Training

Kintai Arts – Visual Thinking Strategies Facilitator training  – 2023

With Karen Vanhercke

Upcoming: June 10th – 20th, 2023

Where?

Kintai Arts Residence

This training coincides with a plein-air week for painters at the Kintai Arts Residence, and the facilitators in training will have a chance to collaborate closely with these artists on site. The town of Kintai is uniquely situated on the Neringa lagoon the connection with nature and is one of the themes that the artists and facilitators are invited to explore. The main goal of the residency program is to establish a dialogue between the artists and facilitators and to investigate how such a dialogue can support creative thought processes between them.

More about the Kintai Plein-Air residency

What is on the program?

Visual Thinking Strategies: VTS is an art-based dialogue method that increases 1. visual literacy (observation skills), 2. critical thinking (comparing multiple points of view) and 3. empathic connection (communicating difference & identity). See schedule below for more details on the training program.

Is this program for you?

That decision is yours: the VTS method is useful for people who work with people: teachers, therapist, mediators, caregivers, activists, researchers, artists… and can empower you to make flexible social, cognitive and creative connections, with yourself, with others and with the world.

Who gives the training?

The trainer is: Karen Vanhercke. She has a background in Art History and has been working as an art educator for over 30 years. She started her career as a visual resources manager in the Art department at the University of California in Davis, where she edited learning content for Art History faculty and collaborated closely with the Studio Artists of the MFA program. Later she became an educational researcher in the Art and History museum in Brussels, where she piloted and developed several innovative educational programs for culturally diverse audiences. From 2018 - 2021 she worked as a curator at MO Museum in Vilnius Lithuania, where she started the first VTS training program for museum educators and staged a children’s exhibition (Lake full of Stars) centred around experiential learning. Currently she teaches at the Vilniaus Valdorfo Žalioji Mokykla (Lithuania). She is the founder of easel.world where she offers VTS training courses and educational programs based on the discussion of single artworks. Karen has trained numerous educators in different countries, from the Art & History Museum (Brussels), the National Gallery of Art (Vilnius), The FoMu (Antwerpen), The Contemporary Art Centre (Vilnius), to MO Museum (Vilnius). Her weekly online art-based dialogues are ongoing since 2020 and are attended by people from all over the world.

More about Art-based Dialogue

Price*

The price is fixed for 1 person for 10 days and includes daily workshops + 3 meals per day + accommodation:

200€ + 160€ + 160€ (1 bed in a shared room with 4 beds) = 520€
200€ + 160€ + 200€ (1 bed in a shared room with 3 beds) = 560€
200€ + 160€ + 250€ (1 bed in a shared room with 2 beds) = 610€
* Money should never be an obstacle in any learning trajectory - please contact us to discuss the financial part if needed!

Weekly Schedule

Saturday, June 10th: arrival - lunch 12 pm - welcome huddle 2 - 4 pm
Sunday, June 11th: “who is who: forming the learning community”
Monday, June 12th: VTS 1 - lecture - “Art, language and perception” + practice:  “questions”
Tuesday, June 13th: VTS 2 - lecture - “The theory behind visual thinking” + practice: “presuppositions”
Wednesday, June 14th: VTS 3 - hands-on workshop -  “Paraphrasing” + practice "active listening"
Thursday, June 15th: VTS 4 - lecture -  “Abigail Housen on aesthetic development” + practice: “visual literacy step by step”
Friday, June 16th: VTS 5 - collaborative workshop with visual artists -  “Self awareness and Creative choice” + Exhibition opening!
Saturday, June 17th:  VTS 6 - “Dialogue with community”
Sunday, June 18th: Excursion to Nida (optional & self-organised)
Monday, June 19th: VTS 7 - “Dialogue with students”
Tuesday, June 20th: departure - breakfast 9 am - 

Daily Schedule

8-9 am: breakfast
10-11:30 am: art-based dialogue (Monday - Friday)
12 -1 pm: lunch
2-4 pm: facilitator training (Monday - Friday)
6-8 pm: dinner

Ready to sign up? Have a question?

We look forward to seeing you in Kintai!