Over the Moon: Call for Artists
Reflections on Civic Life
SPI’s latest Over the Moon gallery exhibit draws inspiration from listening, belonging, and community
Story Preservation Initiative invites students to participate in a new Over the Moon art gallery exhibit inspired by a conversation with civic scholar Peter Levine. Listen to his SPI recording here.
Peter is a Professor of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Tufts University and Chair of Educating for American Democracy. He is a nationally recognized leader in civic learning and youth engagement.
In his conversation with SPI, Professor Levine reflects on how democracy is sustained not only through formal institutions but through everyday civic life. He speaks about the importance of people living together in community—listening to one another, learning across difference, building trust, forming organizations and coalitions, and remaining committed to shared values.
Why This Project
Over the Moon is Story Preservation Initiative’s online student art gallery. It provides students with a way to engage creatively with ideas they encounter through listening, learning, and reflection, and to share their work publicly.
By pairing Peter’s recording with a visual art assignment, students draw on different ways of thinking—moving from listening and analysis to visual expression. The aim is to create space for reflection on what matters to them in their communities, their state, and their country, and to consider civic life more broadly.
The Assignment
After listening to the recording, students are invited to create a graphic image that reflects an idea about how people live together in civic life, as discussed by Professor Levine. The image should communicate its meaning symbolically or metaphorically, rather than literally.
Students are encouraged to think about how objects, gestures, relationships, or visual forms can suggest ideas without explanation.
Full submission guidelines are available here.
About Story Preservation
Our Mission: Story Preservation Initiative believes in the transformative power of story to connect people around our common humanity and create a better future.
Our Work: We are a leading producer and online distributor of original, content-rich audio-based narratives for K-12 students. SPI stories are the raw materials of history, roadmaps to scientific discovery, and windows to the minds of artists and skilled tradesmen and women.
What We Achieve: SPI brings listeners into personal contact with extraordinary people whose stories engage their hearts and minds, imparting content knowledge and fostering curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking as they open doors to possible career paths in professions associated with the arts, sciences, humanities, and skilled trades. We are fully open-source.
When educating the minds of our youth, we must not forget to educate their hearts.
Please consider making a tax-free donation to SPI. We are an open-source educational nonprofit dependent upon the generosity of contributors. Every donation made helps us keep the stories and projects coming.