Academy Background
What is the Bahá’í Academy for the Arts?
The Bahá’í Academy for the Arts is a week long residential event that attracts participants from around the world. It offers courses in the arts for students of all ages from three years old and upwards, and all abilities – from the nervous beginner to the competent professional, and space for a few independent artists to work.
The courses are tutored by artists and artist educators who are all experienced in their field and have a passion about sharing with others. A broad range of courses are offered each year, with courses constantly changing as each tutor completes a nominal three year cycle, and new tutors and courses are introduced.
Courses for children up to ten years old are offered in tight age groups, so that their specific needs can be catered for. Junior youth of 11 -14 have a choice of four courses, grouped into ages of 11- 12 and 13-14, again to cater for specific needs. Students of 15+ are deemed to be adults, so in this category there are thirteen courses on offer.
What is the aim of the Bahá’í Academy for the Arts?
The aim is to provide an empowering yet challenging creative environment that is designed to enable all participants to benefit artistically, educationally and spiritually.
Transformation through creativity has always been a focus in recognition of the power of the arts to effect individuals on many levels. This year sees the addition of service. It seemed a natural extension to encourage participants to reflect on how they could use their learning in the service of others.
Exploring this aspect of service will be an integral part of each course, designed by each tutor to be a natural extension of the learning process and approached in such a way that every individual will find for themselves what that service will be and how they might fulfil it.
How did the Academy begin?
The roots of the Bahá’í Academy for the Arts lie in activities for the youth held in the south of the UK, some 24 years ago. A single individual brought together groups of young people and offered them space to explore the issues of the time. These young people discovered that the arts were a means by which they wanted to express their beliefs. They called themselves Youth Quake.
Youth Quake evolved over time to spawn many other energetic groups of young people across the UK, but the defining moment was in 1992 when the organisers of the World Congress in New York, sent out an invitation to young performers to participate in the Youth Congress. Youth Quake applied and was accepted. It was exciting to be a very small part of the world embracing event where 30,000 Bahá’ís had gathered. From this experience grew the idea of tapping into this creative energy by providing a place where young people could gather and develop their capacities in the arts in a spiritually focused environment.
This was the birth of the Academy concept; in 1993 the first ‘Summer Arts Academy’ took place welcoming twenty participants and offering three courses. Now in its fourteenth year it has evolved to welcome nearly 300 participants who will choose from twenty one courses.
What is its philosophy?
The philosophy evolved over many years as the organising team grew closer together and each individual’s experience, expertise and passions contributed to the evolving event.
The Bahá’í writings were a clear source of spiritual inspiration from the beginning, and the focus on the arts was integral to its existence, however by its very nature it was an educational event; this was the unknown quantity.
As the event evolved it was realised that the application of spiritual concepts was producing exciting outcomes. In practice these spiritual concepts became educational principles. From the outset empowerment and encouragement were seen as ways of enabling all participants to gain confidence, and aiming for personal excellence was seen as a way to motivate achievement.
These two seemingly opposite principles of empowerment and challenge to achieve excellence were seen to have extraordinary outcomes. The reason: we found that we were using ‘aiming for excellence’ in a very different way from the established educational system, where excellence is often judged by the ability to reach set standards, thus building in proportional failure because there will always be those who cannot reach the standards set.
At the Academy it was different. We empowered and encouraged everyone, to be proud of themselves whatever their achievements, but to be constantly aiming for ‘personal excellence’. Thus each individual set their personal goal of excellence, and judged their achievement against their own starting point.
The results were powerful; competition, criticism, comparison and judgement were eliminated as there was no need to be ‘the best’ or 'the first’. Every individual was released to motivate and encourage the others. It is difficult to describe the atmosphere when a very large group of people are all willing each other to do their best and achieve the maximum on their learning journey, there are no limits to individual progress so it becomes exhilarating, and the power of encouragement is almost palpable.
What are the sources for this model?
The model is inspired by the following quotations from Baha‘u’lláh:
The purpose of the one true God , …in revealing himself unto man, is to lay bare those gems that lie hidden within the mine of their true and inmost selves
Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value. Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom.
When unravelled and explored these quotations contain many possible guidelines to learning and education. One interpretation relates the physical mines to the ‘mines of their true and inmost selves’, and reveals a relationship between the real gems and the potential that is within each person to learn new skills or gain new qualities.
The first quotation suggests that every individual has gems of potential but these gems are ‘hidden’ in the mines. This indicates that there is a need for the skills and attributes of the miner to unearth them! Attributes, such as courage, discipline, perseverance, motivation, determination; perhaps these are also what learners need to mine the gems within themselves.
If education is the key to revealing the gems of potential, then education should offer the learner the tools to mine the gems, and the encouragement to offer them in service to the world. This is what the Bahá’í Academy for the Arts endeavours to do.
What does this model offer?
In summary the model offers an alternative perspective on an educational context, the model proposes that …