Partnership Tools

In the late 1990's and early 2000's, Z Puppets artists Shari Aronson and Chris Griffith consulted with the Perpich Center for Arts & Education to develop and test a set of educational planning tools for artists and educators to use in facilitating arts integration in schools. These tools became The Artful Teaching & Learning Handbook and the Artful Online program of Minneapolis Public Schools.

Below are some of the tools we have found to be helpful in planning our partnerships:

The Critical Response Protocol, like many of the Artful tools, grows out of work done by artists. It is most closely related in name to the Critical Response Process, a process developed in the early 1990s by teaching artist Liz Lerman, of the Washington, D.C.-based Dance Exchange. Lerman developed the Critical Response Process as a way to dialogue about artistic works-in-progress. She designed it as a structured conversation to help artists move their work to its next stage of development.

At Z Puppets, we have found this to be a crucial part of developing new artistic work, and often very helpful in evaluating our partnerships as well.