Book excerpt: For 25 years, Maxine Greene has been the philosopher-in-residence at the innovative Lincoln Center Institute, where her work forms the foundation of the Institute's aesthetic education practice. Each summer she addresses teachers from across the country, representing all grade levels, through LCI's intensive professional development sessions. Variations on a Blue Guitar contains a selection of these never-before-published lectures touching on the topics of aesthetic education, imagination and transformation, educational renewal and reform, excellence, standards, and cultural diversity, powerful ideas for today's educators.