Our Neighborhood
We have located in northeast Baltimore, along the bustling Harford Road corridor, to grow a school where many of our families have set down roots, established businesses and where we share a common commitment to celebrate and improve our corner of the world. The school has close contacts with many of the new and enduring institutions and enterprises (a bookstore, a coffee roaster, gourmet restaurants, a candy store, a yarn shop, a yoga center...) sprinkled along our main street that connects Hamilton Hills, Lauraville and Arcadia.
Our Staff/Founders
Caroline Chavasse is the mother of two children and a Professor of Video Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art. She has presented master classes in Digital Video and Media Production at the Gilman School. Caroline serves as Vice-President on the board of ZebraKids, an organization that teaches African dance and drumming to children and adults in the Baltimore area. She founded and operated, along with some terrific parents, the Free School Preschool and a community play group in Hamilton that is in its third year.
Before moving to Baltimore, Caroline worked with LeVar Burton at his film company at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, helping to develop family-friendly entertainment for television and film and also on his Emmy award-winning PBS educational series, Reading Rainbow. Caroline has an extensive background in theatre and television performing in New York City for ten years Off-Off Broadway and regionally in Chicago, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Richmond, North Carolina and Vermont. She's enjoyed working with such luminaries as Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Mary-Louise Parker. Her one-woman show, a blend of monologue, comedy and dance, received critical acclaim and was developed into a short independent film. Caroline has appeared in numerous television commercials as well as on "The Wire."
Danny Mydlack is a professor of media history and digital media production at Towson University, a former staff member of the Fairhaven School in Upper Marlboro, MD and the producer of "Voices from the New American Schoolhouse" an internationally-screened and celebrated film on education innovation..
Proud and grateful mom of 18-month old Rowan, Regina Tassone is committed to self-motivated learning and is excited to join our core staff part time. Her professional background includes working with children in diverse traditional and alternative settings. She has earned two degrees from Carnegie Mellon University: a Bachelor's in Computer Science, with an additional child-development focused Psychology major, and a Master's in Human-Computer Interaction. Her continuing passions include children and play, learning and discovery, and wellness arts.
Living and learning with Joshua age eleven and Hooper age six, challenges Liz Smith to keep her eyes, heart, and mind open. After homeschooling for almost a decade, she decided to follow her children on a new path and join our core staff part-time. A former chef with a degree in Culinary Arts, her life has lead her to work and train in the diverse fields of natural sciences, museum exhibits, theater and Reiki. While working with 4H, Scouting and local home school co-operatives she's taught classes ranging from the science of pastry to local bio-diversity. She is thrilled to be along for journey of knowledge and exploration.
Our Partners
The Episcopal Church of the Messiah has enthusiastically supported and partnered with Arts & Ideas Elementary to give our school a home. Founded in 1872, the Church of the Messiah has served Baltimore in the Episcopal tradition for more than 136 years, tracing its roots back to 1797 and the founding of their mother church, St. Paul's. The Church's Vestry along with The Rev. Lee Ann Tolzmann have built a reputation for service in the community, as a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Pick Up, operating a Food Pantry, participating as a Baking Team for Moveable Feast, supporting the Baltimore Education Advocates and hosting meetings for a variety of community services.
The Arcadian Fellowship Church, our parent organization, is a Maryland Religious Corporation started in 2008 to serve as a spiritual organization that embraces diversity of thought and belief while providing for its membership a supportive and stimulating community. Its mission is to promote the free and responsible search for personal truth and meaning, the belief in the inherent worth and dignity of every human being, and to promote a democratically self-governed education environment within which children are free to explore life in all its complexity.
Our Home
Arts & Ideas Elementary inhabits the 3,000 square foot upper floor of the Church Hall. Constructed of stone in grand gothic style, the high-ceilinged space is encircled with over 30 stained glass windows and features the original woodwork from the 1920s.
The architectural details evoke images of a 19th century mansion while the open floor plan allows for maximal flow and usability. Our intention is to provide a relaxing, dignified setting where children can pursue a wide variety of activities, social interaction and groupwork.
During the summer of 2008 the space will be renovated to reestablish the full stage/auditorium and a variety of multi-purpose spaces. The layout will include read-together nooks, art tables, science/project counterspace, and personal work benches as well as computers, recording booths and a piano. The school will have direct access to the large tree-shaded lawn and the gardens of the church yard.
Our Outdoors
Arts & Ideas Elementary has a special connection with our neighborhood green space, Herring Run Park, which is just a short bus ride down the hill. Because of the unique freedoms afforded by our educational model, our school is ideally situated to offer our students regular and rich immersion in the natural landscape.
In the nineteenth century, boy scouts camped in its woods and local residents drew water from its renowned cold spring. In the nineteen twenties, the Olmsted Firm, legendary landscape architects, drew plans for the park land and its connecting thoroughfares.
Local historian, Eric L. Holcomb, writes, "a walk through Herring Run Park illustrates the dramatic change from the Piedmont Plateau to the Coastal Range." Herring Run Park offers access not only to open fields and hiking/bike paths but is one of the few wild spaces within the city that is home to foxes, fish and birds including the Oriole and the Great Blue Heron among others.
Its flowing stream is part of a 44 square mile watershed that feeds the Chesapeake Bay. The nearby Herring Run Watershed Association acts as steward and educational center and is this ecosystem's leading advocate for its longterm health and vitality.