United Tessellations: Urban-Rural Solidarity.: Hennepin Version. Conserved and found objects, photo-copied photographic portraits, 80 x 140 x 3”, 2024.

I am always creating new recycled-object art projects for children, writing grants to get funding to pursue these projects, and pitching ideas for new projects to school and community organizations. Although I have several posts here in my news section on many of these projects and their results, there are still several I have completed that I haven’t documented here. As I continue to pursue these opportunities, it seemed like a good time to create a post high-lighting some of the many as-yet undocumented projects I have helped come to life over the last decade!

A recently completed project—United Tessellations: Urban-Rural Solidarity came together as the result of a Springboard for the Arts grant. The purpose of the grant was to create art projects that brought Rural and Urban communities together. I have been working on recycled-object art projects with 2nd and 3rd Graders at Northside Elementary in St. James Minnesota and Hennepin School in Minneapolis for several years: this grant seemed like a perfect opportunity to have these two groups work together.

United Tessellations: Rural-Urban: Northside Elementary Version. Conserved and found recycled objects, photocopied portrait photographs, 85 x 120 x 3”, 2024.

I first designed a recycled paperboard ‘cell’, then worked with two designers to create a program to cut the flat template for this cell out of hundreds of pieces of recycled paperboard using a laser cutter. I used the laser cutter at Minnesota State University Mankato cut out enough of these templates for all the 2nd and 3rd Graders at each school to fold and tape one cell each. The students at each school then spent several weeks preparing, first by exchanging photographs and short bios with one other student from their grade at the other school, then by spending several weeks collecting recycled materials from their homes and studying the information about their companion student. Classes at both schools then worked with me over several sessions to build the paperboard, geometric heart-shaped cell, then populate it with a 3D recycled object collage that incorporated the photograph of their partner student. Finally, these cells were combined on a wall to create a larger-scale group collage that spent a few weeks on the walls of each school. I love doing these 3D group collages using a variety of interlocking cells to create ‘tessellation’ projects. You can see more of these on other pages in my news section!

Walker Open Field: Kid Recycled Dome Making Project. Walker Art Center, 2015. Recycled food containers and biodegradable packaging tape, 7 x 7 x 7’.

Dome-making with 3rd-graders at Maple River Elementary, 2009. Recycled packaging, biodegradable packing tape, 8 x 11 x 11’.

For much of my career I have been using geodesic construction methods to make domes and spheres out of recycled materials. Since 2008 I have conducted several dome-making projects with kids ranging from 2nd-8th Grade. This is.a great STEAM project that helps students use recycled materials in conjunction with math, engineering and architecture skills. Students first collect recycled cylinder-shaped packaging then attach it end-to-end to create struts. We then use a slightly-raised cardboard template to combine these struts into geometrical panels comprised of geometric shapes: usually pentagons, hexagons and octagons, which then combine to become various sized domes that are usually large enough for several kids to climb inside!

Probably the project I have been working on with kids the longest is recycled toy-making. Students collect objects over the course of several weeks, then make them into a variety of toy-like assemblages using low-heat glue guns and colorful tape. Kids especially enjoy making robots, dolls, animals and vehicles.

It is great to finally share some images of these projects! Please visit my other news posts to see even more recycled-object collaborations!

News

A Miscellany of Kids Recycled Art Projects!