Build Something Together

A month from today my wife, Elysia Contreras, and I will be part of an alternative education symposium at Grand Arts in Kansas City, Missouri. For the past 2 months we have been collaborating with artist Zach Rockhill to design a engaging panel discussion that will last 2 hours on the morning of Saturday, February 25.
As young educators Elysia and I find great importance to continually asking questions and seeking those answers with the help of our classes. Being part of this symposium gives us an opportunity to ask some of the questions we have yet to resolve to very well established educators.

Educators from various schools around the Heartland have RSVP’ed and are ready to become part of the lively discussion. Some of those educators include home school teachers, Montessori teachers, public school teachers, Waldorf teachers, college professors, and many more. We are very proud to be part of this discussion and hope you all will keep up with what happens!

Julia Cole, the symposium organizer, is planning on recording all of the panels and posting them online. For more information about the symposium check out Grand Art’s website http://grandarts.com

Wells Fargo has decided to make a decent move in Kansas City and donate a handful of homes to Ivanhoe Neighborhood Association. The homes will be rehabbed and rented out. Residents of Ivanhoe have been waiting for something like this to happen for quite some time now, and it looks like the same people who caused the problem are realizing their mistake and attempting to correct it. Two years ago when I hosted the Public Art workshop Ivanhoe was considered a blighted neighborhood. For more information on this news story check out KCTV 5: Millions Targeted To Rehab, Weatherize KC Houses http://kctv.m0bl.net/r/8r2rx.

On a similar note, Missouri Mayor Mark Funkhouser is urging financial institutions to stop processing foreclosures and realize the problems they are causing for hard working Americans. Funkhouser says there is evidence supporting the fact that past foreclosures were done in a malicious way.

Both of these stories are happening now that our economy is slightly coming back and corporations are making money elsewhere. I am very excited to see this happening, but why did it take this long? I hope to get in contact with Ivanhoe Community Association to see if they would be interested in working with BST while rehabbing those homes. It would be a great opportunity to meet my neighbors and share this wonderful time together. These are two small steps towards something amazing and I hope these things keep happening.

Sorry it has been such a long time to post anything on here. Since moving back to Kansas City we have gotten married, found a place to live and started work. Needless to say, not much time has been idle enough to get on BST until now.

This semester I will be teaching a course at the Kansas City Art Institute titled “Towards a Green Sculpture.” The class was created by Karen McCoy a few years ago, who also taught it up until this year when she became the Acting Chair while the Official Chair is on sabbatical. In this class students are asked to examine their artwork’s impact on the environment, and find other ways of working with communities to develop site specific projects. If you are interested in learning more about the class and projects we are doing, please check out http://greensculpturekcai.blogspot.com

Luckily, I am living 3 blocks from my long time collaborator, Jesse McAfee, so we can keep each other on track. We are hoping to develop ways to expand Craft and Concept into new territories while still maintaining our mission statement.

These are exciting times, and I hope you stay tuned for more updates!

After this hectic week of graduate thesis work I will be hoping on a train headed to Vancouver BC. Tin Can Studios invited BST up for a few days while they sit in front of Emily Carr University of Art. I am currently accepting proposals for this event, so if you are interested please submit a proposal.

Here is the flier for this event with all of the other projects listed as well, including my partner’s Knit Together.

Just finished installing some BST documentation in Portland State University’s Display Cases. Looks pretty good!

Last month I was in New York working at the Brooklyn Museum to make a pinata for Jennifer Rubell’s Brooklyn Ball event. The pinata was a 15′ Andy Warhol head filled with Hostess products such as Twinkies and Snow Balls. Last night someone told me there was a video circulating of Jerry Saltz and other art people beating the hell out of Mr. Warhol so I found the videos and laughed the entire time. I hope you enjoy this project as much as I do!

Build Something Together Workshop Series this weekend at SEA Change Gallery, 625 NW Everett Street PDX. Come check it out!

The workshop schedule is as follows:
May 1 – Build Something Together Workshop Series pt.1
12:00 Sandwich Making with Crystal Baxley
1:00 Micro Terrariums with Vanessa Robertson-Rojas
2:00 How To Ask Questions with Ally Drozd
3:00 Talking to Strangers with Sandy Sampson
4:30 Raft Building with Connie Hockaday

May 2 – Build Something Together Workshop Series pt.2
12:00 Collaborative Knitting with Elysia Contreras
1:00 Book Binding with Dasha Shleyeva
2:00 Easy Planter Boxes with Katherine Ball
3:30 Cat Play Structures with Hollis and Kindred
8:00 Zoo Bombing with JP Huckins

It has been 2 weeks since I left the Free Gallery in Toronto, and a week since leaving the Brooklyn Museum. Needless to say it has been a busy time, but I finally got a second to post the final projects from Toronto. Be sure to check them out by clicking on the links below! I will post about the Brooklyn Museum project after the opening on April 22.

Sam’s McCracken

Philip’s Modernist Table

Amber’s Laddershelf

We just finished working on Karen’s dream chair and you can read all about it on the project page.

Check out the video section for a slideshow of Karen’s project!