Fun was had by all at Kidspace’s Merpeople-making session on December 29.   Here some of the participants display their mermaids and mer-gents.  James Grashow’s spectacular cardboard mermaid (shown above with her school of friends) and Aurora Robson’s recycled plastic bottles were the inspiration for the art project.  Photos of some of the participants with their creations follow.

Our terrific Kidspace intern Amanda contributes this blog about her experience here since September:

It was hard to imagine six months ago, during the stress of final exams and scrambling for post-graduation plans, that my first full-time gig as a college graduate would have turned out to be so relaxing. Especially when I was looking only at jobs that involved working with kids.

But here I am, listening to ocean sounds all day long at my desk. And I’ve been meditating more often in this past month than I have in my entire life. Did I mention that this counts as work? Read the rest of this entry »

UNDER THE SEA, the newest exhibit in Kidspace at MASS MoCA, opens this Saturday, October 1! There will be a special opening party this Saturday from 11-4pm, featuring demonstrations from the artists.  Visitors can learn how to create intricate pipe-cleaner weavings, cardboard fish, and even a surfboard!

The artists providing our under-water world are hard at work transforming Kidspace into the ocean.  We checked in on the progress and couldn’t believe our eyes…

Using cardboard, sculptor James Grashow created a rainbow of fish swimming through Kidspace with their mermaid friend (Under the Corrugated Sea). Read the rest of this entry »

Northampton-based artist Samuel Rowlett and a dynamic crew of 15 local high school students collaborated on The Known Universe at “TEENSPACE� a project of Kidspace at MASS MoCA  in downtown North Adams as part of the annual DownStreet Art festival. Visit the space at 26 Holden Street to see the results.

Samuel Rowlet has written a guest blog for MASS MoCA, check out what he has been working on:

With sketchbooks filled after a month of meeting twice a week on the 3^rd floor of MASS MoCA as part of my residency with the Teenspace crew, we finally saw the space for our installation this summer.  The site of the old Artery Lounge at 26 Holden Street was perfect!   With a patina of character and quirky architectural palimpsests it was just the raw space we needed to take the ethos of the sketchbook (the artist’s equivalent of a diary), blow it up large scale and make it environmental.  The process, based on my own studio practice of turning the unpolished immediacy of sketchbook drawings into wall drawings, certainly gave the project an uncertain future.  Especially having 16 sketchbooks to source from!  However, after seeing the sketches the Crew had made, I knew we had the makings of something great.

Perhaps the most pleasing part of the project (in addition to the rocking installation: a mash-up of social commentary, angst, honesty and satire, that somehow reminds me of a Nirvana music video) has been the camaraderie and sense of collaboration that has developed within the group throughout the installation process.  As we helped draw each other’s drawings, we got to know one another, to rely on one another, riffing off each other’s ideas, and (quite literally) drawing connections between our sketchbook worlds.  I had charged them with the task of mapping their own universes, however it has become less about individual paradigms and more about stewardship of the work as a whole and the conversation they have put into motion through the process of working together.  Which, primarily, is what I hope for them will be the real take-away from this experience.  One that they can repeat in the future in whatever their chosen field may be:  a sense of creative collaboration.  “The Known Universe� expands…

Inspired by Luisa Caldwell’s use of fruit stickers in You Art What You Eat in Kidspace, this excellent food blogger, Dinner: A Love Story, came up with a cool idea for a way to get kids to eat more fruit. Though we find those little stickers super annoying, this idea almost makes us wish they came on kale and cauliflower too.

She also gives a shout out to Rural Intelligence, a blog we recommend too!

Our friends at Kidspace have a new home on the world wide web. The new website features photos, educator guides, a brand new blog, and so much more! What are you waiting for? Visit the new Kidspace website NOW!

Cheers,
Brittany