A number of famous musicians including Cat Power, Yoko Ono, Pussy Riot, Courtney Love, Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) and Sia have united with likeminded creative thinkers and artists to back a new project called School of Doodle –– an interactive "FREE online high school" aimed at developing the imagination.
Somewhat of a free online art lab, it will serve as both a classroom and a creative platform for young girls, meant to be an encouraging creative outlet for these young women to cultivate their imagination practice art they choose without fear of judgment.
When Molly Logan and Elise Van Middelem saw diminishing funding and classwork in the arts for students, they came up with the idea for School of Doodle. In an interview with Refinery29, they explained the higher goals they hope to achieve with the project.
"We started School of Doodle because we passionately believe in the power of the arts to develop imagination leading to critical life skills like self-expression, confidence, curiosity, and optimism...And, it is our collective responsibility to empower the next generation of women to live loudly and unapologetically. Imagination is the key."
To accomplish this, the founders have formed a group of spokespeople that they have declared to be "Loud Women," including Sarah Silverman, Arianna Huffington and Kim Hastreiter. Their Kickstarter page defines the term as follows: "Being Loud is demanding to be seen and heard. Embracing every part of you – the messy and the neat. Being Loud is being colorful, curious, compassionate, creative, courageous and confident."
Other notable musicians and artists will be teaching the free online classes for School of Doodle, including J.D. Samson (Le Tigre), Salman Rushdie, Marina Abramović, Alice Waters and Ashley Bouder. After completing several daily creative tasks, the students will earn "doodle dollars" instead of being graded, which are redeemable for various prizes –– like one-on-one sessions with Yoko Ono, according to reports.
School of Doodle is being funded on Kickstarter. Its donations recently surpassed the first goal of $75,000, and they have until August 23 to reach their new threshold of $125,000. As is typical of Kickstarter campaigns, the site offers different prize options to correspond with each tier of donations. Most of those tiers offer actual doodles made by the school's group of creatives.
You can view the various incentives and donate to the cause on the School of Doodle Kickstarter page.
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