VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) Work & Resources
I’m an experienced VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies) Facilitator, including as a Guest Lecturer at MIT Sloan and an Instructor at Maitland Art & History Museums. I integrate VTS into Design processes and rituals as a proven method for improving critical thinking and communication skills, fostering inclusion and innovation, generating valuable feedback, and supporting connection and collaboration.
Recaps of VTS discussions I facilitated @ Neuro Atelier
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The Love Letter by Johannes Vermeer
There is a lot to look at in this complex, beautiful masterpiece from "The Master of Light," Vermeer. It's fascinating that, without knowing the title of this piece, or the symbolism popular in the Netherlands in the 17th century, people still understood the intention of this painting... plus many other unexpected ideas.
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Reflection With Two Children (Self-Portrait) by Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud captures himself and others in a way described by Freud himself as “visual aggression,” whereby he intensifies, rather than idealizes, the reality of everyday human beings.
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Family of Saltimbanques by Pablo Picasso
Picasso is uber-famous, but most have only seen his cubist works. This Rose Period piece is worth some deep looking with its layered commentary on family, isolation, belonging, class, and more.
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Fossil Bed by Emmi Whitehorse
Whitehorse invites us to stop, look, and think about the world around us and the land beneath us with her work that embodies the Navajo philosophy of hózhó, the interconnectedness of harmony, beauty, wellness, and order.
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Claiming Land by Rupy C. Tut
With a deft hand & keen eye, Rupy C. Tut expertly adds a modern twist to traditional Indian painting techniques & motifs to tell a modern human story we can all relate to.
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Isabella Stewart Gardner by John Singer Sargent
One of John Singer Sargent’s best portraits of a fascinating 19th-century “collector of art and men,” museum founder, headliner, and provocateur.
Case studies coming soon
VTS group mentor sessions with ADPList—how tenets of VTS can make you a better designer, researcher, and writer
VTS for design critiques at Fidelity Investments—psychological safety leading to open, brave, actionable, valuable feedback
VTS facilitation training for designers at Fidelity Investments to improve facilitative leadership, inclusive communication, data-driven decision-making, and creative problem-solving
VTS facilitation training for engineers at MIT Sloan to improve facilitative leadership, inclusive communication, data-driven decision-making, and creative problem-solving
VTS at the Maitland Art & History Museums—giving “non-artists” the confidence to slow down, look, think, and then discuss art