Passion, Creativity and the Arts:
A Mirror on Society

Teacher's Student Activities

To discuss the origins of creativity and the response of society to the creative person and that which she/he creates

To investigate Constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression as they pertain to the arts

BEFORE THE PROGRAM

Examine these guide materials.
Have students complete the pre-program activities so they will be ready and able to participate in discussions regarding the program.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

BIOGRAPHIES OF FEATURED GUESTS

RICHARD BRANSON
Richard Branson is the founder and chairman of the Virgin Group of Companies, a global publishing, retailing, aviation and entertainment conglomerate based in London, England. Mr. Branson is the flamboyant pop-music tycoon who started his empire and $1 billion personal fortune from scratch when he was 15 years old. He built his business during one of Britain's darkest economic hours. Mr. Branson found his first success selling discount records and then expanded the business into one of the world's hottest record companies. He signed an impressive artistic roster, including Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Winwood, Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, and the Rolling Stones. He later created the successful Virgin Atlantic Airways and became an international celebrity when he co-piloted the largest hot-air balloon ever built on an historic transatlantic voyage. This "multi-millionaire turned folk hero" recently sold his Virgin Music Group for a headturning $973 million, the highest price ever paid for a privately-held record company. Richard Branson was selected in a poll of British youth as the third most popular individual in the world after Prince Charles and the Pope.

MICHAEL CRICHTON, M.D.
Michael Crichton is "The King of the Serious Thriller." He wrote scripts when he was in the third grade, short stories in the sixth grade, and was 14 when he sold his first article to The New York Times. Michael graduated from Harvard University with highest honors and became a visiting lecturer in Anthropology at Cambridge. He returned to Harvard for a medical degree and supported himself through medical school by writing pulp novels. Dr. Crichton earned the Edgar Allan Poe Award for the year's best mystery book, authored the instantaneous best-seller The Andromeda Strain (a tale of virulent microbes from outer space and the world's first biological crisis), and became a post-doctoral fellow at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. Dr. Crichton answered his "true calling" and switched from medicine to writing. He has authored Westworld, The Great Train Robbery, The Terminal Man, Rising Sun and Jurassic Park (which is being adapted into a soon-to-be-released motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg).

SUZANNE FARRELL
Suzanne Farrell is heralded as the greatest ballerina of the twentieth century. As a young student of 15 from Cincinnati, Suzanne auditioned for the legendary choreographer George Balanchine. From the moment she joined the New York City Ballet, Suzanne Farrell's talent shone. She became Balanchine's "inspiring angel" and partner in the development of the most glorious ballets of our time. Over the next 25 years, Suzanne proved that any movement could be unimaginably beautiful and mysterious. Suzanne Farrell is saluted as "simply the greatest dancer of our century, a choreographer's ideal, critic's dream and public star."

JUDITH JAMISON
Judith Jamison is the Artistic Director of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the best-known and most popular modern dance company in the United States. Miss Jamison grew up in New York City, the daughter of a sheet metal worker and teacher. As a young girl, Judith was sent to classical dance classes and later attended the Philadelphia Dance Academy where she was recruited by Agnes de Mille for the American Ballet Theatre. In 1964, Miss Jamison was invited by Alvin Ailey to join his company as principal dancer and, for the next 15 years, thrilled and captivated audiences around the world as "modern dances' first box-office star." In 1988, Miss Jamison starred in the Broadway musical "Sophisticated Ladies." She returned to the Ailey troupe and has carried on the legacy of its founder, rejuvenating the company and extending the heritage of black expression. This majestic dancer-choreographer-teacher is acclaimed as one of the most influential forces in American culture.

LLOYD RICHARDS
Lloyd Richards is the Dean and Artistic Director of the Yale School of Drama and Yale Repertory Theater. As a former pre-law student from Detroit, he became deeply involved in theatre activities at school and after World War II was inspired to pursue an acting career. He moved into the New York City YMCA and "pounded the pavement" looking for work and got his first job at Paramount Pictures - as a dining room waiter. Mr. Richards gradually built himself a reputation as an Off-Broadway actor, began teaching an acting class and encouraged a friend, Sidney Poitier, to join the workshop. He soon became involved with "A Raisin in the Sun" as the first Black director of a serious Black play on Broadway, which launched a directing career of many notable Broadway plays. He later moved to Yale where he has affected a generation of American actors from James Earl Jones to Meryl Street. This legendary guiding force has been applauded as perhaps the most influential man in American theatre.

TOM SELLECK
Tom Selleck is one of the most popular television and motion picture actors in the world. He attended USC on a basketball scholarship and later began his career at 20th Century-Fox studios where he spent ten years learning his craft in small roles. Then, after seven previous pilots had not sold, he switched to Universal Studios, and played a charming private investigator, Thomas Magnum in "Magnum, P.I." The show took off the moment it aired in 1980, catapulting him into international stardom. He later became the first performer to successfully appear in films while still in a TV series, starring in five films, including the blockbuster "Three Men and a Baby." He has earned an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and the selection as America's Favorite Male Television Performer.

BACKGROUND
Creativity. What is it? Is it a blessing or a curse? Does our culture foster the creative impulse, or stifle it?

Studies have shown that 98 percent of children aged 4 to 5 are highly creative, but that percentage plummets to 4 or 5 percent by the age of 15. Is it possible for the creative individual to flourish in a society given to glorification of mass media, which tends to appeal to the least common denominator? Creative geniuses of the past, such as Vincent Van Gogh, Isadora Duncan, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Sylvia Plath, have walked a fine line between social acceptance, ostracism, even madness. We cannot know how many such geniuses are among us today, since it is likely that the gifts some of them possess will not be appreciated until after they die.

Our guests for this program, Judith Jamison, Michael Crichton, Suzanne Farrell, Richard Branson, Lloyd Richards and Tom Selleck, embody the full spectrum of successful creative accomplishment in the contemporary arts. Each stands as a model of passion, creativity and the arts.

VOCABULARY

Censorship:
changing or suppressing speech, writing, or artistic expression that is condemned as subversive of the common good

Creativity:
the ability to make or otherwise bring into existence something new, whether a new solution to a problem, a new method or device, or a new artistic object or form

Fine Arts:
arts (as painting, sculpture, music) concerned primarily with the creation of beautiful objects

Offensive:
breaching a moral or social code

Propaganda:
the spreading of ideas and information for the purpose of helping or injuring an institution, a cause, or a person

PREPARING FOR THE PROGRAM
This guide provides lesson suggestions for at least one school week (5 days) that you can tailor to satisfy your academic requirements. For example:

Day 1
Review Background in Teacher Guide and identify curriculum connections that are most relevant to your class.

Day 2
Review materials, with a special emphasis on the biography of program guests.

Day 3
Program

Day 4
Review the program with your students.

Day 5
Select and complete assignments for the curriculum areas you identified Day 1 from the After the Program section of the Teacher Guide.

Regardless of what curriculum you are teaching, your students will benefit more from the program if they complete the pre-program activities. Review the featured guests and the reasons they are on the program.

AFTER THE PROGRAM
Curriculum Connections The Arts and Art History

Trace the history of involvement of governments in art from ancient times to the present. Discuss the various ways artists have been supported or have earned a living throughout history.

How has the opinion of society toward artists varied in different eras? Compare two or more historical periods (for example, Medieval Europe vs. the European Renaissance, your parents' favorites to your own) to support your answer. Investigate the relationship between technology and the arts. How has creativity been enhanced/ dampened by the use of technology. Make a chart on the board listing Painting, Sculpture, Drama, Literature, Architecture, Music, Dance. Have the class brainstorm technologies which have impacted each art form and write their ideas on the board. Then, ask the students to rank which art form they believe has been most profoundly impacted and be prepared to explain why.

Select two or three major past or present figures in the fine arts and research their biographies. Are there common threads running through their lives Discuss the ways in which they have pushed the boundaries of what was considered "art" by preceding generations.

Curriculum Connections Government and the U.S.

Constitution
Should government place curbs on artistic freedom? Look into court cases in which attempts have been made to define what is morally objectionable and what constitutes pornography. Have students research the standard currently in place as defined by the Supreme Court. Tipper Gore succeeded in a campaign to have records labeled so that parents can be informed of the nature of their lyrics. Some communities have banned the sale of "Cop Killer" by the rapper Ice T. You may wish to duplicate the Issue Analysis at the end of the guide to use in discussing with the class the pros and cons of these actions. Have the students discuss the following issues, then poll them to obtain a consensus of class opinion:

Should government censor works of literature, the cinema, music, dance?

Should a ratings system such as the one in place for motion pictures be established for records, cassettes, and CDs?

Should a group which finds a work of art to be offensive be able to force shut down of the display, sale, or distribution of it to the public?

The government has limited funds to spend on art: Who should decide how this art is selected? How?

Curriculum Connections Biochemistry

Research what science has learned about functions of various parts of the human brain. Where are creative and intuitive abilities believed to be located? What happens to the artistic ability of an individual in the event of a stroke or other brain injury? Look into the current brain research investigating the ways in which the brain functions of musicians and other artists differ from those of most people. Is artistic ability the result of the genetic constitution of the brain? How are the brain functions of artistically talented individuals different from those of most people?

Research the effect of mind altering substances on the creative process. Are artists more likely than others to abuse alcohol and drugs?

Curriculum Connections Global Studies

How can our educational system foster creativity? Compare the American system of education with that of Japan, France, or any other country and determine which is more supportive of creative expression and development of creative aptitudes by students.

Investigate the historical ebb and flow of artistic pre-eminence as various cultures dominated the arts at different periods in history. (For example, during the "Dark Ages" of medieval Europe, art in the Muslim world was at its zenith.) Have the class create a time line indicating major milestones in art history from 3000 B.C. to the present.

Discuss the difference in various cultures' definitions of what constitutes art and what is considered to be appropriate subject matter for artistic interpretation. How has art across the ages reflected the priorities and values of the culture which produces it?

Curriculum Connections Language Arts and Communication

Using a Town Meeting format, have students play the roles of parent, teenager, religious leader, educator, concert promoter, musician, recording star, local resident. Within this format, discuss the following issues:

A concert is scheduled for a large outdoor arena featuring a rock group known for earsplitting and offensive performances. It is widely known that concert-goers generally consume large amounts of alcohol and drugs at the group's concerts. The concert is sold out the same day tickets go on sale. Local residents want the concert banned from their neighborhood.

Your child/student has purchased tickets to the concert despite a family/school ban of the group's music.

Have students view Oliver Stone's "JFK" or Michael Moore's "Roger and Me" and discuss the ways in which the filmmaker conveys his point of view.

Research and discuss the ways in which the arts have been used by totalitarian governments to serve as propaganda. Nazi Germany, Communist China, or the former Soviet Union would serve as excellent examples.