Objective
The Boys and Girls Club of Morrison County (BGCMC) will invite visual artist and teaching artist, Heidi
Jeub, to facilitate a collaborative art project using mixed media, recycled materials and industrial technology in fall, 2014. Upon completion of the collaborative project, she will then offer regular art classes throughout the fall months, to encourage kids to explore their world using innovation and creativity.
The BGCMC will be moving into their new facility soon, offering many opportunities to make functional objects pieces of art! There is a need for a bike rack and feature piece for the parking lot of the Club, where Heidi will create a design with the help of students, and use technology and design methods that would be helpful for the professional development and interest of the students.
The bike rack serves a need, but the design collaboration offers students the insight into the world of art and creativity in industry. BGCMC will partner with the St. Cloud State University Technology and Engineering Mobile, that provides access to laser engravers and other tools to make the bike rack unique, while serving as a tool that encourages STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). With the artistic umbrella, the students will be able to connect the need for creative thinking in industrial applications.
Goals
To provide an opportunity for the Boys & Girls Club members to participate in the artistic, design and fabrication process, while being part of the creation of a beautiful new facility.
To encourage young people to see creativity and innovation in all parts of industry.
To ignite arts activities through a 3 week, artist residency, that expands the members, staff and participants
understanding of the arts in everyday life.
To provide a creativity inservice session for staff of the BGCMC
Project Outline
Timeline
Phase 1: Heidi Jeub will work on designs with up to 10 students
Phase 2: Club Members will vote for their favorite ideas and fabricating experts (welding, design and engraving) will refine the process to make the bike rack.
Phase 3: Using the help of available club members, the rack will be created! Students will be able to help with engraving, riveting and painting of the rack. A welder will be invited to be onsite, so members could see the welding process.
PROCESS
The Design Team interviewed club members and asked who uses a bike to get to the club. They realized that with a new location, there may be more people using bikes than normal. They had to estimate how many kids were asked, and how many kids were bike users, making the assumption that there will be 30% of club members that use the bike rack. Therefore, they should allow for 30 bikes per 100 kids.
Ideas were flying around from a bike rack that is also a petting zoo, to an overhang that would keep the bikes from getting wet. Fantastic ideas nonetheless! The design team drew out their ideas, then created small mock-ups or prototypes of their ideas. While some of the designs may not make sense when made out of paper towel rolls and foam, they were able to explain, much easier, their ideas.
The process of prototyping is essential to figure out the best ideas... if they are allowed to be silly, then realistic, then extravagant, they are using all corners of their imagination, while staying grounded at the task of making a bike rack.
In the end, the ideas most likely to be incorporated into the final design (refined by Heidi Jeub) include:
*a bike rack that doubles as a bench
*a “roof” that keeps the bikes dry
*a place to put plants, so the roof can water the plants *integrate phrases from the BGC mission into the rack *make it really cool
