We always like to tell the kids that Color Wheel isn’t Cathy or 112 Church Street or the playground or Ceramics. Color Wheel is every artist that comes through the front door. It is something we share. Color Wheel is a living, breathing thing that changes and evolves, hopefully for the better!
Just like the studio, our Core Values have evolved as they have been put into practice over the years. Our Core Values inform all that we do here. From the way that we speak to each other to the projects we create to the artists we study we continually look to the Core Values as our guiding light. Here they are in their current form:
Integrity: Consistency and Honesty
Students should begin to develop an internal sense of correct moral conduct in their interactions and movement through the studio. We seek to provide opportunities for children to test and develop their personal integrity both by engaging them in conversation about their decisions and in leading by example.
Empowerment: Self-Sufficiency
Color Wheel should equip each child with the ability to act of their own accord. In enabling children to conduct themselves autonomously we send the message that we trust that their decisions will be beneficial to themselves and the studio community.
Responsibility: Personal and Collective Accountability
We wish to impart to our children that they alone are responsible for their actions and that those actions directly affect their personal experience as well as their studio community. It is important that each child learn to weigh their decisions against this responsibility. Our children should acknowledge the opportunities they have been provided by their parents, their community and Color Wheel and we expect that they will give back by being responsible people.
Empathy: Understanding and Caring for Others
Color Wheel seeks to help our children develop a caring and respectful attitude towards others. We do this in part by treating each child with respect and understanding. We believe that greater empathy leads to a deeper connection with others and a larger sense of place in the world.
Engagement: Active Participation
We value the merit of effort and the satisfaction that comes with hard work. In a creative environment we allow for many different types of being, learning and doing. We ask that our children engage in the full range of studio activities.
Safe-Space: Acceptance
Color Wheel seeks to be a safe place for children to develop as creative individuals, a process that often takes courage. Creativity is the transcendence of the traditional towards the formation of the new. We seek to promote safe-space in creative development by being consistent, kind, compassionate and strong . Color Wheel maintains a no-tolerance policy towards hate. It is through a safe and stable foundation that children can become excellent.
Our Morning Art School artists even have their own version of Core Values with the mantra, “Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Clean”.
One way that we bring awareness to the After School artists of the Core Values is through Medals.
Core Values Medals in After School
During Circle Time each Friday our little artists nominate their peers to earn a Core Values Medal if they have demonstrated exemplary behavior that week. Each day that the artist arrives at the studio they wear their medal with pride! That way the whole studio can learn from each other.
Our hope is that this practice with our Core Values travels far in shaping us all into better, happier and more creative people!
About Color Wheel
"A Community Art Studio for Decatur Families" 