This post is the first in an on-going series, in which guest artist-instructors involved with our various Raising Creative Kids programs reflect upon their teaching experience.

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Last Saturday (Nov. 14^th) I had the pleasure of working with the Walker to develop and teach MyNet: Google SketchUp, a course designed to introduce the amazing world of 3d computer modeling to both kids and their parents (as well as older siblings and mentors). Computer modeling and rendering has long been a staple of architectural education and practice, but the software involved was, more often than not, exorbitantly expensive and frustratingly difficult to learn. The combination of these two factors ensured that such amazing technology was only accessible to those at the advanced stages of their design education or those already working in the field.

Then came SketchUp…

With its simple interface and simple tools, SketchUp was an instant hit. It was intuitive and inexpensive, making it accessible to just about anyone. While this was certainly a great development for grad students and professionals, its greatest potential lies with the introduction of this software as an educational tool for K-12 children!

That belief was validated and solidified by our class on Saturday. Students and parents not only learned the basics of the software, but also got the opportunity to apply this new knowledge to an actual project of their own design. The focus of the class was to design an ideal “fort” or “hang-out.” Before we jumped into SketchUp, though, everyone first made physical, scale “study models.” This hands-on process, allowed everyone to first focus on the design of the project before getting caught up in the excitement of trying to learn how to use a new computer program.

Building a prototype together

By using this process, students and parents were actually following the real-life, organic process used by designers of all disciplines! Once everyone had tested out their ideas with scale models, we then moved into the digital world and covered the basics of SketchUp. Thanks to its simple, user friendly interface, most were able to pick it up right away! We then shifted focus back to the forts and hang-outs, learning how to translate from the miniature scale models everyone had made to full scale digital models in SketchUp that allowed them to “get inside” their projects.

Adam Jarvi leading a family through the 3D modeling process

I was absolutely amazed by everyone’s work! Not only were the original models recreated in SketchUp with remarkable accuracy, they were also edited, refined, and personalized with colors, materials, people, and even furniture. The sense of ownership, engagement, and empowerment that comes along with the ability to create something that is uniquely your own was clear for all to see. As a designer myself, seeing others become engaged by the same things that excite me was extremely rewarding!

A final SketchUp project: one family's hideout

Thanks to all who attended! And thanks to the Walker for making this event possible!

Adam Jarvi

Designer and Assistant Director at DEMO, a non-profit focused on spreading the power of design to K-12 students and teachers throughout the Twin Cities.

Dan Graham, New Space for Showing Videos 1995 T.B. Walker Acquisition Fund, 2002

Mirror, Mirror Art project

Hello, I’m Alanna, the new Family Programs intern, assisting with Free First Saturday. I’ll be posting periodically on events relating to Raising Creative Kids, as seen from my behind-the-scenes perspective in the Education and Community Programs Department. For my first blogging assignment I decided to sit down with Ilene Krug Mojsilov, The Walker’s Art Lab Coordinator to see how the upcoming Dan Graham exhibition would be used to fuel a creative art activity that she’s designed for Nov 7^th Free First Saturday.

Dan Graham is a conceptual artist, among many things—a photographer, performer, video artist and critic. He has been working since the 1960’s in New York and is considered a pioneering figure in many modes of art. His retrospective, Dan Graham: Beyond, organized by the Museum of Contemporary art, Los Angeles opens at The Walker on Oct 31.

A lot of Dan Graham’s pieces are works of installation. How do you get kids to understand the concept of an installation?

Well first I get them to define the word “install.” I start out with the question: “Who knows what it means to install something? I liken the idea to a kitchen that needs to be redone and how an object like a stove, fits in the space.

Dan Graham’s work often challenges viewer’s perceptions. He creates environments where the viewers see themselves and are seen by others. Tell me how your art activity relates to this idea of perception.

The activity is called Mirror, Mirror. It is made from human-made materials, different from natural materials. Plastic, glass, lumber, steel, and metal are examples of elements used in architecture. I ask children to manipulate materials like plastic, Mylar, and foam core so that they can envision what a space could be. In this way, the art becomes self-reflective, as they can infuse their own lives in it. I ask the kids to use three different types of surfaces, transparent, meaning material you can see through; translucent, material you can see partially through; and opaque, material you cannot see through.

What are the reasons or intentions behind the project?

I like people to play with the idea of space by using materials that play with light.

We all perceive space differently. Light and shadow are ingredients in this recipe for a space. I also hope that this activity gives participants a way to delineate personal and public space.

How will the kids get this?

I always like to relate an artistic work to their own experience. I tell them, “Think of your bedroom.” In this way, the children are able to use the materials with specific purposes that arise from their own imaginations of familiar places.

Can this work for all ages?

Yes. Older kids can see the project as an interior design project. To younger kids, it can be an outdoor installation. It would be suitable for 3 years olds to teens.

Ilene is giving accessibility to contemporary art. It is a genre I admit I am not familiar with.

This seems to be an experience where the children are introduced to conceptual art without even knowing it. You’re offering an experience where they don’t get bogged down with definitions.

Exactly. They don’t get bogged down with definitions.

We are both smiling

It seems like you enjoy the experiential side of learning.

I like to learn that way…I like when there’s a challenge.

Our conversation dips into discourse about teaching methods. I am beginning to discover Ilene’s passion—her identity as an independent thinker, gutsy, intuitive and someone who discovered her own kinesthetic learning style early in life. She draws on this strength in challenging kids in the creative process.

I want all people to experience the creative process. I do my job because I’m discovering something.

How do you initially think of ideas?

I am inspired by other artists and exhibitions. I think: What could I do with this? What can I take? I borrow from these influences. That’s what makes working in museum education so interesting. There is always something new, a new exhibition…I never get stuck.

Do you ever run out of ideas?

No…like cleaning out my closet. I find new ways of looking at the everyday. That’s always been part of my experience…finding connections to the present.

Using Dan Graham’s exhibit, Mirror Mirror will construct a creative way for children to connect with their present.

I adore the book Where the Wild Things Are! I’m also a big fan of the film’s blog We Love You So and their amazing contests including fort building. We were so inspired that we’ve created a contest of our own using the website ArtsConnectEd. We gathered works from the Walker and Minneapolis Institute of Arts to create a special art collector set to get you inspired.

Now go out and make mischievous works of your own using materials of one kind or another. Email an image of your project to kids@walkerart.org by November 10. Include your first name, last initial, and age. All submissions will be posted on ArtsConnectEd and one winner will receive a $50 gift card to the Walker Shop.

Let the creating begin!

I happened upon filmmaker Astra Taylor and her documentary Examined Life at the Women with Vision festival last spring and found myself a huge fan of the film, and I became intrigued by her bio, particularly the fact that she was unschooled until age 13. From what I know about unschooling, it’s very similar to the artist’s life. You wake up each day guided by the question ‘what do I want to learn today?’ You’re not told by a boss or teacher what to do, when to do it, and how to get it done, rather your own curiosities lead the way.

This anarchist approach to education has been fundamental to Taylor’s D.I.Y. attitude towards learning, creativity, and pedagogy. As one interviewer wrote, ‘Her non-traditional upbringing, or as she calls it, her “super weirdo hippy background,” stood her in good stead, providing a strong sense of confidence and an affirmation in her own abilities and artistic vision.’ Thinking about Astra’s unconventional past, I began to wonder how education and the way we’re taught to learn can hinder or support our creative development.

Luckily, Astra will be back to the Walker next Thursday night (talk and gallery admission are free) to speak about how her personal experiences of growing up home-schooled without a curriculum or schedule have shaped her personal philosophy and development as an artist. If you need a primer, check out this great interview she did with CitizenShift or you can get a better idea of Astra’s influences by her recommended reads:

* * * *

Animal Liberation by Peter Singer

A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guatarri

The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing

Ways of Seeing by John Berger

Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit

The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World by Lewis Hyde

* * * *

Other Suggestions:

“Against School” by John Taylor Gatto in Harpers Magazine, September 2003

How Children Learn by John Holt

How Children Fail by John Holt

Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School & Get a Real Life & Education by Grace Llewellyn

The $99 sale at The Soap Factory attracts a mass of egalitarian participants, and I am one of them.

Being someone who firmly believes in the barter system, I favor the exchange of services without the green back. So, it’s apropos that I create an artwork and donate it to The Soap Factory for the sale on September 11th and 12th this year.

Just a word about the works for the sale; they must be created on 5″ x 7″ paper without any signatures. There are many top notch artists in this pool, and this standardization levels the playing field. All the artists who participate in this event are united by their support of The Soap Factory. Last year, when all the works were installed in the gallery, they read like cells on a storyboard to me. What a kick to be part of this community that backs The Soap Factory cover to cover.

Machinery Hill has been around for a long time. 20 years to be exact. That’s long time for anything, but especially for a group of individuals who get together week after week to play and create music just because it’s fun.

 The band is named after the hill (sort of a hill anyway) at the MN. State Fair where the tractors and farm equipment has been traditionally displayed. I believe there are now more lawn mowers and less tractors and the hill has been renamed “Technology Hill.” The band’s name did not change and remains “Machinery Hill.” Whew!

 One of Machinery Hill’s favorite gigs is a Halloween Party thrown almost every year in “The Church of Halloween” over in NE Minneapolis. It is a costume party and three years ago the members of M. Hill dressed up as “The Addams Family.” Bill (he’s responsible for all wind instruments in the band) made a lovely Uncle Fester, complete with a light bulb logo on top of his head. Two years ago the drummer, John Gwinn showed up in a fetching party dress and long flowing wig and was quite a hit. The party has always been a chance to totally rock out and play such Machinery Hill standards as” The Devils in the Kitchen.”

If that isn’t enough information to make you want to venture out and enjoy one of the few warm days we’ve had here in July in Minnesota (tomorrow’s high will be in the mid 80’s) then here are 10 other reasons why you should. Machinery Hill will be playing tomorrow night for our Skyspace/Soundspace concert series. What a scorcher!

1. To hear a variety of musical styles all in one place from one band. That saves travel time.

2. To see how many different times Bill Lee has to switch instruments.

3. The band has been around forever and, if you haven’t seen them by now- you really should.

4. The set will start with the Great Highland Bagpipes.

5. The bagpipe will only play one song.

6. To see how many band members will fit into such a small space.

7. The drummer will be wearing a new shirt.

8. You can brag to your friends that you have discovered an interesting band.

9. The accordion will be in every song!

10. And– most importantly- it’s fun music and should be a good time.

I’ve been fortunate to have what most would consider a broad exposure to the world of art, and can appreciate a fine piece of artwork when I see it.  I’ve recently added another type of work to my list of “favorites”: kids’ art.  Although always an appreciator of the beautiful spontaneity of children’s drawings, I haven’t always fully recognized and appreciated the viewer response they are able to evoke. All that changed last week.

From the moment I stepped into the Father/Son Art Show (June 18-July 23) at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts, the concept of the show (and the innovative pieces in it) intrigued me.  The basic premise of the exhibit is that four professional artists/dads (Irve Dell, Michael Kareken, David Lefkowitz, and John Schuerman) would display their work alongside that of their sons, ages 5-9.  The result is a great tribute to the artistic efforts of these fathers and sons, but also highlights the work of young artists in a way that I’ve never experienced before.

According to the Star Tribune article on the exhibit, the intent of the show was not to elevate the children’s work to that of ‘professional’, but rather to “celebrate the relationship between creative dads and their kids.”   While I know the aim was not to force the children’s art to seem ‘professional’, the part that fascinated me most was that oftentimes the artwork seemed just that. Had I not known the ages of the young artists, there were some pieces I likely would’ve thought was an adult artist trying to capture raw, un-tapped emotion in his/her work. I think most people appreciate the unique beauty of children’s art, but viewing it on a refrigerator leaves a much different impression than when hung on a gallery wall.   In a very healthy way, this exhibit forced me to reflect upon my own prejudices and assumptions about ‘good’ art and ’skilled’ artists and admit that the work created by the hand of a child is able to impact me just as much as the work of a world-famous masterpiece.

As talented as the artist fathers are, one thing that training and technique try in vain to match is the expression of a child. Oftentimes the uninhibited creative nature of children’s artwork is underappreciated and overlooked.  It seems so ironic that adult artists spend years of their life chasing after the level of expression that came out so naturally when they were younger.

Pablo Picasso was quoted as saying, “Every child is an artist.  The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.”  To that, I say, “Paint on!”  Creative ability lies within each of us.  It’s possible one’s greatest sense of artistic growth may come from looking backward rather than forward.

Father/Son Art Show, courtesy Minnetonka Center for the Arts

Father/Son Art Show, courtesy Minnetonka Center for the Arts

Father/Son Art Show, courtesy Minnetonka Center for the Arts