Shelley Toon Lindberg

While gathering supplies for the Summer Arts and Apps Academy for students of the Lower Kuskokwim School District in bush Alaska, we came across a box filled with bags of beautifully colored sand.  Although the two-week academy was centered on developing eBooks and exploring various apps on the iPad, we knew we were not leaving the supply closet without the colored sand in tow.

Working as a teaching artist is thrilling on just about every level. I have the privilege of collaborating with brilliant educators, fellow teaching artists, and students who inspire me daily. I especially relish the time I spend developing curricula and planning interesting visual art experiences for students. I like to be organized and to structure lesson plans, but I must admit that after 15 years of working as a teaching artist, I have learned the value of spontaneity.

While packing iPads, loading apps, and prepping art supplies to be moved to the classroom, all I could think about was the colored sand we had found. So many possibilities ran through my mind. I knew that whatever we chose to do with the sand we must incorporate the use of technology. Then, it hit me…sand mandalas.  We would create a sand mandala; then document the process by photographing the experience and using iMovie to create a stop motion video of it.

I am based in Hood River, Oregon where Tibetan monks visit our county library every few years and spend the better part of a week creating an intricate and visually stunning sand mandala, only to calmly destroy it soon after completing it.  After witnessing this process several times, I have come to understand and embrace it.  The careful creation of the mandala demonstrates the care and attention we are to live each moment, while the destruction of the completed mandala represents the transitory nature of material life.

More and more I am realizing the importance of balancing careful planning with openness to spontaneity; balancing the need to control the controllables while allowing lessons, experiences, and life to unfold on its own.  I believe there is a lot of freedom within structure and I scaffold my lessons so students have context in which to build upon, and a clear understanding of the learning outcomes I have in mind. Yet the real magic doesn’t happen during the planning phase, the careful creation of the structure, it rests in the unknown—the endless possibilities that each individual brings to the experience.

And as it turned out, in the Summer Arts and Apps Academy, the students created several beautifully illustrated eBooks and learned countless new visual art techniques, just as planned, but the highlight of the experience was the creation and documentation of our spontaneous sand mandala.

To watch a stop motion video of the Alaska Arts and Apps Academy make a sand mandala, please click here.