Tomorrow’s School
Building an art gallery that displays the future of education
Last week I launched a new project! Tomorrow’s School is a collective art initiative, with all participants motivated by the goals of:
Helping individuals reclaim their right to be creative,
Creating a social movement to fight for a new school system.
There are a lot of facets to this project, and I’m obviously excited to share the experience of birthing a new idea into the world. Consider this to be an introductory article :)
In the coming weeks, I’ll share more about the importance of designing an inherently optimistic kind of activism; why the way kids are treated in society is holding humanity back from making great progress; and why creativity will solve all of our problems.
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Tomorrow’s School in a nutshell
Tomorrow’s School is a participative art gallery promoting a new school system.
The concept of a “participative art gallery” is that people like you & me will create small artworks to depict our ideas about how we want tomorrow’s school to look like.
“People like you & me” means people from any social background, age, industry, country, gender, political view…
“Small artwork” implies a certain amount of time and energy – the whole process should be fun, stimulating and joyful for you. You can use the medium of your choice, whether that’s a drawing, song, video, poem, AI-generated art, or whatever else. A piece can be figurative or abstract.
The project is not only about creating something, but about giving you a new opportunity to discover the range of visions regarding what the school of the future could look like. Having spent months talking to people on the front lines, I can say that it is truly mind blowing, and well worth your time.
Have a look at the art gallery directly on my Instagram: @zeldapoem
Tomorrow’s School assumptions
I am building Tomorrow’s School on a few postulates:
The current education system is one of oppression, sharing significant similarities with other sexist and/or racist systems, and allowing for comparisons and the drawing of inspiration on how to solve the school problem.
Creativity is the most important tool for individual and collective change.
Activism has as much responsibility for making people collectively dream of a better future as it does for raising awareness on present issues.
The vast majority of people have good intentions. Some of us just lack certain knowledge about what “better” looks like.
I’m SO meant to build this project!
I see myself as having 3 qualities necessary to lead this project:
I’m aware of the hell of today’s school experience, and it’s my life’s mission to solve it.
I have been part of the worlds of entrepreneurship and activism intensely enough to deeply understand the opportunities and limits they contain when it comes to the school r/evolution.
I have studied psychology, art therapy, and non-violent communication. One of my biggest talents is holding effective workshops in which I help people to express themselves through creative tools. I have seen the transformative power of creativity on the personal and collective levels.
Next steps
Convincing the most individuals possible to contribute because they are the pioneers in showing the range of ideas and mediums available - yes, I’m talking about YOU!
Launching the first online workshop to facilitate how to create your artwork.
Bringing Tomorrow’s School into classrooms thanks to amazing educators!
Contacting professional artists for contributions.
Collaborating with organizations that could help spread the project.
Creating an online community to gather people interested in building tomorrow’s school, also providing today’s top resources that can support kids & teens in their education.
Can you be of any help with something? Would love to hear from you!: zeldapoem@gmail.com
If you want to have a look at the first contributions, check out my Instagram: @zeldapoem - I’m posting the second contribution today!
Questions to ponder: How has my creativity been encouraged or suppressed by school? What are the beliefs I hold regarding my ability to be creative? To what extent can I use my creative skills to solve my day-to-day problems?
Excited to share more,
Zelda
Whether on Substack, Instagram or TikTok, I create content that I’d like to stay free for anyone to access it. But I do need some income coming my way, that’s why I’d love you to send some bucks my way to support my work! Help with as little as the price of a coffee per month on my Patreon: Zelda Poem
Artwork from article’s cover by Karine for Tomorrow’s School