Education and Community Programs

Our final day began with an exciting talk by Dr. Paul Polak, founder of International Development Enterprises and D-Rev. Dr. Polak is also the author of Out of Poverty, a book that inspired the exhibition Design for the Other 90%. After his talk, Dr. Polak was kind enough to sign copies of his book for participating teachers.

But truly the culmination of the week were the group’s presentations of their Design for Necessity projects. An expert panel critiqued each group’s process and ideas. The panelists, left to right in the picture below, are Design Corps architect Bryan Bell, Dr. Paul Polak, Walker Design curator Andrew Blauvelt, designer Tom Oliphant, Ann Ledy of the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, and Target creative director Ruth Balbach.

Problems the teachers tackled were varied and diverse, but centered on their own experience in schools. Challenges ranged from lowering the school building temperature during summer school without using air conditioning, to enhancing the bus experience, to identifying at risk students more effectively. Presentation styles varied by group and included posters, skits, and models.

Many of the participants felt this was a life changing week, and as staff we could not agree more. Teachers can now confidently take design based learning techniques into their classrooms in the coming year and beyond.

Day 4 started off with an inspiring talk from Bryan Bell, the founder of Design Corps. Bryan describes himself as a “design advocate,” helping bring architectural services to under represented populations, such as migrant workers.

The day continued with the teachers working hard on their Design for Necessity projects. Teachers are looking to find design solutions to big problems mapped during Day 3. Projects will be presented on Day 5 to a panel of professional artists and designers for critique.

Today is "hump day" for the SDI. We worked to sustain energy through play, conversation, reflection, and sharing as we began to apply new concepts to the classroom and teaching. Wendy Friedmeyer, James Johansen, and Kim Robledo-Diga kept us on track.

As we toured the exhibition Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes, we applied Design Thinking to our conversation about the suburbs. What stereotypes do we hold about the suburbs? What are the challenges faced in the suburbs? What systems in suburban culture can be addressed through art and design?

The first assignment from John Comazzi and Scott Christensen - NO TALKING!

This short design challenges really focused on "thinking through building." We learned first hand about "failing early in order to succeed".

Teachers quietly work on their tower constructions.

The themes and ideas imbedded in the Design for the Other 90% exhibition offered a jump start to thinking about the "other 90%" of our own communities and provided the basis for the final design challenge: Designing for Necessity. John Comazzi and Scott Christensen moderate the concept mapping in the picture above.

Sandy Speicher from IDEO works with teachers on design as a process for learning. She states: “Design thinking is the way we approach the world when we imagine and create new solutions for the future.”

“Build to think” and “Fail early to succeed sooner”- teachers make prototype models out of found materials to solve design problems related to the morning commute.

Teachers tour the exhibit Design for the Other 90%

Designer Tom Oliphant explains the critique process to teachers by defining it as, “a conversation about the efforts of work.” He brought some of his students along to discuss how it felt to have their work critiqued.

Today was the first day of a week-long summer institute for K-12 teachers focused on design-based learning organized by the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. The CHNDM originated the Design for the Other 90% exhibition currently on view in the Sculpture Garden. Their amazing education department offered to take their Summer Design Institute on the road to Minneapolis while the show is here and we were excited for the opportunity to share this nationally recognized program with Twin Cities teachers.

Twenty-seven teachers were selected to attend. Most are in teams of two teachers from a school; the majority are from the Twin Cities, with one team from south Texas and one from Oregon. They teach art, science, language arts, special ed, French, math, and industrial technology. The goal for this week is to introduce a new way of teaching based on the ways that designers think and work. Our plan is to blog about the highlights each day and share some pictures of the SDI in action.

Day 1 began with our lively group of teachers sharing their goals for attending. My personal favorites were the several who mentioned they "want to change the world." I am always heartened to encounter teachers who are dedicated, visionary, and willing to take time from their summers to learn something new. Meredith Davis, author of Design as a Catalyst for Learning and Professor in the Department of Graphic Design at North Carolina State University, provided big-picture insights into design thinking and processes. After lunch Ellen Lupton, Curator of Contemporary Design and CHNDM walked us through a lively history of the design of everyday things from dishwashers to telephones to can openers. She also challenged us to get hands-on and create a new use for an ordinary bag.

The energy was high, the laughter was infectious, and we are off to a great week!

-Susan Rotile and Lindsay Stern

Meredith Davis talks about Design based learning.

Ellen Lupton leads an activity with the teachers to redesign bags.

Teachers show off their creations.

Teachers break into groups to share new ideas from the day’s activities.

Solutions Volume 1 presentation by Chris Wegscheid photo: George Byron Griffiths

In about a week the Walker Cinema will be taken over for a night by a group of designers, entrepreneurs, architects and generally inventive people who are involved in one way or another in solving the world’s most difficult economic problems. Its not an NGO world summit, its Solutions for the Other 90%, an energetic evening of fast-paced, short presentations of humanitarian design projects that just might restore one’s faith in the future of our planet. The line-up was curated by Troy Gallas and Colin Kloecker of the amazingly vibrant organization Solutions Twin Cities. They took a minute out of their busy lives to answer a few questions about the event and their work as organizers.

What is Solutions Twin Cities?

Solutions Twin Cities was founded in 2006 to create spaces for exploring new ideas & drawing awareness to existing solutions. These events and programs provide a space for local world-changing designers, artists, activists, and progressive thinkers to gather, present, and inspire others through their ideas and accomplishments.

As will be seen at Solutions for the Other 90%, our events usually consist of rapid-fire, media rich presentations, each less than 7 minutes. Because each presenter is allowed to present just 20 images that advance (automatically) every 20 seconds while talking about their work, we are able to build a diverse lineup of 10 to 12 organizations who’s presentations hopefully inspire those in attendance to get involved in their community and help shape our future.

Why did you start it, or, what void do you think it is filling in the Twin Cities cultural and design scene?

Because our programming is often about more then just design, art, and activism, we like to use the term “future-positive creativity” as an umbrella that gathers everything together. We both have backgrounds in design and are extremely interested in design as a tool for change, but we also know that design alone won’t save the world. Things get so much more interesting when you have people who are used to solving different parts of the puzzle coming together to talk about the bigger picture. Rather then filling a void, we like to think that our events and programs are simply amplifying and encouraging a movement that already exists.

Through your work in architecture and as founders of Solutions Twin Cities you see a lot of design projects aimed at making the world a better place. How did you go about deciding who to invite for Solutions for the Other 90%?

When we began thinking about SFO90%, one of the biggest questions was how should we define “the other 90%.” While the exhibition Design for the Other 90% focuses primarily on a global “other 90%,” we thought it equally important to scale that down and discuss what challenges and solutions exist for the “other 90%” here in the United States and Minnesota.

What are we going to see at Solutions for the Other 90%? Can you give us a sneak preview?

It will be a night filled with some of the most exciting projects currently taking place in the Twin Cities. You’ll see architecture firms and students from the University of Minnesota working in the gulf coast, building materials concepts, humanitarian architecture and product design, local documentary film, microfinance, and more, all together, all in one place. You can also check out the Solutions Twin Cities website for a full list of presenters.

It is easy to be down about the state of the world these days (global warming, global poverty, global conflict, you name it). Does your work with humanitarian design provide you with a brighter outlook for the future, or further, on the present?

The challenges we are faced with can be overwhelming and we have our darker moments too, but what keeps us going is the wellspring of good that we see in the people we work with. NEED Magazine, who will be presenting at the event, has a wonderful mission statement that could just as easily apply to what we do with Solutions Twin Cities. They say, “We are not out to save the world, but to tell the stories of those who are.” If nothing else, we want Solutions Twin Cities to give our city’s unsung heroes a bigger voice so that they can inspire others in the same way they’ve inspired us.

Get your dose of world changing inspiration on Thursday, July 31 at 7 pm here in the Walker Cinema.

Cupcakes are a beautiful thing. And a cupcake is even better when it comes as a complete surprise. When Julie* first brought Joe and Mary to a Arty Pants Daniel was just around the corner. When Daniel was ready to leave the house he started coming to Arty Pants as well.
Today was Daniel’s 1st birthday, as well as Julie’s, and I can hardly believe how fast he’s grown. I remember the tiny baby nestled in blankets, hidden from the cold. Now he’s crawling around during the story times and pulling himself up on couches. It has been wonderful to watch him grow. For the birthday celebration they came to Arty Pants followed by a picnic in the Sculpture Garden, that included some cupcakes baked by the family. I got a little misty-eyed when Joe told me they had baked an extra cupcake for me. I even got my choice of color frosting. So Happy Birthday Julie and Daniel! Thanks to Julie, Joe, Mary, Daniel, and Fluffy Cat for making my job an utter joy!

*The names of the individuals and stuffed animal dicussed in this post have been changed.