Designers The Think Tank @ St. Louis Caviglia

“The Think Tank is a place where we make things that are in our minds.” T.T. 4 years old

“It is like a door…..into your imagination.” T.T. 5 years old

The Think Tank environment is a setting created to celebrate, stimulate, enhance, and develop creativity through connections. It is designed by the students and the atelierista/art studio teacher. Initially inspired by Loris Malaguzzi’s educational approach, where the child freely expresses his /her ideas, interests, concepts, and theories and sets the ground for exploratory adventures. It also embraces Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner’s methods creating a multi perspective environment. It has evolved into what the children have described as “the place where your ideas come true.”

A young student in Y2 aged 7years old wrote.

The Think Tank is full of ideas,

If you listen with your ears, just peer through here,

And maybe you will see a pear,

You will see oysters and monsters.

But don’t worry you don’t need to say sorry.

Now watch this film (Ripples) and you will be surprised

With what your child has learnt. (G.C, 2019)

This spontaneous creative piece blossomed from the student’s mind at no request, it was presented as a gift.

The Think Tank never requests, it proposes, shares, presents, and inspires its community through an ecology of education. A constant interaction with the human and physical environment.

It provides and researches a vast selection of materials that are either sourced locally or brought by the community through personal collections. All such items are recycled or upcycled and then repurposed. Language, movement, and sound are part of these materials and used to enhance, document, and create narratives. Music has become an essential ingredient in inspiring a calm and meditative ambience. Pieces of tranquil ambient music decorate the soundscapes not only stimulating alpha waves but acting as a platform for connections and ideas. Findings by Domantė Kučikienė and Rūta Praninskienė , (Kučikienė and Praninskienė, 2018) have proven that listening and perceiving music at alpha frequency can impact positively on cognitive processes furthermore according to researcher Barbara Fredrickson(Fredrickson, 2009) music produces a state of mind that enhances play and exploration broadening possibilities.

The Think Tank environment aims at stimulating connections to diverse dialogues creating a cultivated culture for the growth, development, and evolution of projects. As Chuck Palahniuk says,

“Nothing of me is original, I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve known.” (Palahniuk, 1999)

When Think Tank first opened its doors to students aged 5 yrs. the most immediate and spontaneous question was, “What do we do in the Think Tank?” and child responded with great confidence “We think with our brains!” So, the atelierista asked, “What does the brain look like?” “Well, of course it looks like this!”

A.L. drew the brain highlighting that the golden dots are the thoughts that move around.

This artwork then inspired the Think Tank Logo which wants to illustrate the processes and educational approach that are celebrated namely, thoughts, ideas, concepts, theories as journeys toward shedding light on knowledge that stems from the children’s creative minds and are then shared, collated, and arranged to draw attention on multiple perspectives that make us the unique being that we are.

Learning comes as a journey that starts with what the children know and then builds on what wants to be discovered allowing personal perspectives to find allocation in the process. There are no right or wrong answers just opinions and considerations that find their own way to truth, make it temporary of enduring.

Children’s imagination is like fertile ground where the most fascinating forest of ideas grows. It bis populated with what is encouraged to live and thrive in it. Creatures of all kinds and species, flowers and trees that bare the most colourful and beautiful blossoms and underground a world wide web of connections that we can call the subconscious creates the connections that allows the forest to thrive and expand.

Adults need to nourish this ecosystem of wonder and possibilities acknowledging the power of our creative spirit. There is space for all in this forest from the old Oak tree to the new-born bud and growth comes from sharing their immense resources.

Who can best describe the Think Tank but the children that have travelled along its path and inspired the way?