ABSTRACT: Crearte’s Alternative School in San Juan Puerto Rico attends to and is in community with children and adolescents from underserved communities marked by poverty and its effects. Their curriculum prioritizes emotional intelligence and creativity, providing tools that bolster resilience and facilitate the development of a strong sense of self. By encouraging students to contemplate their identities, aspirations, and pathways to realizing their goals, Crearte equips them with essential skills for navigating life's challenges. This emphasis on emotions has yielded significant results within the community, fostering profound transformations in the learning process. Emotions are intrinsic to human growth, permeating every facet of existence. It is paramount that we not only experience emotions but also cultivate the capacity to understand, manage, and express them adeptly. Through creativity, in Crearte, we move closer to bridging our differences: harmonizing reason with emotion, aligning feelings with thoughts, and synthesizing intuition with perception. This particular talk will explore examples of the approaches and models used within Crearte’s curricular structure.
BIO: Cynthia Robles, a multidisciplinary artist and art educator with a specialization in theater, boasts a rich career spanning over 15 years. Her work experience includes positions at the Department of Public Education in Puerto Rico and various non-profit organizations dedicated to working with children, youth, and families on the island. Her practice and scholarly focus revolve around the integration of art education into the curricular development of community programs in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and its neighboring towns.