Engaging the Imagination: Wally’s Way is a not-for-profit educational documentary film that models some of the creative processes of being an audience. Using interactive methods that sharpen perceptions and seek emotional responses, artist and art educator Wally McGuire provides an entry for children and adults to become participants in the conversation the artist began.
When asked for permission to use images of their work in the film, many artists described Wally’s technique as an “authentic” approach to looking at art. All of the individual artists have waived their fees for use of their work in the film because the proceeds from the project will be donated to educational programs that promote aesthetic understanding for beginners (including the education department at Storm King Art Center).
The film project is a labor of love by a multi-disciplinary creative team of experts and many supporters who are dedicated to making sure that Wally McGuire’s (“Mr. McGuire” to 33 years of students in a New York school system) method of teaching about art comes to life on screen.
This film helps audiences to use all of their senses to experience art in a whole new way. He calls it “Making a HeArt Connection with Art”.
“Wally’s Way” reveals a wide variety of strategies for guiding a diverse audience, kids to adults, to find their own meaning in works of art. For the public audience, it serves to open the imagination and begins to unlock avenues for deeper appreciation of the great collection of works found at Storm King, beautifully showcased in this film. For teachers, it models great ways to engage learners withworks of art and thus is a film most worthy of support.” – Dr. Karen Carroll, Dean, Center for Art Education at the Maryland Institute College of Art