Positive Potentials

I don’t think I could be more pleased.

After I wrote about the emergence of Artistic Resources & Training (ART) a few weeks back, I reported on a number of conversations I’d had with people who said I’d been unfair to Genesis 3 and had gone overboard in expressing support for a new and untested program.

My response was direct: If the upshot of the parting of ways of David Tisherman and his former partners Brian Van Bower and Skip Phillips was the emergence of two high-quality programs in an environment where education for watershapers had run into a ditch, then I would be a happy man indeed.

And I am happy – and will continue to be so – if the Genesis 3 meeting I listened to via the Internet on April 28 produces its intended results.

After some preliminaries, what had been dubbed the “Genesis 3 Summit Meeting” was turned over to Dave Peterson, an engineer and hydraulics expert who has taken up the educational reins at Genesis 3. Attending closely to every detail, he outlined a reorganization of existing classes in the Genesis 3 system to create a clearer academic progression: basic survey-type courses followed by intermediate, advanced and what might be termed graduate coursework. Along the way, he filled in some obvious gaps with new classes.

Dave faces the need, of course, to find new instructors to replace those who’ve migrated over to ART, but he’s already made a good start and I trust he’ll be successful in identifying suitable talent to round out all of his programs. Clearly, he is not sidling up to the task: Genesis 3 has scheduled a full load of courses for the year to come, to be staged at venues across the country.

I am encouraged by all of the energy I see in both ART and Genesis 3, and I’ll do everything I can to support and sustain both as their new programs take shape and they strive to fulfill the continuing-education needs of watershaping professionals.

I call on Dave Peterson and Mark Holden – both of whom have tackled big challenges here – to maintain a focus on students and on watershaping’s overall need for ongoing, credible education in design, engineering and construction. I also call on designers and builders to get involved. ART and Genesis 3 are, respectively, in their formative and re-formative stages, and both will benefit from constructive commentary and intelligent feedback that will help them chart their paths in the months and years to come.

It’s a much-needed fresh start – one that watershapers everywhere ought to encourage and support.

What do you think of what’s happening with ART and Genesis 3? Let your peers know by commenting below!