Overview
If you're going to launch a brand new online school encouraging creativity in girls, it doesn't hurt to have Marina Abramovic's backing. Or Yoko Ono's. Or Pussy Riot's. Or Sia's. Or Every Strong Awesome Wonderful Lady Doing Amazing Things Right Now. The School of Doodle did just that.
A brand new, free online school geared to infuse a little creativity into girls' educations, the School of Doodle has launched a Kickstarter campaign with the support of some of the world's most high-fiveworthy women. The Portland-based (of course) SOD team (lead by Melbourne-born expat Kate Johnson) see an unacceptable lack of arts education in US schools, one they've particularly seen as detrimental to young girls' learning processes.
"The arts are being cut from schools and yet all the research shows that when teens' creativity and imaginations are fortified, they excel and stay in school longer as well as develop the necessary skills for future success," says the SOD Kickstarter page. "After extensive research and interviews with teens, teachers and education reform experts, we believe that a girl’s imagination is a right and not a privilege. And, if we don’t fight to protect it, the next generation (of women and men) will suffer."
The team have pooled their savings and started building their free online high school, but found funds wanting to finish the website (the key to the whole shebang). So the team looked to Kickstarter, bringing quite the flurry of famous friends to the party. Rounding up 28 all-round goal-kicking women like Marina Abramovic, Yoko Ono, Pussy Riot, Sia, Kim Gordon, Yayoi Kusama, Sarah Silverman, half the cast of Orange is the New Black and too many more to list without their inspirational faces, SOD had each fearless female submit an original doodle of their own devising. Kickstarter backers can nab an individual doodle or a colouring book with the whole series.
Here's the backing team, it's honestly like scrolling through a glorious tunnel of oestrogen-charged high-fives:
Right? What. A. Lineup.
So once you've sent your Kickstarter backing funds, what can students actually learn at the School of Doodle? The team describe the whole thing as "part classroom and part content platform original programming, created by both teens and professionals, to engage and inspire imagination." The self-directed, free curriculum is made up of lessons called 'Daily Doodles', which end with a 'Doodle Challenge' each session for students to start putting their sweet knowledge into practice.
The whole philosophy runs on creative confidence and 'being loud' through the 'three paths to imagination': Dabble, Dig, Do. If you're lurking in the dreaded so-called 'Dabble' stage (we've all been guilty of Dabbling), the team have put together a library of 'How Do' videos to get your creative juices flowing.
And who's teaching these 'Daily Doodles'? This is where shit really gets cray. Salman Rushdie, Kim Gordon, John Baldessari, Yinka Shonibare, even Abramovic herself are all crafting lessons. Free lessons. From these guys:
Best looking faculty lounge ever.
Sure, there are no grades — students earn 'Doodle Dollars' that can be saved up and spent on live online expert chats, field trips (or 'dream trips') and other bits and pieces that 'aid imagination' (not in the Parklife way). But if Abramovic, Sia and Pussy Riot see value in a free online school boosting girls' creativity, we're on board for Doodle.
Throw some cashola at the School of Doodle over here and nab one of those famously-penned doodles.
Via Artnet.