conduct research in the fields of social sciences and humanities. Managing Director, Dorota Dobkowska, and I recently traveled to Lithuania and Estonia to visit cultural spaces, meet with people and start some conversations about working together.

First we caught up with a good friend Kevin Reiling, regional director of the American Councils of International Education. I met him a year ago when I was invited to teach a pre-departure orientation course getting some amazing students ready to spend a year abroad in the US. We met to talk about cooperating and trying to figure out a way to get some of their young alumni involved with future editions of Creative Summer.

One afternoon, while sitting in a coffee shop, a beautiful book/magazine called “Passport” caught Dora’s eye. Since she was sitting across from me reading, I noticed that Jonas Mekas was on the cover (the brother of Adolfas, a legendary professor at Bard College). It was a stunning collection of profiles, photo essays, and histories of Lithuania. The opening pages lay out its aim:

We hope that the story of a small nation – told through the eyes of its own extraordinary people – will be an inspiration to you…

Kęstutis Pikūnas, Passport, volume 1

A few moments after flipping through the pages, Dora announced that we would be meeting with the Editor in Chief.

Kęstutis Pikūnas met us for a generously slow cup of coffee. He told us all about himself and how he came to create this love letter to Lithuania. I really appreciate how he easily shifted between Doras’s questions on his ideas and inspiration and my specific business minded curiosity of modern publishing. It was an illuminating conversation that has continued to open up ideas for future activity in Poland.

We then headed north to Estonia. This was the furthest north I had ever flown. What an amazing country. The capital, Tallinn, was flooded with tourists. It seemed like everyone had the same idea to head north during the European heat wave. It was still pretty hot up there.

While in the capital, we made stops in two interesting museums aimed at younger visitors. First the NUKU theater and puppetry museum had many fantastic rooms filled with artifacts, and video presentations. I particularly loved their self published programs. I left feeling inspired to create a puppetry unit for my Theater Lab program. Then we visited the Maarjamäe Palace. This huge complex of buildings and programs had two highlights for me. Behind the palace, beyond the huge courtyard, and around the corner from the film center was a collection of Soviet statues. Just sitting there, on the ground. No adornments. No pedestals or plinths or acropodiums. What a bizarre display of the past! Inside was a children’s exhibit “The Children’s Republic.” This interactive environment is designed for children age 5-12 to learn about modern Estonia and democracy through play. Visitors can vote on a president and prime minister of the Children’s Republic and learn how to accept differing opinions. For someone who did not grow up in this part of the world, it struck me how democratic ideas have to be nurtured and the dark history of these countries is not that long ago.

We saw all corners of Estonia including the lovely island Saremaa. We saw Russia and visited a castle on the border. We visited a beautiful craft store cooperative full of handmade goods called Käsitööpood Magasiait. We met with another friend from the American Councils, Greete Lipik and continued talking about how the arts might fit into their alumni program.

Outside the capital the other big cultural institution we visited was the Estonian National Museum in Tartu. This building is a massive structure. It looks like a runway jutting out of a gentle slope. Inside, the space is gorgeous and vast but somehow still cosey. When we were visiting, the Centennial Celebrations of the Republic of Estonia were in full swing. The main hall of this National Museum was filled with an exhibit exploring the lives of regular Estonian people through the ages – literally taking you back all the way to the stone age. We are talking about hunters-fishers-gatherers. The Mesolithic Era (9000–4200 BCE). Before farming and earthware. Imagine how hard that was. It’s an absolutely beautiful country. But it couldn’t have been easy for those early settlers to inhibit. And yet, through 10,000 years, an identity and language took shape and survived. There were many amazing side rooms to this exhibit hall including Food We Cook, DIY Estonia, Estonian Books, The Runo Song (Estonian Folk songs). Of course, the Soviet era was bleak. Life was hard. Survival was not guaranteed. But, in the face of that larger history and that cultural perseverance, it seems inevitable that a thriving democratic nation with rich traditions would take form.  

I was so immersed with this main hall that there was no way to even consider visiting additional exhibits in the same day. There was one new technical innovation that I was in love with.  When you get your ticket, you can ask for a language card – a simple cardboard card. When you approach a display you just wave the card and the e-ink monitor changes languages. It was so smooth and satisfying and well executed. A perfect blend of technology, storytelling, and learning. It seems to me how a museum should be done.

Two rooms that we didn’t have access to, or time to explore, was the learning center and the library. Both were huge spaces, visible behind glass that provided cultural anthropologists and traditional workshop leaders with an amazing collection and physical space to carry out their research.

I want to make a space like this someday. Maybe not this big. But a place that is alive; a community resource weaving together threads from the past by using technology of today.

Bravo Estonia. Thank you Lithuania. Latvia, your next.

Our first year of Creative Summer arts program is wrapping up. It has been so much fun for me to watch it come to life. I feel so lucky to have this amazing team delivering daily classes and inspiration to our children. It is an honor to have so many families trust me in providing this experience for them. And of course, the kids. Some of these kids I have known since I was their kindergarten teacher just a few years ago. I am humbled by watching them grow and take risks.

This Saturday, we invite friends and family to celebrate with us. The Fun Family Festival will be held from 10:00-13:00. If Creative Summer is designed to foster children’s imagination, then the Fun Family Festival is the platform for their creative expression. The works of art are created by children and are the result of workshops in animation, art, creative writing, dance, drama, journalism, photography, technology, and textiles. It is 100% made by kids for kids.

The Fun Family Festival is realized as part of the scholarship from the Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

We have some partners to thank for Creative Summer | Kreatywne Lato!

“Here is an opportunity to express the creativity and individualism unique in every person.”

-Priscilla Dewey Houghton, founder of Charles River Creative Arts Program, 1970

Thank you to the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, American Embassy, American Councils for International Education, and the JUKI corporation.

Creative Summer | Kreatywne Lato is based largely on the Charles River Creative Arts Program in the United States. They have been delivering inspiring arts experiences to children for 50 summers! Without the help and support of former director Toby Dewey and current director, Aaron Gelb, Creative Summer might not have launched. Thank you both!

I was a student and a teacher at the Charles River Creative Arts Program for many years. It was a life changing experience. It is a place where children can take risks, explore, and unlock their creative thinking. I hope our Creative Summer | Kreatywne Lato arts program will carry out those same principles and inspire the lives of young people here in Wrocław.

This is very exciting for me to share and announce with everyone. I’ve started a summer camp for arts here in Wrocław Poland. It’s happening! Kids are signed up. Talented teachers from around the world are coming to inspire us. In this post I’m going to share “why” I’ve put so much energy into this.

In primary school I liked being the class clown and making people laugh. But my teachers did not always appreciate my… energy. In fact I spent a lot of time in the principles office. Then I started to study Acting as a craft. This passion anchored me and helped me develop better skills at listening. If I wanted to express myself and have other people hear me, I had to figure out a way to manage my behavior and harness my energy.

The arts gave me confidence to be myself. This creative thinking made me adaptable and more empathetic. I believe we need more arts. I believe our children need more chances to think creatively and take risks. I believe the Arts Matter Now.

It feels big and meaningful to me. I hope you come see what we are doing.

Friday is the premiere of Midsummer Night’s Dream with Shakespeare Club. Ever since visiting Shakespeare’s birthplace with these 8-10 year old kids I have been inspired. Here are five resources that help feed my curiosity.

Shakespeare Unlimited podcast produced by the Folger Library. This is an amazing podcast! I never heard of it before this month. I have already downloaded back episodes with titles that jumped out at me. So far particular favorite topics include: Editing Shakespeare, Portraits of Shakespeare, Barry Edelstein: Thinking Shakespeare, Derek Jacobi, the George North Manuscript. My queue is long with this one.

The Tempest ipad App Heuristic Shakespeare has set the bar for how to make a this Shakespeare app. This is technology and culture blended perfectly. I love this app. There are so many components to this. The illustrations, the video production, Ian McKellen, the other actors, the Arden edition of the text, the contextual information filled with photos and illustrations, the character charts, the character map… I have never seen anything like it. I hope there will be more.

Sonnetts iOS app – Ok, so not as wildly awesome as the Tempest app, but this app containing Arden editions (and notes) of all the Sonnetts is pretty great as well. Video of actors reading each poem is a delight. I was particularly impressed to see Cicely Berry. She was the voice director at the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1969-2014. Her landmark book the The Voice and the Actor is a cornerstone for many voice training books and teachers who came after.

John Barton Playing Shakespeare (speaking of cornerstones.) John Barton’s Playing Shakespeare series is also regarded as foundational. He says in the video that he had been asked to write a book but he always felt that “each actor and his experience is worth many books.” That might be particularly true when you assemble Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, and Ben Kingsley. These old VHS tapes were hard to get a hold of when I was a teenager and there was a mysterious legend built up around them. I eventually found all of them in the Los Angeles Public Library. Buying a copy both then and now was and is expensive. Now you can watch all nine episodes on YouTube. Barton did eventually write a book based on these workshops, but to follow his advice, you should really witness these actors take on the role of “explorers or detectives.”

How to Teach Your Children Shakespeare by Ken Ludwig. This is an invaluable resource for me. I was teaching Shakespeare 20 years ago to children ages 11-15. But that seems like a lifetime ago. This book unlocks a lot of the old doors that I was exploring back then. When you think about it, before television and radio, all we had for entertainment was reading stories out loud to each other. This book is great because it makes Shakespeare approachable as read aloud material for families and adds elements of play. You can hear an interview where he explains his process and gives some other reading suggestions on another fantastic podcast the Read Aloud Revival.

Shakespeare Club presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Friday at 4:00pm and Saturday at 12:00pm at the American School of Wroclaw Library. The show is around 45 minutes and appropriate for All Ages. You can join the event by clicking here. Or you can join the Shakespeare Club group here.