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, an open-air co-op market...) sprinkled along our main street that connects Hamilton Hills, Lauraville and Arcadia.
Our Staff/Founders
Caroline Chavasse (cofounder & staff) is the mother of two children and was a Professor of Video Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art for 7 years. She has presented master classes in Digital Video and Media Production at the Gilman School and has taught theatre workshops at University of Michigan, Middlebury College and Meredith College in Raleigh, NC. Caroline cofounded and operated, along with some terrific parents, the Free School Preschool and a community play group in Hamilton that ran for 5 years.
Before moving to Baltimore in 2000, 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 nationally and locally, as well as on "The Wire." Some of her favorite things are history, vocabulary, cartooning, dog training, choreography and dance, video making and editing, reading stories aloud, camping and hiking, and working and playing with the exquisite young people at Arts & Ideas.
Liz Smith (staff) is not only a staffer at Arts and Ideas, she's also a bee-keeper, a chickeneer and the proud parent of Joshua and Hooper. Professionally, Liz holds an AA in Culinary Arts, a BA in Theater Arts and is currently working on a MSW at the University of Maryland. Having home schooled her children, taught adult education, worked and taught as a Reiki Master, cooked professionally for almost three decades, taught in a homeschooling co-op and written educational materials for a local museum, Liz embraces the Sudbury model enthusiastically. Life is about the journey and education is about life. From set design to worm composting she constantly seeks out new information and enjoys sharing it. Liz has been with the school since the opening in 2008 and loves her job because it is always challenging and inspiring
Ali Solonche (staff) is a 2009 graduate of New York University where she majored in Studio Art and minored in sociology. In New York, she volunteered at Free Arts NYC, a non-profit organization providing educational arts and mentoring to underserved youth. A Maryland native, she loves being back in Baltimore and is taking in all its charm.
Ali loves being an aunt to two nieces and two nephews with whom she could never spend enough time. Some of her favorites are playing sports with friends, family meals, painting and photographing, great finds, traveling anywhere and everywhere, being outside, and all things hand-made. She loves the spontaneity and excitement of a Sudbury environment, and is still in shock that she gets to wake up everyday and be a part of something so important. This will be her second year at Arts & Ideas.
Joel Tyson (staff) is a classically trained trumpet player who has studied with members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. He has also worked and volunteered on the business side of several educational and arts- affiliated organizations. Joel spends much of his time striving to learn new things, making and listening to music and attempting to understand philosophy. Mostly though, he learns from his seven year old daughter everyday.
Danny Mydlack (cofounder) is a tenured university professor, creator of "Voices from the New American Schoolhouse" and cofounder of the Freeschool Preschool.
Our Partners
The Episcopal Church of the Messiah has enthusiastically supported and partnered with Arts & Ideas 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 inhabits the 3,000 square foot upper floor of the Church Hall and has access to 2500 square feet of the lower. 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 was renovated to reestablish the full stage/auditorium and a variety of multi-purpose spaces. The layout includes read-together nooks, art tables, science/project counterspace, and personal work benches as well as computers, recording booths and a piano. The school has direct access to the large tree-shaded lawn and the gardens of the church yard.
Our Outdoors
Arts & Ideas 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.