Agreements / Ground Rules

Be on Time -
Nothing can be accomplished if this cannot be accomplished first. Be responsible and true to your word on this. Circumstances (we know what they are) get in the way. How can you be victorious in the face of all those circumstances?
If it takes you an hour to get here, door-to-door, leave an hour and 15 minutes early, every day. Show up powerful, ready to work like a champion. Communicate, if you're going to be absent or late, for wherever reason.

Participate -
There are things you won't want to do. If you don't write well, you won't want to write.
If you don't know yourself to draw well, you will resist drawing. If you are habitually late, you won't want to promise to be on time. If you are shy, or easily embarrassed, not full of bravado, you will want to take a day off if you have to present. All of this is manageable if you are willing to give us and each other your word - that you will be on time and execute all of the exercises and assignments that we will do.

We are most comfortable with what we know how to do well. This is not a course about displaying the skills that you already have. This is about an expansion of yourself into the realm of the unknown -THE UNKNOWN. This is really where the good stuff is - creativity, life and the ability to see solutions and beauty where there exists entrenched chaos and hopelessness.

Do not Gossip -
There will be no gossip. This is a promise we will make to each other. What is gossip? That's where you talk about someone in a negative way to someone who cannot make any difference to the subject matter. It is leaving communications anonymously, where they hurt and destroy. If you make the promise, you must also agree not to listen to gossip and to direct anyone who is gossiping to the subject of their discourse. If you have a complaint, take it to one of the faculty only. If you give your promise to this, you will have no trouble knowing if you are gossiping or listening to it - you will feel it and it will feel bad.

These are the underlying values of the studio concept and relationships. You are not here as a single person trying to accomplish a goal. Though that is a worthy thing in itself, this is not that. Here, you rely on each other for your success. And success here is not a linear progression. It is filled with setbacks and studded with breakthroughs.

And this is where we make a promise to you: that you, by agreeing to these three ground rules, will experience a breakthrough, a breakthrough in expressing yourself and in understanding and trusting yourself to design solutions in your environment. You will do great work here - each and every one of you. We promise you that.