Young people invited to be part of something big in BIGthink

Art, community and diversity will come together in the creation of a temporary sculpture that will go up on March 31. It’s called Together Kalamazoo.

Music, dance and poetry also will be part of the event being pulled together by BIGthink, an arts, education, science and technology collaborative. It is working with the Walker Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnic Relation at Western Michigan University.

Two teams of up to 40 students in grades four through eight will make art for the massive sculpture in two-week creativity workshops.

Students participating in the workshops will be asked questions about themselves in relation to their family, friends, and other people and places they know in the greater Kalamazoo area. In response to those questions, the students will draw and paint images that develop as well as demonstrate their creativity, positive sense of self and appreciation of community.

Throughout the process, they will be supervised and guided by teachers and artists from BIGthink and the Walker Institute.

Participants will both work independently and in teams with artists and educators to develop and demonstrate their creativity, positive sense of self and appreciation of community. Visual art works will be collected at the end of the workshops to be used to build a large-scale sculpture to be installed with other community arts in a grand finale celebration in Bronson Park.

Dr. Timothy Ready, director of the Walker Institute, says the Together Kalamazoo workshops aim to enhance students’ understanding of themselves and their community through the arts. Ultimately, he says, the participants will build something creative together while learning more about themselves and their interconnections.

A limited number of seats remain open for the free workshops, all of which take place from 12:45 to 4 p.m. Saturdays in the gymnasium of St. Joseph Parish, 930 Lake St. in Kalamazoo. Registrations are being accepted here for Group A, which will meet March 8 and 22, and for Group B, which will meet March 15 and 29.

BIGthink is a Kalamazoo-based group of artists, teachers, scientists and technologists that has been creating innovative educational experiences through the arts across the United States and around the world for more than 35 years.

Source: Jeanne Baron, Western Michigan University