Once upon a time there were two artist/teachers, who came all the way from CA and NC to the Big City to learn all about the teaching of Art to children. Elisha Georgiou and Kristin B. Eno met in the M.Ed. program of the Art Education department at Columbia Teachers College, where they each finished up their theses around 2004. Kristin started to make films about the things children do and say in their imaginative play, and continued to teach art and video; Elisha also taught art. Then they each became mommies. Elisha's daughter became a part of Kristin's Spirit Ship film, a Little Creatures production shot in 2008 that culminated in a 17-minute film and a very special companion book illustrated by that very creative daughter, and co-written by Elisha and Kristin. Over coffee with the wise and wonderful Richard Lewis in the Winter of 2011, the seed of Find & Seek was planted. As Richard asked, why not start something, and put our dreams and education to good use? Just as he had done many years ago . . .

Elisha:

Elisha Georgiou is an educator and artist living in Brooklyn. Originally from Napa, California, she began her career teaching elementary school in the San Francisco Bay Area before coming to New York City where she eventually switched her focus to arts education. Elisha discovered her love for teaching art while working with several NYC non-profit arts organizations as an artist-in-residence. There she designed curriculum and facilitated instruction for after-school programs and also helped to bring arts into the school day in collaboration with elementary school teachers all over New York City. In order to broaden her own scope and study, Elisha then attended Teachers College Columbia University (M.Ed.) where she researched methods for providing interdisciplinary arts learning to children. There she became especially intrigued by the preschools of Reggio Emilia and also the works of many interdisciplinary arts educators and expressive arts therapists. Elisha believes strongly that children’s voices need to be heard and intently listened to, and that there is no better way to do that than through expressive art and play. She knows that children have the capacity to invent, create, navigate and teach in ways that may astound and exceed our wildest expectations if given space to do so. Elisha’s dream for her children’s collaborative art and play space in Brooklyn is that the children will create community, express their inner worlds, share their ideas, expand their imaginary play horizons and grow in body, mind and spirit. Elisha lives with her husband and their two young children in Park Slope.

Kristin:

Kristin grew up in NC and went to Dartmouth College to study Studio Art (painting) and Elementary Education. She moved to NYC in 1999 to pursue a painting career; meanwhile she taught art and first grade. In 2001, inspired by the fantastical stories of her students in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and the skills and insight of her future husband Sean Eno, Kristin began exploring the potential of using video to support and enhance children’s original stories. Her research (M.Ed., Columbia Teachers College, 2004) and practice (Digital Story Workshop, 2004-2008) led her to see that video making for and by young children was an untapped tool for use in early childhood education, and that children even as young as four were ready to participate in the making of their own media. After ten years of providing video making opportunities to pre-K through third grade students in NYC public schools, Kristin established Little Creatures film company to raise the quality of the work and to distribute it widely. She shot her short film Spirit Ship in her neighborhood of Red Hook while pregnant with her first daughter, who is now 4. Her latest little creature, a second daughter, is 1. In 2011-12 Kristin taught art at the Red Hook Playgroup, bringing to that setting inspiration from the beautiful work done by children and teachers in the ateliers of the Reggio Emilia preschools. Kristin is an advocate of children’s free play, especially as seen through the lens of play-facilitators such as educators and playworkers, as evidenced in her studies of and collaboration with Vivian Gussin Paley, and her work collaborating with colleagues such as UK Playworker Penny Wilson and Pop-Up Adventure Play. Kristin is happy to be building Find & Seek as a home for the many little creatures of Brooklyn to play and explore, and she is committed to providing documentation of early learning for the benefit of children, parents and teachers all over NYC and the world.