Silent Art Auction

(Year 5, Week 5)

Defining Roles

With this being the first exhibition of the year, emotions were running high on Monday. The heroes started the week by figuring out roles for their Thursday exhibition. The criteria was the following

MC: Craft a speech and make sure the guests know what to do and when to do it.

Organizers: They are in charge of making sure the space is designed with good flow in mind.

Schedulers: They are in charge of making the schedule and handing it out to incoming guests.

Greeters: In charge of making the guests feel welcomed.

To have a role at exhibition, the heroes must be in Flying or Soaring, just like the other leadership roles in the studio. Reaching these freedom levels are tough and shows that the heroes are focused and ready to lead. On Monday, during the voting process, many heroes felt defeated knowing they weren’t eligible to take on the challenge. They reflected on what they need to do to reach their future goals to take on exhibition roles. The exciting thing about the exhibition roles is no hero can have the same role twice. There are only 7 exhibitions so that means, different heroes will get the opportunity for upcoming sessions!

Organization

On Tuesday, the heroes were tasked with setting up the studio for exhibition. Half of the heroes had completed their challenges while the other half were working diligently to finish their Odes and artwork. The heroes who were tasked with organization did not waste any time. One of the heroes stepped up to lead the discussion and got a game plan rolling.

After about an hour, the studio was transformed. The heroes decided to set up the desks in a way that would allow friends and family to move through the bidding and artwork with ease. They talked about possible complications and issues with having desks too close or too far away. After they decided on a proper layout, they got to work on organizing and scrubbing down the library.

Good ideas sometimes spiral in the studio. Not only did half of the studio clean for an hour, when they were done they continued to ask their friends if they needed help with their studio maintenance jobs. The teamwork was effortless and effective. This years group of heroes are extremely kind to one another. Always lending a hand and one of their favorite sayings is, “follow the Golden Rule!

Badges

Badges are definitely an important part of the Discovery studio system. Heroes are constantly being challenged to work towards their badges and complete them when they reach their goals. If a hero is at level on their badges or ahead, that means they are able to be in Flying or Soaring in the studio- the two highest freedom levels. If a hero is below level, that just means they stay in nesting until they get caught up. Nesting is a great freedom level for heroes who are working on badges that challenge them.

While badge work is very important, the first session is much more focused on building the community. The heroes spent the entire session doing team building activities, being introduced to contracts, Rules of Engagement and learning the guardrails around Socratic discussions.

Now that the heroes have signed their contracts and have built out there community, families are going to start seeing a rise in badge work. It is perfectly normal for heroes who are in their first year at heroes or an incoming Spark to be a bit confused on the process of badge work. This is a great opportunity to encourage heroes to ask their running partners, squad leaders and friends what steps they need to take in order to complete a badge by the end of the year. It is great to check in with the heroes and remind them if they want to work towards the Flying and Soaring freedom levels, they have to put in the time to get on track with their badges.

During session 2, things will get really exciting. Heroes will have Badge challenges, weekly badge check ins and guided discussions on the overall process of badge submission. It is important to note that while badge work will become a bigger part of the studio process, the love of learning the Discovery studio is held up as the heroes number one mission.

Exhibition

It was the first exhibition of the year and the studio was buzzing with nerves and excitement. There are many new heroes in the studio and so the nervousness was very much expected. The heroes spent the morning doing walk throughs of the exhibition. They pretended to put themselves in the shoes of the parents, guardians, family and friends. They held each other accountable to noise levels and expectations. With one hero saying,

“We won’t be talking loud and screaming at exhibition, so why are we doing it now!?

Even with the ups and downs while prepping, the heroes really did a stellar job for their set up. The MC’s were often found in the Green Room studying their script and giving one another pointers. The Greeters kept double checking with their friends to make sure what they were saying made sense. The organizers instructed the guide where and how to move the desks and everyone else held each other accountable for their volume levels.

Once it was time for exhibition, the heroes lines up outside and waited for their families…

They walked in and signed the contracts…

Then it was time for the silent auction! The heroes led their parents around and instructed them to bid on the different pieces of art. The heroes came up with the idea to have tickets and have each ticket cost three dollars. What the heroes failed to add to their instructions was that the parents needed to outbid each other. They decided for the next type of auction, they would

“revise revise revise!”

All in all, it worked out. One of the heroes took the lead and decided to just add up the amount on each art piece and figure out the winner not by just the highest bid, but the most amount of money on each bid sheet. He did this with ease and zero confusion. He took the reigns, let the guide know his plan and executed it flawlessly.

The heroes also got to present their Ode’s to their friends and family and they ended exhibition with showing their family members how they use journey tracker, how they set their goals and what badges they need to work on. Many of the parents expressed that they were excited for session 2 journey meetings!

Final

The heroes worked so hard over the first session. New friendships were formed, new systems put into place and now the heroes are ready to really kick off their journey! In the upcoming sessions heroes are going to be taking on character trait challenges, science quests, creative writing workshops and much, much more. Their journey’s are all going to look very different. With ups and downs and sometimes sideways trajectories.

On Friday, during the reflection, the heroes expressed their feelings on exhibition, their hopes for the next one and even congratulated each other on what one another did well over the session. It is going to be exciting to watch them fail, succeed and grow.

We hope everyone has a safe, fun and relaxing Fall break, see you back here October 18th!