Public Programs

2015

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Spring 2013

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Fall 2012

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Fall 2011 & Winter/ Spring 2012

 

 

 

The Touchstone Center in association with the Performance Project University Settlement is pleased to present as part of the Advocates of the Immeasurable Salon Series

The Gift of Reflection and Imaginative Attentiveness in Childhood

Attendance is free but please register online here.

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We Are Rivers

Come join Richard Lewis and the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, in a program for children and their families, as they bring to life the rivers of our thoughts – flowing and gathering, reflecting and returning – all that we see and hear of the world around us.

November 12th, 2011
11 AM
Poets House
10 River Terrace
New York, NY
www.poetshouse.org

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The Touchstone Center, in collaboration with Wave Hill and The School of Education, City College of New York, is pleased to announce a series of workshops directed by Richard Lewis, exploring children’s imaginative interactions with the natural world.

Listening and Seeing

Nature, Childhood, and the Senses of our Imagining
A workshop focusing on the sensory qualities of our listening and seeing, and the ways we can deepen these sensory experiences for children through writing and art.

Saturday, October 29, 2011, 2-4 pm, Wave Hill.
Fee: $35

A Seed, A Leaf, A Pebble:
Explorations of Worlds within Worlds

A workshop examining how we can tap into children’s fascination with elements of the natural world that are small and secretive—and the possibilities of bringing these fascinations into imaginative realms of thought and expression.

Saturday, May 19th, 2012, 2-4 pm, Wave Hill.
Fee: $35

To register, please call Wave Hill, a public garden and cultural center in the Bronx, at 718-549-3200 x237
www.wavehill.org

Inside and Outside: Childhood, the Natural World, and the Play of Imagining

This course is available for 1 graduate credit through CCNY Spring, 2012

Led by Richard Lewis, this course consists of four two and a half hour sessions held indoors at CCNY, and culminates with one full-day session held outside at Wave Hill. It explores the role and use of imagination, at all stages of childhood, as a means of discovering, understanding, experiencing, and perceiving the natural world. Throughout each session, new discoveries and insights are used to help participants deepen their own teaching and learning.

Wednesdays: March 7, March 21, April 4, April 18; 4:50 – 7:20 pm at CCNY, Harris Hall, Room TBA and Monday, May 7, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm at Wave Hill.
Fees: $150 for non-credit option; $325 for credit, plus non-matriculation fee of $125 for those not enrolled at CCNY.
To register, call 718.549.3200 ext. 237. For credit option, also contact CCNY: bfalk@ccny.cuny.edu; 212.650.5182

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Public Programs Spring 2011

The Touchstone Center in collaboration with Nature’s Storytellers Arts Collective presents

Beginning With A Story: Creating and Preserving the Places of Our Imagining

A conversation, with Richard Lewis and Jill Olesker, on the importance of classroom teachers, teaching artists, and parents to act as mentors and catalysts, in helping children preserve the instinctive expressive and imaginative capacities of their childhood – and the unique sense of the world each child brings with them through their original stories and artwork.

June 11, 2011, 10 –12 PM

The Woodstock Artists Association & Museum
28 Tinker Street, Woodstock, New York 12498

Limited Enrollment:
For reservations please call Jill Olesker
at 845-679-2904

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Poets House presents The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble in a performance of

SEA TALE

Performed by the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble in Teardrop Park South, Poets House’s beautiful “backyard”, this mythic story by Richard Lewis shares with us, through the efforts of children and the wisdom of an ancient crab—how our ‘playing’ came into the world. After the performance, children will have the opportunity to celebrate the gift of their play, through the poetry of their words—and the delights of their imagining.

Saturday, June 4th, 11 AM

Poets House, 10 River Terrace

www.poetshouse.org

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Public Programs 2010

Advocates of the Immeasurable: Reflecting on the Role of the Arts and the Imaginative Experience in Education

A group of conversations with Richard Lewis, based on his new book Taking Flight Standing Still, on the possibilities of classroom teachers, teaching-artists, and parents to act as mentors and catalysts, in helping children preserve the instinctive, expressive, and imaginative capacities of their childhood.

The Performance Project’s Monday Night Salon Series at University Settlement
Monday, October 25th 7-9PM 2010
Monday, December 6th 7-9PM 2010

The Performance Project is located at the corner of Eldridge Street and Rivington Street. F to Second Avenue, B/D to Grand Street, J/M/Z to Essex Street
www.universitysettlement.org/programs/view/6

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At the Crossroads: The Intersection between the Poetic and the Natural World

A retreat, in collaboration with The Touchstone Center, in honor of the late Thomas Berry, featuring Thomas Rain Crowe and Richard Lewis, reflecting on the importance in childhood of the numinous and poetic experience of the natural world.

Saturday, November 13th 2010

The Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World, 1501 Rock Creek Dairy Road Whitsett, North Carolina, 27377
For further information: www.beholdnature.org
(336) 449-0612

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Wind, Ice and Other Tremblings of Winter

Richard Lewis, in a workshop for children and their families, leads an exploration of the poetry of shivering winds and frozen rivers, mounds of snow and seamless skies. Children imagine becoming icicles, reflecting sunlight, and learn how to keep warm inside the words of their wintery poems.

Saturday, December 4th 2010

at 11 AM Poets House, 10 River Terrace
For further information: www.poetshouse.org

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The Journey Within

Touchstone Center Publications is pleased to announce the DVD release of The Journey Within, a film produced and directed in 1990, by Eleanor Hamerow and Noami Trubowitz, documenting Richard Lewis working with a 6th grade class in writing and art at the Louis Armstrong School (IS 227) in Queens, New York.

“…a testimony to what committed and impassioned teaching can do to release creative energies in children.”
–Maxine Greene, Teachers College

Color, 25 minutes, $15.00
www.touchstonecenter.net
Public workshops made possible, in part, by funding from The New York State Council on the Arts

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Saturday, May 22nd, 2010

Queens Botanic Garden
43-50 Main Street
Flushing, NY 11355
718 886 3800
www.queensbotanical.org

Listening and Speaking: The Dialogue of Children with the Natural World

10 AM – 12:30 PM

A workshop, presented by Richard Lewis, founder and director of The Touchstone Center, for anyone interested in bringing the natural world into the lives of children—through the arts and the imaginative process. Examples of the work of the Center in New York City public schools will be shared, particularly in the use of elemental images as a catalyst for children to enter into their own, often poetic conversation, with the nature of nature itself. Participants will be invited to fashion their own dialogue with the natural world as a means of understanding how this use of the imagination can be integrated into our learning—as well as within the everyday lives of children.

In Our Backyard A Tree Lives

2 – 3:30 PM

A family workshop, with Richard Lewis, assisted by Karen Fitzgerald, for children and their caregivers exploring how a tree lives —and the unique knowledge a tree gathers as it experiences the many seasons of its own life. After reading Richard’s poem, A Tree Lives, each of us will find a special tree in the garden we can reflect upon, and through drawing and writing, create our own hand-made books, about all that a tree knows—and sees and hears and feels. Recommended for children 5 and up.

REGISTRATION FORM
There is no charge for these workshops but there is an Admission Fee for the Queens Botanical Garden: $4 for adults; $3 for seniors; $2 for children ages 3-12 and students with ID. his series of workshops is part of the Outreach Programming of the of The Touchstone Center and was made possible be a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

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The Touchstone Center in association with Poets House presents

How Does a Bird Imagine? What Does a Tree Know?

A Celebration of Poetic Spaces in a Public School

Poets House
March 20th to May 29th
Opening Reception: March 20th 3 to 5 PM

This interactive exhibition for all ages celebrates and documents the creation, over nine years, of a group of outdoor poetic spaces around the images of a bird, a tree, a labyrinth, a place to play, and the rivers of our thoughts, in a New York City Public School building – by artists of the Touchstone Center in collaboration with children, teachers and parents of the East Village Community School and the Children’s Workshop School.

Curated by Richard Lewis, with site-specific designs and constructions by Noah Baen, Kathy Creutzburgh, Carol Grocki Lewis and photographs by Susanne Michelus. How Does a Bird Imagine ? What Does a Tree Know? is an invitation, through the writings and art of both children and adults, of experiencing and finding the poetry of the natural world – everywhere, around us.

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Special Workshops and Performances

Saturday, May 1st, at Poets House:

How Does A Bird Imagine?
What Does a Tree Know?
A performance, and art and writing workshop, for children and their families with Richard Lewis and the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble – celebrating our trees of knowing and our birds of imagining.
11 AM

“It’s About Nature”
Children’s Learning and the Poetic Experience
A conversation with teachers, parents and artist-educators – reflecting on the importance of creating outdoor poetic spaces centered around the experience of the natural world – and how they can affect both the life of a school and the learning within it.
2 PM

For further information:
Poets House
10 River Terrace
New York, NY 10282
212 431 7920
www.poetshouse.org

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Fall 2009

Old Days, New Days: A Celebration of Daylight

Children and their families are invited to join members of the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, Richard Lewis, Harry Mann and Clea Rivera, as they perform And So It Was Day, a retelling, with a specially commissioned mask by Ralph Lee, of an ancient Hawaiian chant about the emergence of life on earth and its bountiful first day. With poems and artwork, each child will then create a Book of Days that celebrates the music and magic of daylight.

Saturday, October 17th, 11 AM

Poets House
10 River Terrace
New York, NY
Admission Free
For further information: www.poetshouse.org, 212 431 7920

All of the Earth.
All of the Sky

Based on a poem by Richard Lewis, this performance by The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, for children and their families brings to life the spaces of the natural world – where sun and moon and stars –hills and waters and seeds eventually lead us to the infinite spaces of our dreams and imagining. Following the performance, join us in creating a gift of a small book with one’s own imagined spaces of the many splendors of our earth and sky.

Saturday, December 19th, 1 PM

Irondale Center
85 South Oxford Street
Fort Green, Brooklyn
For ticket information: 718 488 9233
www.irondale.org

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Trees of Knowing, Birds of Imagining: A Workshop on the Imaginative in Learning and Teaching

In this four-session workshop, Richard Lewis will be exploring teaching as a poetic gesture and an act of imagining – and the importance of playful improvisation, conversation, and questioning as a means of deepening the ever-evolving fabric of children’s thought and learning in school settings.

Thursdays,
May 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th,
4:30 to 6:30 PM

Roberta Valentine’s Art Room
East Village Community School
610 East 12th Street
4th floor

There is no fee for this workshop but registration is required. Click here for brochure and registration form (as PDF).

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A Drop of Water, A Splash of Sound

Children and their families are invited to a poetry and art-making workshop with Richard Lewis, bringing to life the splendors and enchantments of water as it reflects its own very magical and mysterious worlds.

A Family Workshop for Children sponsored by Poets House at the NYPL Mulberry Street Branch

10 Jersey Street (bet. Lafayette and Mulberry St)
Saturday, May 9th, 2 PM, Admission Free
For further information: poetshouse.org or 212 431 7920

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The Imagined World: Children and the Life of Nature

A workshop, led by Richard Lewis and Noah Baen, Leader of the Wave Hill Family Art Project, on how children imaginatively interact with the natural world – and express, through their instinctive artistry, the various ways nature becomes and transforms itself. Both adults and children (ages 3 to 9) are invited to attend, sharing and independently pursuing hands-on and reflective activities.

Saturday, May 30th

Wave Hill House
9:30 AM – Noon
Registration: 718 549 3200, Ext. 305

And So It Was Day/Entonces…finé el día

A retelling of the Hawaiian creation myth through an interactive performance by the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble – Clea Rivera, Harry Mann and Richard Lewis, using an original mask by Ralph Lee – followed by a Family Art Project workshop led by Noah Baen, for children and their families, to create their own mask embodying one of the elements of nature.

Saturday and Sunday, May 30th and 31st

1 PM and 2:30 PM
Ecology Building
For further information:
Wave Hill
675 West 252nd Street
Bronx, NY 10471
718 549 3200

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Fall/Early Winter 2008/9

Once, When The Wind Was Very Young

Writing our wind swept poems and drawing our windy thoughts, we will, in a moment of quiet stillness, imagine with poet and teacher Richard Lewis, accompanied by musician and composer Harry Mann, what it’s like to be the dancing and singing of air, the delighted wind – scurrying across the sky.

A Family Workshop for Children sponsored by
Poets House at the NYPL Mulberry Street Branch
10 Jersey Street (bet. Lafayette and Mulberry St)
Saturday, November 15th.
2 PM, Admission Free
For further information: poetshouse.org

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The Other Side of Knowing: Art and Origin

Mythic and poetic worlds are brought to light, in this teacher workshop, as participants discover the new Oceanic galleries with museum educator, Rebecca Arkenberg, story-teller Tom Lee, and performing and teaching artists from the Touchstone Center for Children, Richard Lewis, Harry Mann and Clea Rivera. This workshop includes conversations, readings, performances and hands-on art making so that teachers may deepen their understanding of works of art from the South Pacific Islands to create possible connections with student learning and creativity.

Metropolitan Museum of Art
Saturday, January 24th, 2009
10 to 4 PM
Fee: $80

For further information: 212 570 3985, or e-mail at teachers@metmuseum.org.
or by submitting the Registration Request Form

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Spring 2008

Trees of Knowing, Birds of Imagining
A Workshop on the Imaginative
in Learning and Teaching

For the second year of this five-session workshop we will be focusing on ways to integrate playful thought into the evolving fabric of learning in school settings. Guest teachers will include Vivian Gussin Paley, who will take part in a conversation around her book, A Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play—and Kristin B. Eno, founder and director of Digital Story Workshop.

Wednesdays, May 7th, 14th, 21st, & 28th
& Monday, May 12th, 2008, 4:30–6:30 PM

The Art Room
East Village Community School
610 East 12th Street
New York, NY 10009

There is no fee for this workshop but registration is required. Click here for brochure and registration form (as PDF).

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Wondrous Light, Wondrous Air

Poetry and art-making workshop for children and their families with Richard Lewis and The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble exploring the magical and playful worlds of light and air.

Saturday, May 10th, 2008, 2 PM
For information: 212 431 7920 Ext.2219

Poet’s House at Mulberry Street Branch
NY Public Library
10 Jersey Street
www.poetshouse.org

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Playing in the Fields of our Imagining

Workshop for parents, children and teachers discovering how the natural world plays—and the ways children playfully relate to the smallest of creatures and phenomena. Led by Richard Lewis and Noah Baen, Leader of Wave Hill’s Family Art Project.

Saturday, May 31st, 2008, 9:30 AM-Noon
For registration 718 549 3200 x305

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Play, Said the Earth/Juguemos, dijo la tierra

For children and their families to delight in the playing of the elements of the natural world with a performance of Play, Said the Earth to Air by Richard Lewis and members of the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, Clea Rivera and Harry Mann—followed by an art workshop with Noah Baen.

Saturday and Sunday, May 31st and June 1st, 2008, 1PM and 2:30 PM, Family Art Project

Wave Hill
West 249th and Independence Ave.
Bronx, NY
www.wavehill.org

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Fall 2007

The Touchstone Center and Touchstone Center Publications in association with Poets House, New York City Art Teachers Association, and the Abrons Arts Center presents:

The Play of Imagining

a series of conversations, workshops and performances on the occasion of the publication of I Catch My Moment: Art and Writing by Children on the Life of Play

Saturday, October 20th

Poets House
72 Spring Street

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Through A Marble Brightly

Richard Lewis invites children to look through their own very magical marble, and create playful poems and drawings about everything that plays: ourselves, trees and birds, colors and air – and all the many universes beyond.
11 AM -12:30 PM

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The Thread at Play: A Poetry of the Simplest of Objects

A discussion with poet and visual artist Cecilia Vicuña, reflecting on Ms. Vicuña’s video The Thread At Play documenting her workshops with children in a small mountain village in Chile, on the innate ability of children to play and to infuse their playing with the very elements of poetry itself.
1 PM – 3:00 PM

For reservations and information
Poets House:
212 431 7920 Ext. 19
www.poetshouse.org

Saturday, October 27th

NYCATA/UFT Artworks Conference ’07
LaGuardia High School of Music and Art
108 Amsterdam Avenue

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Children, Art Making, and The Play of Imagining

A conversation with Richard Lewis, in conjunction with a showing of Geoffrey Jones’s video In the Spirit of Play, focusing on ways participants can share their own playfulness as an entry point for their students to express themselves through and with the arts.
9 to 10:15 AM

For registration and information
NY City Art Teachers Association/
United Federation of Teachers
212 598 7772

Sunday, October 28th

Abrons Arts Center
Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand Street

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What Is Our Play? Delights and Imaginings

An afternoon for children, parents, and teachers interested in sharing the questions of what makes our playing such a marvel of untold possibilities – and its pivotal role in how we learn and imagine.

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Secret Wisdom, Magic Days

A conversation and discussion with William Crain and Richard Lewis on why play and playing are the vital underpinnings of childhood learning – and how we might incorporate play and the imagination into the core of schooling and education.
12:30 to 2:45 PM

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Did You Ever Think A Book Could Dance, Your Thoughts Could Play?

A performance for children and their families, beginning with Play, Said the Earth to the Air presented by the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, followed by noted book- artist Susan Share performing her solo piece in which playful papers, colorful colors, and imaginative transformations are brought to life.
3:00 to 4:15 PM

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I Catch My Moment

Immediately following the performances all participants are invited to a family workshop, facilitated by book-artist Susan Share, to make an accordion book to remember and take note of the many splendid moments of our play and playing.
4:30 to 5:30 PM

There is no fee for the workshops and performances at the Abrons Arts Center– but registration is requested. A registration form can be downloaded here or by emailing The Touchstone Center at
rlewis212@aol.com

Artists and Speakers Participating: The Play of Imagining

Cecilia Vicuña is a Chilean poet, artist, and filmmaker living in New York. She is the author of 15 books of poetry, published in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. She has exhibited her work at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Belgium, at the Castello di Rivoli in Italy, and in the Whitney Biennial. Her books include Instan, El Templo (translated by Rosa Alcalá), QUIPOem/ The Precarious, and The Art and Poetry of Cecilia Vicuña (edited by M. Catherine de Zegher, translated by Esther Allen).

William Crain is a professor of psychology at The City College of New York. He is the author of the textbook, Theories of Development, now in its fifth edition and Reclaiming Childhood: Letting Children Be Children in Our Achievement Orientated Society. He is also the editor of the journal Encounter: Education for Meaning and Social Justice. Dr Crain has been a political activist on many fronts, including the defense of nature and animals.

Susan Share is a book-artist, presently living in Anchorage, Alaska, who has performed and exhibited her books throughout the United States as well as in England, Ireland and Hungry. Her work is in included in collections as diverse as the Anchorage Museum of History and Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London – and she has taught at the Penland School of Crafts, the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts and the Visual Studies Workshop. Concurrent with her performance at the Abrons Arts Center, she is exhibiting her artwork at the Center for Books Arts in New York.

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SPRING 2007 Activities

Trees of Knowing, Birds of Imagining: A Workshop on the Imaginative in Teaching

Emphasizing the vital role the imagination plays in children’s learning, this four-session workshop, led by Richard Lewis in collaboration with Roberta Valentine, will explore the unfolding of imaginative thought and art-making in childhood—and their importance throughout our adult lives.

Wednesdays, May 2nd, May 9th, May 16th, & May 23rd; 4-6 PM

The Art Room, East Village Community School
610 East 12th Street, New York, NY 10009
There is no fee for this series of workshops but registration is requested. 212 831 7717 www.touchstonecenter.net
brochure & registration form

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Other Projects and Public Programs of The Touchstone Center, Spring, 2007

The Sound and Movement, Word and Image Project, An Arts and Education residency with Clea Rivera and Harry Mann of The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, uncovering the beginnings of language, and the depth of music, gestures and imagery within our words.

March 1st – May 3rd

East Village Community School
610 East 12th Street, New York, NY
For further info call Mary Talbot, Parent
Coordinator, 347 563 5102

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Telling Time: A Clock-Making Workshop

A workshop with potter Carol Grocki Lewis, as part of the Parents as Art-Partners program at the East Village Community School, in which participants will have the opportunity of making their own functioning clay clocks.

Saturdays, April 21st & April 28th, 11-2 PM.

East Village Community School
610 East 12th Street, New York, NY
For further info call Mary Talbot, Parent
Coordinator, 347 563 5102

Sea Whisperings from the Smallest of Seashells Workshop for children with Richard Lewis, discovering, as we listen to seashells – abundant flying birds and diving fish, and the most ancient of our thoughts and poetries. Saturday,

May 5th, 11 – 1 PM

72 Spring Street
New York, NY
www.poetshouse.org
For further info 212 431 7920

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THE SUN RETURNS, THE DAY BEGINS: A JOURNEY OF POEMS

World Financial Center, in association with Poets House, as part of WORD OF MOUTH FESTIVAL presents The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble in readings of poetry written by children (accompanied by audience participation) and culminating in a performance of poems In The Space of the Sky and A Tree Lives. by Richard Lewis.

Saturday, May 19

11am-12:30pm
Winter Garden, World Financial Center

What If: The Dreaming of Childhood Into the Natural World Workshop for parents, children and educators sharing and independently pursuing hands-on and reflective activities into how and why children use their imaginative abilities to link themselves to the natural world. Led by Richard Lewis and Noah Baen, Leader of the Wave Hill Family Art Project.

Saturday, June 9th, 9:30 -12 PM

For registration 718 549 3200, Ext. 305

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Plant the Sun in Your Hand / Con el sol en sus manos

The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble’s presentation, for children and their families, of a poem celebrating our innate abilities to become a part of nature’s transformations. Attend a performance, and then create a mixed media banner filled with the marvels of the natural world.

Saturday and Sunday, June 9 and 10,

1 and 2:30 PM, Family Art Project
WAVE HILL
West 249th and Independence Ave. Bronx, NY www.wavehill.org

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Fall 2006 Activities

The Touchstone Center in collaboration with The Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement is pleased to present

Trees of Knowing: An Exhibition of Paintings by Children from the East Village Community School

Based on a Project of The Touchstone Center
Directed by Richard Lewis

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Reflecting on the Imagery of Trees

Noah Baen, Markus Baenziger, Amy Bay, Joanne Howard, Deanna C. Lee, Felicia D. Megginson, Luis Serrano, Illene Sunshine, Benjamin Swett, EdieWinograde
Curated by Jennifer McGregor
(more info on artists and curator)

October 20th – December 29th, 2006
Opening Reception: October 26th, 6-8 PM

Abrons Arts Center
Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand Street
New York, NY 10002
212 598 0400

About the Exhibit: In collaboration with the Abrons Arts Center, The Touchstone Center is pleased to present its newest exhibition, Trees of Knowing from October 20th – December 29th, 2006. The exhibit consists of a selection of large acrylic paintings, along with original writings, created by children from the East Village Community School in New York as part of The Tree of Knowing Project, undertaken by the Touchstone Center at the school from 2003-2005. In addition to the exhibit of the children’s paintings, ten artists, chosen by Jennifer McGregor, have been invited to show artwork that concerns itself with each artist’s vision and expression of trees.

The Tree of Knowing Project, an Arts and Education residency of The Touchstone Center, under the direction of Richard Lewis and Claudia Keel, consisted of a series of ten weekly workshops that took place in the art room of the East Village Community School in conjunction with the school’s art teacher, Julie Kirkpatrick. Working with four classrooms of children from the 1st through the 6th grade, the project’s intent, beginning with a reading of Richard Lewis’ poem, A Tree Lives and Noah Baen’s accompanying sculptural painting, was to explore, through art and writing, the unique ways a tree has experienced elemental forces and the subsequent ‘knowledge’ such a tree, and the natural world at large, has acquired from this kind of ‘knowing’.

As part of the ongoing exhibit, Geoffrey Jones’s video rendering of A Tree Lives will be shown, along with a variety of workshops being offered to all those interested in the life and knowledge that trees share, so abundantly, with us

Special Programs related to the exhibition

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Leaf Eyes, Root Listenings: Exploring the Natural World from Another Point of View

Sunday, October 29th, 11 AM – 4 PM

This workshop, led by Richard Lewis and Claudia Keel, is designed for teachers, artists, parents and any persons interested in exploring, both through discussion and hands-on activities, the importance of perceiving the natural world through our imaginative abilities. Examples of the work of the Touchstone Center will be highlighted – with particular insights drawn from The Tree of Knowing Project as well as the Center’s concern for the integration of the imagination at all levels of learning.

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The Eternal Tree: A Conversation with Artists on the Image and Meaning of Trees

Sunday, November 12th , 3:15 – 5:15 PM

A panel discussion, moderated by Jennifer McGregor, with Noah Baen, Felicia Megginson, and Benjamin Swett, three of the artists represented in The Trees of Knowing exhibition, discussing the role the image of the tree has played in their artistic development. In addition a larger conversation will focus on how and why artists from diverse cultures have always used the tree image – both as a metaphor and personal expression – to suggest symbolic and universal meanings.

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Becoming a Tree, Knowing the World

Sunday, November 19th, 3:15 – 5:15 PM

All members of the community, children and adults alike, are invited to a performance of A Tree Lives by the Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, followed by a workshop in which all participants will be able to create their own ‘tree of knowing’ through a variety of art mediums. Join us for a celebration of the knowledge that is a tree – and the wisdom we, and trees, share with each other.

All the Special Events take place at the
Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street
New York, NY 10002
212 598 0400

To register for any of the Special Events please use the Registration Form and send to

The Touchstone Center
141 East 88th Street
Apt. 3 E
New York, NY 10128

For further information please contact The Touchstone Center
at 212 831 7717 or rlewis212@aol.com

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More Fall 2006 Programs

From the Beginning: Reflections on the Origins of Art-Making

Based on his recent book and accompanying video-tape, CAVE: An Evocation of the Beginnings of Art, Richard Lewis will explore our understandings of the beginnings of art-making, both in ourselves – and in the world at large. In addition linkages will be made to how reflecting on the sources of art can be a means of helping students consider their own vital and necessary part in the evolution of the arts and imaginative thought.

Saturday, October 28th, 2006

9:00 -10:15 AM
NYCATA/UFT Conference
Fiorello LaGuardia High School
100 Amsterdam Ave.
New York. NY
For further information:
www.uft.org

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A Pebble, A Stone, and the Gift of Stars

A Poetry Workshop for Children
with Richard Lewis

We will begin by looking at a pebble and a stone, and entering each of their worlds. From there we will move from their silences to their ancient and glowing stars – gathering all the while new enchantments and thoughts to write our poems from. And when we have finished writing we will make a small clay vessel for our discoveries – along with our own pebble and stone – to keep as a gift of our imaginings.

Saturday, November 18th, 2006

11:00 – 1:00 PM
Poetry in the Children’s Room
Poets House
72 Spring Street
New York, NY 10012
For registration and information:
www.poetshouse.org
212 431 7920

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The Tree of Knowing Garden

Dedicated and Opened on October 19th, 2006

The Touchstone Center is pleased to announce the opening of The Tree of Knowing Garden at the East Village Community School in New York City. Begun in the winter of 2006, The Tree of Knowing Garden, was an arts and education project to renovate the school’s inner courtyard into a space that could be used for a broad range of learning activities – with particular emphasis on children’s imaginative and poetic relationship to the natural world.

Based on Richard Lewis’ poem A Tree Lives that speaks of the knowledge a tree has of worlds both within and outside itself, The Tree of Knowing Garden project involved visual artists, Kathy Creutzburg, Claudia Keel and Noah Baen, assisted by Carol Grocki Lewis. Working with children in two classrooms apiece, from Kindergarten through the 6th Grade, each of the artists, in conjunction with classroom teachers and the school’s art teacher, emphasized various qualities of the “tree of knowing” theme. Kathy Creutzburg focused on children making clay tiles expressing the many shapes and structures of trees, which she then embedded into her steel tree sculpture sheltered by a large mosaic tree shadow. Claudia Keel, using colored pencils and oil pastel drawings, asked her group of children to depict through their drawings, the inner world of trees and leaves – which she then incorporated and translated into her painted wall mural. And Noah Baen asked his two classrooms of children to being into being, through their clay tiles, the many creatures that live in and around a tree – which he then fused into seven planters surrounded with his mosaic designs and filled with flowering plants. Throughout the project children were asked to write and reflect upon the ‘knowingness’ of trees – and a selection of their writings has been inscribed on the walls of the garden.

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Touchstone Center Publications announces Two New Publications

Touchstone Center Publications is pleased to announce the paperback edition of Living By Wonder: The Imaginative Life of Childhood by Richard Lewis – as well as the publication of A Tree Lives – an interpretive video created by Geoffrey Jones based on the book A Tree Lives by Richard Lewis and illustrated by Noah Baen. The video is narrated by Richard Lewis and accompanied by music by Harry Mann – and is available, as is Living By Wonder, through Touchstone Center Publications.

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Activities Spring 2006

The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble, consisting of Richard Lewis, Harry Mann, and Clea Rivera, and is scheduled to perform Each Sky Has its Words at Wave Hill on May 6th and May 7th at 1 PM and 2:30 PM. Each performance will be followed by a Family Art Project conducted by Noah Baen.

In addition, Richard Lewis, Director of The Touchstone Center in association with Noah Baen, Leader of Wave Hill’s Family Art Project, will be presenting a special workshop on Saturday, May 6th for both adults and children entitled, The Child and the Natural World. This workshop will explore the arts as a vehicle for children to build a vital relationship with the natural world – and will consist of hands-on and reflective activities appropriate for both children and adults. Participants are invited to join the performance of Each Sky Has its Words and art-workshop in the afternoon.

Wave Hill,675 West 252nd Street, Bronx, New York, 10471-2899

For further information and registration: www.wavehill.org or 718 549 3200

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The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble will also be performing The Sun Returns,The Day Begins: A Journey of Poems, at Poets House on Saturday, May 20th at 11 AM to 1 PM. The performance consists ofthree poems by Richard Lewis, Each Sky Has Its Words, A Tree Lives, In The Space of the Sky – and will be followed by a workshop for children to write their own poems – which will then be spoken and performed in conjunction with members of the Ensemble.

Poets House,72 Spring Street, New York, NY 10012

For further information: www.poetshouse.org or 212 431 7930

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Touchstone Center Publications is pleased to announce the publication in May 2006 of the paperback edition of
Living By Wonder: The Imaginative Life of Childhood by Richard Lewis. Originally published by Parabola Books in association with Touchstone Center Publications in 1998, Living By Wonder, was awarded the Parents Guide 2002 Classic Award for Outstanding Achievement in Parenting Materials. Made up of essays by Richard Lewis centered around the importance and necessity of the imagination, this book reflects upon the diverse role of language-making, play, art, stories and poetry in the imaginative life of children. For further information about Living by Wonder, please go to Publications.

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Touchstone Center Publications is also pleased to announce the publication this spring of its DVD, Ways of Imagining – which now makes available three of the Center’s most recent videos created by Geoffrey Jones and based on three of Center’s publications, Each Sky Has Its Words, The Bird of Imagining and Cave: An Evocation of the Beginnings of Art. For further information about the availability of this new DVD, please go to Publications.

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As part of the Arts and Education programming the Center has begun The Tree of Knowing Garden Project in association with the East Village Community School. Three artists, Kathy Creutzburg, Claudia Keel and Noah Baen will be working with children during the spring of 2006 in order to create a series of murals, tiles and a large steel sculpture to be placed in an outdoor courtyard within the school. This project will compliment The Bird of Imagining sculpture, created by Kathy Creutzburg and children from the Children’s Workshop School, now displayed in another courtyard in the same building.

As part of the Center’s Outreach Program, recent teacher and parent workshops by the Center’s Director, Richard Lewis, have been given in conjunction with Sarah Lawrence College, Marquis Studios, and the Virginia Marx Children’s Center at Westchester Community College.

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Activities Fall, 2005

Roots, Leaves and Branches:
Raices, Hojas y Ramas

Family Art Project featuring a performance based on the book A Tree Lives by Richard Lewis and illustrated by Noah Baen by The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble and published by Touchstone Center Publications – followed by a workshop for children with Noah Baen.

Wave Hill
675 West 252 Street
Bronx , NY 10471

1 PM and 2:30 PM
Saturday, October 15, 2005
Sunday, October 16, 2005

For further information:
718-549-3200
www.wavehill.org

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The Rain is Making a New World:
Listening for the Poetry of Childhood

Workshop with Richard Lewis
New York City Association for the Education of Young Children Conference

City College
138 Street and Convent Ave.
New York, NY 10031

10:30 AM-12;30 PM
Saturday, October 22, 2005

For further information:
www.nycaeyc.org

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Celebrating the Known, Imagining the Unknown:
Artist-Teachers and the Sustaining of Another Side of Learning

Workshop with Richard Lewis
Face to Face Conference
NYC Arts in Education Roundtable

Riverside Church
490 Riverside Ave.
New York , NY 10027

10:15 AM to 11:45 AM
Friday, October 28, 2005

For further information:
www.aieroundtable.org

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A Tree Lives: Working with Images of the Natural World To Deepen Imaginative Understanding

Workshop with Richard Lewis
Conference of NYC Art Teachers Association/United Federation of Teachers

LaGuardia High School
100 Amsterdam Ave.
New York , NY

9 AM to 10:15 AM
Saturday, October 29, 2005

For further information:
www.uft.org

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Say Snow, And It Will Snow Forever

Reading and Workshop for Children with Richard Lewis

Poet’s House
72 Spring Street
New York, NY 10012

11 AM to 1 PM
Saturday, December 10, 2005

For further information:
212-431-7920
www.poetshouse.org

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Winter/Spring 2005 Activities

The Dialogue of the Imagination
Continuation of conversations and arts workshops for faculty and students around the centrality of the imagination. This year’s theme, Seeing and The Light of Imagining will feature Arthur Zajonc, author of Catching the Light: The Entwined History of Light and Mind.

Townsend Harris High School
Flushing, New York
January 31st and March 1st

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The Bird of Imagining
Exhibition and teacher workshop based on recent Touchstone Center publication, The Bird of Imagining.
Weeks Gallery
Jamestown Community College
Jamestown, New York
(716) 665-5220
February 4th-March 12th

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Air Water Light
Continuation of the Center’s Arts and Education residency at the East Village Community School – exploring the varied spaces of natural phenomena and their relationship to the imagination.

East Village Community School
610 East 12th Street
(212) 982-0682
February-May

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Spoken Through Roots Again
As part of Judy Hoffman’s exhibition, Off Spring, a reading by Richard Lewis of poems inspired by the natural world.

Ceres Gallery
Suite 201
547 West 27th Street
(212) 947-6100
Thursday, February 17th
7:30 PM

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When Thought is Young
Full day workshop with Richard Lewis on the importance of the imagination and its expression in childhood learning and understanding.

New Perspectives Program
Bank Street College of Education
610 West 112th Street
(212) 875-4649
Saturday, March 19th

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The Bird of Imagining
Exhibition based on Touchstone Center’s recent publication, plus teacher and arts educator workshops.

Kathleen Clay Edwards Family Branch Library
Greensboro, North Carolina
(336) 373-2923
April 8th-May 8th

Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World
Whitsett, North Carolina
(336) 449-0612
April 9th-April 12th

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Everything Sings, Everything Dances
A reading and workshop for children by Richard Lewis of poems celebrating the marvel and surprise that is Spring

Poets House
72 Spring Street
(212) 431-7920
Saturday, May 21st,
11 AM -1 PM

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In The Space of the Sky
Performance by Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble with Clea Rivera and Harry Mann based on In The Space of the Sky by Richard Lewis and illustrated by Debra Frasier – followed by family art workshop conducted by Noah Baen.

Wave Hill
675 West 252nd Street
(718) 549-3200
June 4th – June 5th, 1 – 3 PM

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The Necessity of Childhood

A series of informal conversations, presented in association with the Bank Street College New Perspectives Program and Wave Hill, centered on the importance of strengthening the intuitive, imaginative and expressive capacities of childhood, and the role they play in children’s learning and understanding. The series will be moderated by Richard Lewis.

The Child as Child

A conversation on the instinctive abilities of children to explore their worlds through their play and imaginative creations. The conversation will feature William Crain, author of Reclaiming Childhood, and Barbara Feinberg, author of Welcome to Lizard Motel: Children, Stories and the Mystery of Making Things Up.

Saturday, March 5, 2005
Bank Street College
610 West 112th Street
(212) 875-4649
10 to 12 PM

The Play of Imagining

A conversation based on the ideas of the eminent French philosopher, Gaston Bachelard, author of The Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language and the Cosmos. The conversation will feature Joanne Stroud, editor of the Gaston Bachelard Translation Series of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture, and Susan Kinsolving, poet, teacher and author of The White Eyelash.

Saturday, May 7, 2005
Bank Street College
610 West 112th Street
(212) 875-4649
10 to 12 PM

The Unfolding of Nature

A conversation with Noah Baen, Leader of Wave Hill’s Family Art Project, and Tom Goodridge, Director of The Garden Project, PS 76 (Manhattan) on the need of children to participate, imaginatively and artistically, in the natural world. Participants are welcome to observe a family art workshop in the afternoon centered around a performance by The Touchstone Center Theatre Ensemble of In the Space of the Sky, based on the book written by Richard Lewis and illustrated by Debra Frasier.

Saturday, June 4, 2005
Wave Hill
675 West 252nd Street
(718) 549-3200
10 to 12 PM

Registration
To register, please complete and mail the form in the brochure (pdf) or by completing and mailing the web form.

Single admission: $10 per conversation
$25 for entire series

Because of limited seating reservations must be made two weeks prior to any program.

All reservations will be acknowledged when received.

For further information please call:
The Touchstone Center
212-831-7717
rlewis212@aol.com

Summer, Fall Exhibitions and Workshops, 2004

CAVE: An Evocation of the Beginnings of Art

Exhibition based on recent book by Richard Lewis, illustrated by Elizabeth Crawford and photographed by George Hirose, published by Touchstone Center Publications.

August 5 -August 30, 2004
The Word and Image Gallery,
Treadwell, New York
(607) 829-5055

Birds of Imagining, Trees of Knowing: The Elemental Imagination and the Education of Children

A daylong workshop with Richard Lewis using themes of The Touchstone Center in its work in schools, emphasizing the inherent capacity of children to express qualities of the natural world through their imaginative understandings and perceptions.

October 2, 2004
Sky Lake
Rosendale, New York
(845) 658-8556

The Bird of Imagining

Dedication of sculpture, based on poem by Richard Lewis, created by Kathy Cruetzburg and children of CWS in collaboration with Claudia Keel.

October 22, 2004
Children’s Workshop School
610 West 12th Street
212-614-9531

“Where did our imagining come from?”
The Role of Art, Imaginative Thought and the Natural World

Workshop on the importance of supporting the imagination, particularly through the use of images from the natural world, towards children’s deeper recesses of learning.

November 11, 2004
NYCAT/UFT
LaGuardia High School of Music and Art
New York
(212) 598-7772

First Conversation

The first of a series of conversations with persons representing a wide spectrum of the arts, sciences and education on the relationship of the imagination to the natural world.

November 13-14, 2004
The Center for Education, Imagination and the Natural World
Whitsett, North Carolina
(336) 449-0612

The Wind in Your Hand: And Other Secrets of a Winter’s Day

A reading and workshop for children given by Richard Lewis of poems about the hidden worlds of wind, snow and frozen waters.

December 4, 2004
Poets House
72 Spring Street
New York
(212) 431-7920

Spring 2004 Workshops

When Thought Is Young: Imaginative Worlds of Childhood (Ages 3-9)

March 27, 2004 (TEWS631N)

The Center’s director, Richard Lewis, will be giving a full day workshop at the Bank Street College of Education on Saturday, March 27, 2004, from 9:30 to 5 PM as part of the New Perspectives series at the College.

This workshop will help participants recognize the qualities of their own imaginations as a prelude to helping children identify and express their imaginative worlds. Working with various natural materials we will explore how it is possible to perceive them – imaginatively and expressively – through art, writing and dramatic play.

In addition, we will look at children’s original art and writing, in order to deepen our discussions on the ways children use their imaginative and poetic worlds to create, both for themselves and others, meaningful learning and understanding.

For registration materials and information please contact the New Perspectives Office at 212-875-4649 or continuinged@bankstreet.edu.

Spring Workshops and Exhibitions: 2003

The Imagining Garden: Developing a Curriculum of Nature and the Imagination

A workshop conducted by Claudia Keel based on the work of The Touchstone Center.
Growtogether Conference, Hostos Community College, March 22.

The Voice of the Tree: The Poetic Imagination

A full day workshop with Cecilia Vicuña as guest speaker.
The Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement, April 6.

The Tree of Knowing

A performance and workshop as part of the Family Art Project based on a poem by Richard Lewis with art by Noah Baen and musical accompaniment by Harry Mann.
Wave Hill, Kerlin Learning Center, April 26th and 27th.

Sing Your Song Looking Up at the Sky

A reading and workshop for children and their families based on recent books by Richard Lewis.
Poets House, May 31st.
In addition an exhibition of The Bird of Imagining(Touchstone Center Publications), featuring artwork and poetry by children from New York City Public Schools, will be on display from April 5th through May 31st.
For further information: 212-431-7920 or www.poetshouse.org

Educational Projects: 2001-2002

The Bird of Imagining

In conjunction with the Children’s Workshop School in District 1 of Manhattan, the Center collaborated in the creation of a steel sculpture, The Bird of Imagining, which was dedicated on June 13th, 2002 in Sauer Park on the Lower East Side of Manhattan (12th Street between Avenues A and B) and is presently on view until June 2003. The sculpture, created by Kathy Creutzburg is based on poem by Richard Lewis from the forthcoming Touchstone Center publication, The Bird of Imagining – and is made up of over 200 wooden feathers painted by all the children from the Children’s Workshop School. Creation of the wooden feathers was under the direction of Touchstone Center teaching-artist, Claudia Keel.

As part of the publication of The Bird of Imagining by Touchstone Center Publications (Fall, 2002), the Children’s Museum of the Arts will exhibit all the original art work from the book, created by children from New York City public schools. This exhibition of The Bird of Imagining will be from October 10th 2002 through December of 2002.

The Bird of Imagining: An Exhibition

The Children’s Museum of the Arts in lower Manhattan will be exhibiting the artwork bv children from New York City public schools from the Center’s publication, The Bird of Imagining, from October 17th – December 29th.

The opening reception will take place on October 17th from 4-6 PM and will feature:

Dance performance at 6 PM by Nancy Allison accompanied with music played by Harry Mann.

Showing of a video by Geoffrey Jones based on The Bird of Imagining.

Introduction of map by Kathy Creutzburg, In Search of The Bird of Imagining: A Bird’s EyeWalk from the Children’s Museum to Sauer Park.

Additional workshops for Children and Parents based on The Bird of Imagining exhibit are scheduled for:

October 19th 12-5PM and October 20th, 12-5PM – Imagining bird drawings
November 7 – 4-6PM – Storytelling and artmaking with Richard Lewis and Julie Kabat
November 9th 12-5PM and November 10th, 12-5PM – Poetry w/word college
December 7th 12-5PM and December 8th 12-5PM – Special artmaking

For further information about the exhibit and workshops:

The Children’s Museum of the Arts
82 Lafayette Street
New York, New York 10013
(212) 274-0986
www.cmany.org

The Dialogue of the Imagination

Begun in the Fall of 2001, the Touchstone Center initiated its major three year project, The Dialogue of the Imagination, in collaboration with the College Preparatory Programs at Queens College and Townsend Harris High School. Designed as a series of seminars and conversations with students and teachers from Townsend Harris, The Dialogue of the Imagination engages scholars and practitioners from different disciplines, such as science, the arts, history and education, to share their understanding of the necessity of the imaginative process in order to demonstrate the role of the imagination in all aspects of learning and teaching. Speakers and schedule for the first year were:

Overview workshop/discussion with all participants: October 19th, 2001

The Artistic Imagination with Ellen Dissanayake, author of What Is Art For?
November 6, 2001

The Historic Imagination with Calvin Martin, author of The Way of the Human Being
January 28, 2002

Concluding dialogue with all participants
March 25, 2002

For the second year of the project the guest speakers will be:

The Scientific Imagination with Ursula Goodenough, author of The Sacred Depth of Nature
November 5, 2002.

The Mythic Imagination with Melissa Heckler, editor of Who Says? Essays on Pivotal Issues in Contemporary Storytelling
January 31, 2003

Explorations in Imaginative Thought

Taking place at the Abrons Arts Center of the Henry Street Settlement in New York City, this two-year series of discussions and participatory workshops for educators will be exploring the various strains of imaginative thought that have been important in the development of Touchstone Center’s work with children and teachers since its inception in 1969. During the first year of the project in the winter of 2002, the following workshops and their speakers took place:

Drawn on Stone: The Paleolithic Imagination with Calvin Martin
Sunday, January 27, 2002, 10 to 4 PM

Singing to the Sky: The Indigenous Imagination with Melissa Heckler
Sunday, March 10, 2002, 10 to 4 PM

Workshops for the second year of this project in 2003 are:

Listening To Waters: The Intuitive Imagination with David Rothenberg
Sunday, January 26, 2003
10 to 4 PM

The Voice of the Tree: The Poetic Imagination with Cecilia Vicuna
Sunday, April 6, 2003
10 to 4 PM

To register for these workshops, please email The Touchstone Center, rlewis212@aol.com or phone the Center at 212-831-7717.

Workshops to be Given in the Fall of 2002 by Richard Lewis

The Bird of Imagining: Developing A Thematic Residency of Imaginative Thought, 1:30 to 3 PM, October 26, 2002, Face to Face, New York City Arts in Education Roundtable, Riverside Church. For further information (212) 642-5979 or www.nycaieroundtable.org

The Poetry of Imagining: A Workshop for Elementary Teachers and School Librarians, 10 to 12 PM, December 14th, 2002, Central Children’s Room, Donnell Library Center. For further information (212) 621-0252

Learning and The Imaginative Experience

The Touchstone Center is pleased to announce a series of new programs focused upon supporting the role of the imaginative experience within learning. These programs have grown out of the Center’s concern with the importance of preserving the life of the imagination in a time when many educational priorities are shifting away from the need of all children to express themselves through their inherent imaginative abilities.

It is the Center’s belief that learning is most meaningful when a child’s imagination is engaged and recognized as crucial to a deeper understanding and use of knowledge – in all its variety and complexity. In addition the Center advocates the primary role of the imagination as an inherent biological process – contiguous with the child’s instinctive desire to learn.

The programs the Center are offering will act as a means for teachers, parents and children to be supported, through a variety of interdisciplinary projects and programs, that can be initiated by different persons in a variety of learning and educational settings. The series is divided into four distinct programs: Special Projects, The Consulting Program, The Professional Development Program, and The Weekend Workshop Series. Funding is available, through matching grants provided by the Center, for interested persons and schools.

Special Projects

The aim of the Special Projects Program is to work with an individual teacher in a school interested in exploring a long term thematic project based on the Touchstone Center’s on-going exploration in imaginative thought and expression. Projects will be developed collaboratively with the teacher, and will involve a member of the Center’s staff working with the teacher’s classroom for a total of six visits. Two other planning meetings with the participating classroom teacher will also be scheduled.

The Consulting Program

The aim of the Consulting Program is to support projects initiated by classroom teachers who are concerned with sustaining the imaginative experience as vital to all aspects of learning. The role of the consultant would be to help teachers identify how the overall process can be given structure and meaning; to act as a stimulus and catalyst for aspects of the process within the classroom; and to reflect with teachers on the overall impact of the project on the life of children and the significant learnings that took place. Seven meetings in total.

Professional Development Program

The aim of the Professional Development Program is to offer after-school workshops to help teachers and other persons who work with and care for children, the opportunity of exploring, with the staff of the Touchstone Center, the imaginative life of children within a variety of educational settings. These workshops, which can be shaped according to the needs of individual schools and institutions, will reflect the interdisciplinary work of the Center in its commitment to nurturing the imaginative capacities of children within schools, museums and environmental centers.

Examples of the kind of the workshops the Center will offer are: To Read: Imagining the World; Speakings: The Many Voices of Language; In The Meadow of our Thoughts: Developing Imaginative and Poetic Understandings in the Classroom; and Living By Wonder: The Role of the Imagination in Childhood Learning.

Weekend Retreat Program

The aim of the Weekend Retreat Program is to offer an extended interdisciplinary arts workshop experience for persons interested in the relationship between imaginative thought in childhood and the natural world. Entitled Childhood, The Imagination and The Natural World, this program will take place over a two-day period and will be located in a setting conducive for both reflection and practical application. The program will be conducted by various staff members of The Touchstone Center in conjunction with the Director of the Center.

For further information about these programs please contact:

The Touchstone Center
141 East 88th Street
New York,NY 10128
212-831-7717
rlewis212@aol.com