Thanks to the grant, we purchased a rolling wood shop for our sculpture and ceramic classes to use. Not only a rolling table with storage but several power tools needed to create elevated bases for projects and to allow students to create innovative sculptures from wood.
The first project of the year my Sculpture 4 students created cubist relief self portraits using the woodshop! This was our first time time working with these materials and tools and it was very challenging for all of us. The fact that we were not limited on time gave us the room to make errors and explore multiple methods and materials so true learning was taking place for the students. The alternative would have been to partner with the woodshop class and use pre-selected materials, template out our work and hand it off to be cut and returned to be assembled. Although fun, students would not really learn anything about the materials and process. Having that deeper learning inspired a few students to develop ideas for projects they are currently working on. These will go to competition in February. One of which is a wooden replica of a Fender guitar. The technique is quite complicated and detail oriented but the students are really enjoying exploring this. Our Sculpture II classes just finished cutting and routing their bases for their wire projects. These will also be completed in February. The elevated bases have been a big hit and I am very excited to see them on display with a more elegant finish than just a plain piece of wood. The Advanced Ceramic classes made plaster hands that will be mounted on a large black framed out piece of plywood. Each hand will have it's own base creating stacked or dimensional look. This will be put on display at our feeder zone art show at the end of the year. Students will choose their placement on the large board and their level of elevations when we return from break and then students will cut out their bases when we return. Thank you again for your kind and generous donation!