A smartly written, informative delight for group leaders.
This debut how-to offers a colorful palette of ideas for creative innovation at work, school, and elsewhere.
Keith Chirgwin has a background as an art teacher, and Helene Chirgwin has expertise in human resources consulting. Together, they present a solid, conversational case for using art to enhance the professional development of individuals and groups. Part I lays out a well-referenced apologia of the importance of art in health and well-being; for example, the authors cite an Oslo and Akershus University College study in which elderly participants’ blood pressure went down after just talking about art. Working with art, say the Chirgwins, teaches people new ways of looking at things, which can, of course, be beneficial in the workplace. Part II, which is by far the most enjoyable part of the guide, contains detailed, easy-to-understand instructions for 31 hands-on art workshops, which may be altered to fit large or small groups of adults or school-age kids. Each description includes a list of necessary materials and preparations, the approximate group size, the time it will take to complete the session, discussion questions, and workshop objectives. Some of the often lighthearted activities offer memorable icebreakers, such as when group members must draw Picasso-style drawings of one another without looking at their papers. In another team-building workshop, participants are asked to team up to paint a group picture. Regardless of theme, the Chirgwins’ user-friendly workshops always promote creative thinking; for instance, one encourages attendees to decorate masks to reflect their leadership styles. Many of the art supplies—such as note cards, paints, and colored pens—are relatively affordable, and facilitators need not be teachers or artists themselves. This manual offers a different way of looking at creativity in the workplace, eschewing worn-out business clichés, such as “thinking outside of the box.” Vivid, full-color photos, sketches, and striking images of paintings—such as Raphael’s early-16th-century work The School of Athens—decorate the smooth-flowing text. Overall, this energetic compilation is both creative and practical, and these simple, thought-provoking exercises may help improve teamwork and productivity in a range of organizations.
A smartly written, informative delight for group leaders.Pub Date: June 30, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5144-4898-4
Page Count: 198
Publisher: XlibrisUK
Review Posted Online: Oct. 14, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.
A revealing biography of the fabled Manhattan hotel, in which generations of artists and writers found a haven.
Turn-of-the century New York did not lack either hotels or apartment buildings, writes Tippins (February House: The Story of W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee, Under One Roof In Wartime America, 2005). But the Chelsea Hotel, from its very inception, was different. Architect Philip Hubert intended the elegantly designed Chelsea Association Building to reflect the utopian ideals of Charles Fourier, offering every amenity conducive to cooperative living: public spaces and gardens, a dining room, artists’ studios, and 80 apartments suitable for an economically diverse population of single workers, young couples, small families and wealthy residents who otherwise might choose to live in a private brownstone. Hubert especially wanted to attract creative types and made sure the building’s walls were extra thick so that each apartment was quiet enough for concentration. William Dean Howells, Edgar Lee Masters and artist John Sloan were early residents. Their friends (Mark Twain, for one) greeted one another in eight-foot-wide hallways intended for conversations. In its early years, the Chelsea quickly became legendary. By the 1930s, though, financial straits resulted in a “down-at-heel, bohemian atmosphere.” Later, with hard-drinking residents like Dylan Thomas and Brendan Behan, the ambience could be raucous. Arthur Miller scorned his free-wheeling, drug-taking, boozy neighbors, admitting, though, that the “great advantage” to living there “was that no one gave a damn what anyone else chose to do sexually.” No one passed judgment on creativity, either. But the art was not what made the Chelsea famous; its residents did. Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Robert Mapplethorpe, Phil Ochs and Sid Vicious are only a few of the figures populating this entertaining book.
A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-618-72634-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.
Photographer and author Stanton returns with a companion volume to Humans of New York (2013), this one with similarly affecting photographs of New Yorkers but also with some tales from his subjects’ mouths.
Readers of the first volume—and followers of the related site on Facebook and elsewhere—will feel immediately at home. The author has continued to photograph the human zoo: folks out in the streets and in the parks, in moods ranging from parade-happy to deep despair. He includes one running feature—“Today in Microfashion,” which shows images of little children dressed up in various arresting ways. He also provides some juxtapositions, images and/or stories that are related somehow. These range from surprising to forced to barely tolerable. One shows a man with a cat on his head and a woman with a large flowered headpiece, another a construction worker proud of his body and, on the facing page, a man in a wheelchair. The emotions course along the entire continuum of human passion: love, broken love, elation, depression, playfulness, argumentativeness, madness, arrogance, humility, pride, frustration, and confusion. We see varieties of the human costume, as well, from formalwear to homeless-wear. A few celebrities appear, President Barack Obama among them. The “stories” range from single-sentence comments and quips and complaints to more lengthy tales (none longer than a couple of pages). People talk about abusive parents, exes, struggles to succeed, addiction and recovery, dramatic failures, and lifelong happiness. Some deliver minirants (a neuroscientist is especially curmudgeonly), and the children often provide the most (often unintended) humor. One little boy with a fishing pole talks about a monster fish. Toward the end, the images seem to lead us toward hope. But then…a final photograph turns the light out once again.
A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-05890-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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