Blogs Field Guide

Take Advantage of the Garden WAC Packs While Summer is Here

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There are murmurings of summer being over. Well, let’s make it clear that summer is NOT over. We’ve got at least 3 weeks of warmth left, right? To prove that summer is still with us I took a walk through the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden this afternoon. The late August sun blanketed the sculptures and many [...]

There are murmurings of summer being over. Well, let’s make it clear that summer is NOT over. We’ve got at least 3 weeks of warmth left, right? To prove that summer is still with us I took a walk through the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden this afternoon. The late August sun blanketed the sculptures and many people were out and about including Walker Info Guide Nancy Beach.

Nancy Beach with the Garden WAC Pack cart

Nancy was sharing her garden wisdom with visitors and checking out the beautiful, newly designed Garden WAC Packs to interested families. As you can see from the photo the packs are actually red totes filled with a variety of hands-on activities that encourage deep and fun engagement with the sculptures in the garden. Kids and caretakers alike will enjoy activating their minds, bodies and imaginations with activities such as “ Balancing Act,” “ Txt Msgs” and “ Match Quest.”

The Garden WAC Packs are free and can be checked out at the Bazinet Lobby desk, from Info Guides in the garden at the WAC Pack Cart, or, beginning soon, from a staff person or volunteer in the FlatPak House.

Charlie Lazor's FlatPak House

Summer Design Institute – Day 5

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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 [...]

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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