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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

7-yr-old O. and I had an unexpected day off on Wednesday, and we checked out the Dan Graham show. It was SO MUCH FUN. He loved the models (especially the high-rise building with the tiny movie theather) and exploring the mirrored stuff together was the most fun I’ve had in a museum in a long time. (The guards were even a blast — showing us how to play with the time-delated cameras in one room). O. summed up the show perfectly as we walked back to the car: ” I know how to make sense of it, but it still doesn’t make sense.”

Painting of a pony from the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Recently, I’ve run into several parents of young kids who haven’t taken their kids to museums or galleries — or if they do, take them only to the kids’ play rooms at the institutions. My kids have been hauled out to museums since day one (almost – - Baby J. was 7 days old for her first museum visit), mostly because, selfishly, I wanted to go.  Taking kids to a gallery can produce anxiety — they’re not quiet, they move fast, they grow extra hands when you’re not looking.

In case it feels like art musems are just for contemplative adults who talk in quiet tones, here’s a nice post by writer and critic Edward Goldman, who’s more than happy to see babies in museums — hooray!

Rock the Garden 2009: How many music fans fit in the Walker's back yard?

Got a head for figures? Or a thing for facts about the Walker? Test yourself with this contest:

Match up items 1-13 below with the appropriate numbers that follow. The first three readers to post the correct matches in the comments section will win two gallery passes — plus a bag of highly coveted Walker-branded swag.

1. Artist presentations and engagements at the Walker (visual and performing artists, filmmakers, and designers), including 10 artist residencies and 4 interdisciplinary collaborations

2. Total number of artists in the Walker collection

3. Total number of artworks in the Walker collection

4. Newly acquired artworks

5. Total attendance at the Walker

6. Visitors to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

7. Fun-seekers at Rock the Garden 2009

8. Partnerships with local arts and community organizations

9. Copresentations with local and national arts organizations

10. People around the globe who attended Walker-organized touring exhibitions at 7 host museums in 3 countries

11. People around the globe who attended Walker-commissioned touring performances at 40 host venues in 30 cities in 8 countries

12. User sessions at walkerart.org, artsconnected.org, and mnartists.org

13. Fans on Facebook and Twitter followers (combined)

A. 12, 661
B. 382,328
C. 3,621,718
D. 1,425
E. 1,575
F. 19,748
G. 671,757
H. 24,400+
I. 193
J. 85
K. 10,281
L. 60
M. 499,641

Note: Numbers are based on totals from fiscal year 2008-2009.

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.

-William S. Burroughs

This month marks the thirtieth anniversary of William S. Burroughs’ first reading at the Walker Art Center, on October 24, 1979. The Walker would subsequently bring Burroughs back to Minneapolis in 1981 and 1983. Both Burroughs images were shot by our staff photographer at the time, Glenn Halvorson.

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

Kathy Butterly, Pillow, 1998

Butterly will be speaking alongside her fellow Dirt On Delight artists Ann Agee, and Beverly Semmes on the panel There’s Just Something About Clay, with coordinating exhibition curator Andria Hickey. The discussion will take place at 7:00 pm on Thursday, October 8^th, 2009, in the Walker Art Center Cinema. Tickets are free and will be available at the Bazinet Garden Lobby desk from 6:00 pm.

In your answer to the Institute for Contemporary Art question,“How did you come to clay?”  you cite Viola Frey as an inspiration. You said the way she worked was so confident, almost macho, that you were so inspired to make clay your medium. Now, you’re being exhibited with her in the Dirt on Delight show. Can you comment a little further on her inspiration and the rest of your process in working with clay?

I think that basically in addition to what was already mentioned, Viola was there at the right time/right place for me.  She enabled that light bulb to go off over my head.  In addition to Viola, Jack Thompson and Ken Vavrek who were my ceramic teachers at Moore College of Art, helped to open my world up further with inspiration for world travel and also taught me the down and dirty basics of working with clay. You wouldn’t realize by looking at my and Viola’s pieces that she was an original source for my love of  clay, but after witnessing her in action, making her monumental pieces,  I began to also work very large….4-9 ft. tall.  Now my works are 4-9 inches tall. 

Why is there a distinction between ceramics/clay and any other sculpture? How important is that distinction anymore?

“Kathy Butterly’s tiny ceramic vessels are abstract and intensely associative, most often evoking aspects of the body. They recall the convolutions of George Ohr’s pots and Robert Arneson’s mugging faces and twisted figures, as well as the finesse of Adrian Saxe’s gew-gaw-ornamented vases. Her playful tone echoes these predecessors, but with a coyness that seems distinctly feminine.” That’s a quote from a review of your work by Janet Koplos in the New York Times. Can you talk about how you come to create some of these objects? Particularly, Fall into Spring, Cenotes, and Like Butter, which I believe are all in Dirt on Delight.

Kathy Butterly, Like Butter, 1997

I never know what a piece will be/look like until it is completely finished. I never do sketches…..I can explain my process- both thought and making-  like that of a Rorschach test combined with exquisite corpse.  I start with a form, react to it, add to it, fire it, react, fire react……..so on.  At a certain point I understand where  the piece wants to go and after it is complete I understand the meaning of the piece….. ” Fall into Spring” has to do with how I was feeling after 9/11 (I live downtown in Manhattan.)  My head was so full of information and it felt so heavy…..I made a few pieces like this one.  It is definitely a self portrait ….of how I was feeling….. If you look at the piece “Like Butter” – it is a piece made early in my relationship with my husband. Cenote has to do with lushness, about showing off the inside as an equal to the outside and also about the fear of loss of water…..

What would you say to artists choosing clay as their medium to create? 

I would say the same thing to anyone who wanted to be any sort of artist….just be honest to yourself and your work.

Lipchitz liked to explore themes from mythology. According to legend the Titan Prometheus stole fire from the god Zeus and gave it to the humans. Zeus punished Prometheus by chaining him to a rock where a vulture would eat his liver every day, only to have it grow back every night. Eventually Hercules killed the bird. It’s a great bedtime story.

Ashley turned to me and said “Prometheus was kind of like a superhero. He fought for the humans and never dies.” Perfect! We had theme for day: Super Sculptures!

Fast forward to September. Families had a great time making their own action figures using masking tape and newspaper with artist Mary Rivard. Heroes are often known for being incredibly strong and the artist gave Prometheus some serious muscles, so we invited bodybuilders to come and flex their stuff.

But what is a superhero without a cool super suit! We gave kids tape, cardboard, some paper, makers, string, and let them go wild. Photographer Sam Hoolihan made some fantastic backdrops and spent the day snapping shots of people in their cool new costumes. It was awesome.
Just look at the results.