Ten years ago, Roberto Molina Rivero and I started working together. I’m Professor Kathryn Riley, an international scholar whose work bridges policy and practice. Roberto – or to give him his stage name – DancePoet TioMolina – had trained in Cuba as a dancer before becoming a choreographer and developing his own distinctive take on poetry performance.

We began with a belief that by bringing our two worlds together – education and the performing arts – we could help people see schools as places of possibility and belonging:

TioMolina: Belonging is my identity, belonging is myself. And belonging is to be confident in yourself. It’s like something very deep in your soul and in your heart.

Kathryn Riley: Belonging is that sense of being somewhere you can be confident you will fit in and feel safe in your identity. A feeling of being at home in a place.

We called this journey -The Art of Possibilities!

As partnerships and collaborations flourished, our vision of what was possible in our uncertain world grew. Dr Manuela Mendoza joined us as a researcher.

The ‘we’ of ‘The Art of Possibilities’ has gradually become a broad coalition of individuals and organisations working to make schools great places to be.

As you listen to the Podcasts, watch the videos, dip into the publications, read the Blogs and Resources, you will find these many voices.

Sadly, TioMolina died in 2021.