On The Road Again

Throughout this process, the grant group has been through many options we could potentially work toward, but with difficulty in communication and gaining insight into BICAS, we are now working toward writing a grant where funds will flow directly to the next Community, Culture, and Art Education class. These funds will aid the next class in developing and putting on workshops for BICAS.

Here is the list of supplies the other two groups came up with as needs with some of the prices found:

JEWELRY SUPPLIES
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
WIRE (silver and copper
o Beadalon Satin Series Stringing Wire, Bright (Walmart.com) $9.99
o Soft Flex Beading Wire – Satin Silver (.014” dia.) (Target.com) $9.99
o Soft Flex Beading Wire – Copper (.014” dia.) (Target.com) $10.89
FINDINGS (pin broaches, earring wire, clasps
o Westrim 6/0 Bead Box Set E Beads – 192gr/Multi (Joann.com) $9.99
o Darice 1-1/4” Pins – 44pk/Nickel-Plated (Joann.com) $2.99
o Darice Toggle Clasps – 6pk/Nickel (Joann.com) $2.99
TOOLS
o Westrim Jewelry Pliers Mini Tool 5-Piece Set (Walmart.com) $11.99
o 6-Piece Craft & Jewelry Tool Kit 6-Piece Craft & Jewelry Tool Kit (Walmart.com) $19.99
*3 pairs of pliers / tweezer/scoop tool / flush cutter / bead reamer *

PRINTING SUPPLIES
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
SCREEN PRINTING SUPPLIES ( ink and screens)
RELIEF PRINTING SUPPLIES (blocks / cutting tools / ink)

PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
FLYERS (design, paper, printing)
ADVERTISING (ads in local newspapers to promote workshops)
THANK YOU’S (cards / envelopes)
PRINTING (printing costs / xerox / advertising)

BASICS
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
PAPER
MARKERS
o Assorted Sharpie 12 pk. -Fine Point (Target.com) $15.99
CRAYONS
o Crayola 832-Count Regular Size Crayon Classpack, 64 Colors (Walmart.com) $44.98
GLUE
SCISSORS
o Westcott Pointed Tip Scissors with Microban, 12 Pack (Walmart.com) $19.00
o Westcott Preferred Line Steel Scissors, 8” Length, 3-1/2” Cut (Walmart.com) $9.90
CLIPBOARDS
o Saunders Plastic Clipboard, ½” Capacity, Holds 8-1/2w x 12h (Walmart.com) $6.90
THREAD
o Janlynn Cotton Embroidery Floss Jumbo Value Pack (Walmart.com) $14.99
*105 skeins of 100% cotton embroidery floss/ 37 different colors of 8.75 yard 6-strand skeins*
NEEDLES
BUTTONS
BEADS
FABRIC (felt)

We are now taking the items on this list to create an itemized list of items to include in the grant.
Megan and I were both originally involved in creating documentation to help BICAS follow up on grants that could potentially help their eligibility for future grants. We are now going to switch gears and create that documentation plan for this grant instead.

We are on the right track and I am excited to see where this grant will lead!

Mobile/Mall Workshop Reflection

Last Friday Emma, Michelle and I had our Mobile workshop. To prepare to facilitate the workshop I came in on Thursday to create my own hanging wind chime mobile. When I was creating the mobile, I found that the overall tying and bending of wires was very tedious and tiring. I was a little worried that if any kids came, they wouldn't be able to make a mobile very easilly. It is a very labor intensive process. When it was completed, however, I was satisfied with how my mobile came out.

On Friday, Emma and I met at BICAS at 1:30 to go over logistics. We decided to both discuss the different techniques of mobile making and breifly discuss what one should consider when making a mobile. Balance and weight were a major factor in the effectiveness of the mobile. Aescetically, the mobiles looked better with minimum wire and fishing line. Afterwards we set up for the workshop. Fortunately, Michelle brought some extra wire in the clutch!

Overall, I think the workshop was successful. Despite the fact that we started a little late, I think everybody had a really good time. I enjoyed working with Valerie's son. He had a little trouble tying knots and bending the wire, so I had to assist him but I didn't mind. I feel like these workshops are trial and error and it could go either way. I know he had fun regardless so I wasn't too worried.

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The Mall Workshop on Tuesday. I, also, found that this workshop ran a lot smoother then the other. There was a lot more solicitation going on and more people coming up to the table. I had planned on posting some solicitation statistics to see how we could improve mall workshops in the future with tally sheets that our class could give back to me before they left. Unfortunately, I only got 3 tally records back.

I thought that the real success at the Mall Workshop was the workshop in itself. More people were interested then in the first, which baffles me considering we didn't even have a tent. What I really enjoyed was that the UANews reporter was truly interested in what we were doing. It is great that our class got an interview set up with her. That will probably give us the most publicity for the Art Auction, and the community class in general.

Process

On Friday morning I met with Michelle, Jessie, and Erin to create thank you cards for the artist’s who donated work to the BICAS auction. Our plan was to make post cards out of index cards with rubber block printed designs on the front. I have never done block printing before and did not feel creative enough to make my own block to print. I ended up printing “thank you” blocks that Casey had lent us to use. After Michelle’s demo of how a print is made, we rapidly began printing. We quickly realized that the “thank you” block I was printing was a little too plane and impersonal, so Michelle carved a bike wheel block as the rest of us continued printing. Then we placed the wheel between the “thank” and the “you” and the cards looked great! I think it was a great idea for use to make these cards for the artist’s, and hopefully it will encourage them to submit work again next year. It was a fun and easy thing that we did to help BICAS with little need of assistance or instruction from them. Hopefully we will be able to obtain the list of donators soon so we can begin to write the thank you notes and send them out shortly after the auction. Ihad fun learning this new technique!

Photos from the Green Up Your Wallet and Jewelry Mechanics workshops

Jewelry Mechanics

Friday, I taught my workshop. At first, no one showed up, so that was disappointing. Then about half way through, 3 people came, a mom and her 2 daughters. I felt kinda stressed trying to help the two young girls. I had to go back and forth between the two showing them what to do, and helping them do it. I also had to think on my toes of how to do the specific jewelry that they wanted to make. Over all, it was a very rewarding process and I had a lot of fun! I will post some pictures later tonight! :-D

MMM Money!

Radical Printmaking
Justseeds A Pittsburgh-based design collective brings together a group of North American artists to tackle various political issues through remarkable prints and design.

This week the Grant Writing Team gathered valuable information from the class about materials needed to make the workshops even more successful. It feels good to be supporting our own class and BICAS simultaneously! We've seen examples of successful grants that Marissa has composed, and we can use those as a guide when writing our own.

We are going to include monies for scholarships for workshops to kids that might not have the money to attend and subsidies to the instructors to make workshops more affordable. Now that we have a materials list, we can make a budget that is specific down to the dollar. We have to show how these funds will support Wells Fargo's philanthropic goals of supporting lower income neighborhoods so we might be able to use the statistics gathered from last year's grant team to highlight this. It seems like every year the grant teams build on the past work of the last year's team. If we keep this up, we can provide a guide for next year's teams to be even more successful!

Workshops, workshops, workshops

The last two weeks have been very busy. Last week Shantaye, Michelle and I had our mobile workshop. Michelle was a lot of help helping us gather information for the mobilesI went last Thursday to create a mobile before the workshop as an example. It was one of the first times I was able to simply hang out in the art area and look at all the parts. I was a little overwhelmed at first but as I walked around and started picking up the pieces I began to feel better. Soon I was able to put together pieces to make a mobile. The next day was the workshop. At first I was a little nervous because there wasn't a lot of people there. After a little a couple more people started to show up and we were lucky to have Dr. Garbers husband come and show us his bike art. He makes some amazing belts. Although there weren't a lot of people at the workshop I thought it was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed watching everyone take different objects and put them together. Its interesting to see how people go about making art.

The next week was the mall workshop. On Monday I went to pick up the table and kit at BICAS. Casey was very excited to show me all the new art work that they were getting in and how the gallery was coming. You could see she was getting very excited about the auction although she also seemed a little nervous. I made a bracelet out of bike tubes that night and although it didn't come out that great it was definitely a good experience.

I thought the second mall workshop was a lot better then the first one. I thought we got a lot more attention from the people on the mall and a lot more people came and made art. I think overall it was a lot more successful then the last one. I think art auction group needs to sit down and look at what made this one work better. To me it just seemed like the day but maybe other people had other ideas.

a semi final blogger reflection

This week the art auction group completed the last of our workshops/activities related to soliciting artwork for the auction itself. On Friday (the 12th) Shantaye, Emma, and Michelle hosted the mobile workshop at BICAS. I went, in hopes to make a mobile, but became artistically frustrated and made nothing. I was however excited when my friend Mitch came by (he got the facebook invitation, go facebook!!) and it was great to see him collaborate with Val’s son Farrell to make a bull head sculpture. Both he and Farrell were very excited about it.


Additionally, Dr. Garber’s husband Roy came by and showed us some very interesting things that he had made out of recycled bike parts (including the FANTASTIC roller skate). It was nice to share with a more experienced bike-artist and his talk got me thinking a bit about the workshops overall (and the average low attendance). I wonder if the workshops may have been more successful if they were marketed to local artists in Tucson as a kind of work/share experience. Additionally, if we had had outside artists come in to facilitate the workshops perhaps they might have drawn a different (and larger) audience. Although I wasn’t successful in making a mobile, I had fun spending time with everyone and also had the chance to chat with Casey about our potential roles at the auction itself. This was super helpful information to have and I was able to share it with the whole group on Thursday.


On Tuesday we had our second mall workshop. Erin found an excellent design for weaving with bike inner tubes online and we made bracelets, headbands, and belts. Her and Emma prepared the art materials for the workshop and came prepared with samples and templates. Shantaye took on the role of flyer queen and distributed the art auction flyers to the rest of the class to pass out. I think that this equal distribution of art creation and promotion was a good decision. Hopefully we gathered some new attendees for the auction.


We also had TWO people come by and participate who were in no way connected to the class. This was especially exciting. Although the art that they made was not perfect, I think that the experience of them making art with us and using the bike parts was important. Casey mentioned that she appreciated our presence and the act of the community based art itself more so than the art created – the good old process vs. product debate. In retrospect, because simply the act of creation and visible promotion of BICAS as an arts organization seemed to be what was important, perhaps this kind of workshop would be better suited for an alternate committee in the future – perhaps outreach, as that is really what it was!

As this is our final blog entry, our upcoming work with the auction itself will not be documented, but I expect that it will be fun, exciting, and lots of hard work. I am super excited about the culmination of all of our work thus far and feel that the auction will help complete the circle of our collaboration with BICAS and Casey. Below is the photo that I plan to donate to the auction!

Productive day at BICAS

Today I walked into BICAS to see Lauren and Marcy setting up their tables with supplies and handouts with excitment, determination, and with smiles on their faces. Since I felt they were confident enough to start their first days teaching, I took the opportunity to speak with Val and Casey about our workshop during the art auction. We squared away the artmaking activities and that the workshop should be the second day of the auction. We also squared away the final 3-D metal workshop on Dec. 10th and that there wouldn't be any future workshops until the beginning of January. So our committee will hold a meeting to decide how to promote BICAS workshops for 2011 during the art auction.

I have to say a big thank you to Shana who helped Marcy and Lauren with some of the artmaking and bike materials. Almost halfway through the workshop a nice family came to check out BICAS and I invited them to make some art. They had a great time and the facilitators did an excellent job at assiting in the creative process.

The little girl in the photo above giggled as she wore her new earings, she said they felt funny.

Oh yeah, I started making my first wallet (below). I didn't quite finish it yet.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.....

Today, Erin, Sarah, Jessie, and I made thank you cards for BICAS to give to artists who donate work to the auction.  Erin and Jessie both carved lovely bike-related designs and we all printed them.  The cards looked really great, and I think it will be nice for the artists to receive a handmade card.  I had a great time printing the cards and was surprised by how quickly we were able to print them.  It was also a great way for us to get to know each other better and is a testament to how art can create community. 

FINALLY!

Today was my first workshop! I facilitated the "Green Up Your Wallet" workshop using bike innertubes to create awesome recycled wallets.

In preparing for the workshop, I created my very first lesson plan as well as step by step visuals to help me demonstrate as well as help those visual learners get the hang of it!

Today was so exciting! It was the first workshop I have been able to attend-due to my work schedule. The tables were covered with supplies for making the wallets as well as Lauren's jewelry making workshop and there was tons of people working on their bikes.

Angie and Val ( who are the facilitators of our group and are so super awesome!) came and showered us with support and positive energy!

We had little activity-other than our own creations and bouncing new ideas off one another--stop by our workshop. There was in fact, one family who came and Lauren and I were able to offer more individualistic attention. I was able to show one "student" how to make a wallet. He wasn't excited at first, then I showed them the visuals I had created. (I think he thought we were making purses! :) )

He was a natural! I decided last minute to just hand sew the inner tubes together, rather than getting out the sewing machines. It worked out just as well. As I was helping him understand the technique, it was hard for me to not just do it for him... to just let him get his own flow and rhythm. I caught myself a couple times underestimating him-just thinking to myself that he probably doesn't know how to tie that knot, etc... However, I stopped myself and let him do it! Over time he told me he was in high school-just a freshman and loves BMX bikes...

In the end he created an awesome wallet! He was teaching me techniques!

I also got to make this super awesome necklace!

The Last Stretch

These past two weeks have really determined the overall end goal of the grant writing group. After running into issues writing a grant specifically for BICAS, it was decided that we write a grant for our class to help BICAS instead when we met Nov 9th at Epic Cafe. This came as relief for the group as writing on behalf of BICAS was difficult from the perspective of students coming into the group from the outside. With Marissa’s help, we are very hopeful about writing a grant for the class and BICAS to utilize in future classes that may help with future success. As such, we are compiling the information we need to put together in the writing. This weekend Heidi and I have decided to gather pricing information on the materials that the outreach and art auction groups had wanted but didn’t necessarily have this semester. On Tuesday, the group will be meeting at Bentley’s to collect our information and sit down and start/rewrite the grant. Thanks Marissa for all your wonderful help and encouragement!

Week of the 22nd Goals

This coming week is all about the written reflection. I’ve only started working on the first paragraph, so I’ll really need to continue working on it little by little; even if I can only do a few sentences a night. Every little bit will help the process along. I’m wondering if we have to turn in a copy of our lesson plans for Documentation as well. My group still is unsure if and when I should teach another workshop, but we’ll see.

Auction time!

I am awed by the many wonderful workshops

and the fine teaching that I have witnessed over the past few weeks! 

My family and I have had a great time at every workshop that we attended...

But now the time has come to transition to preparation for the art auction workshop. 

This evening I went to BICAS to pick up several inner tubes that, over the next couple of days, Angie and I will cut, clean, mark and perforate.  We are doing this to prepare pre-fab wallets for the art action workshop on Sunday evening.  We anticipate a large gathering but have little idea of how many children will be present.  I am looking forward to it.



This week the art auction group had another mall workshop where we made headbands and bracelets out of tire parts again.  It was a smaller event when compared to the first one that we did, but I think it was easier to handle and organize this time.  I was at the table giving out information about BICAS to anyone who wanted to know and I feel that this time a lot more people were interested in who we were and what we were doing.  We also had people pass out fliers and post fliers around campus, to help put to word out.  Today Erin,Sarah, Michelle, and I made thank you cards for BICAS with bike themes.  They were fun to make and I think they will really like them.  Now that all of our projects are done for our group we are now getting closer to our main event... the auction! It will be crazy and there is a ton of work to do, but with team work and a good attitude we will get it done! Go Team!

Workshops and Thank You Cards!

This week was very busy with preparation for the auction! Tuesday was another UA Mall workshop day and it went smoothly as planned. The activity for this workshop was making accessories out of tire tubes. This time we were cutting shapes and templates to create chains. They were really easy, anyone could do it! We made headbands and bracelets. Along with running the workshop, we had the class pass out and hang fliers for the auction itself all over campus! People seemed to be interested in what we were doing. There was even a couple of people who sit with us and made a bracelet or two! Another activity that we did this week to get prepared for the auction is we made thank you cards today! Michelle, Jessie, Sarah and I were block printing our wonderful creations to send out to all the artists that donated to the auction. They came out really well! Even though they aren't perfect I feel like it gives a homemade feel to it. We are sending love and appreciation!

"Community-Based Research is on a Roll" (for Angie!)

In the past two weeks our group has prepped for and facilitated two workshops, one at BICAS and one on the UA Mall:

The BICAS workshop was on mobile making, co-facilitated by Shantaye and Emma. I was hoping to upload my "fancy" video of this workshop, but it seems to be too big...


We also had a special guest speaker, Roy Pearson, who showed us some examples of his own personal work with bike parts. Roy spoke about craftsmanship, bike part knowledge, and marketing. That, knowledge of the bike parts lends to identification with the biking community and to greater imagination of what the parts can be made into. If you know what the bike parts do or how they fit together, you can use that in your work. Thinking within the materials will allow you to create works for a larger audience.

While I attended the workshop for support of fellow group members, I have not found the environment at BICAS conducive to art-making – there are too many things to listen to and look at and I get distracted by what else is happening in the shop. So, I busied myself with promotions.

Casey expressed a desire for greater promotions of the Friday workshops and the need for more flyering and word-of-mouth promotions for the auction. I took a stack of flyers for our group to distribute and Troy gave me an updated version of his distribution list. I also offered to help contact some local news organizations and Casey gave me the names of three printed sources, “Artes sin Fronteras,” “Tucson Green Times,” and “’N Touch.”

About a week ago, I contacted friends La Monica Everett-Haynes and Will Holst at UA News to run a story on our class’s collaboration with BICAS. So far so good: a photographer from UA News came to the mall workshop and La Monica is setting up times to conduct phone interviews with students early next week.

The second mall workshop went very well. Our group decided that we would invite classmates to either be a part of the art-making activity, creating headbands and bracelets, or pass out flyers for BICAS on the mall, helping with promotions. I joined the latter activity, hanging flyers in near-by buildings and spreading the word about BICAS verbally.

I was hoping to help Casey with a draft of her donations/solicitation letter this week, but so far, we have not connected. Ultimately, the plan was to use the list of shops Emma had collected to solicit for future workshop/art supplies.

Next Up - Art Auction run-down: Understanding our role.

Mobiles and Mall

Last Friday, the Art Auction group had our mobile workshop at BICAS.  Emma, Shantaye, and I facilitated.  The attendance was not as good as at the jewelry workshop, but a few people trickled in later.  We are grateful to our class members who came! 

Emma and Shantaye both made incredible mobile examples and gave great demonstrations.  The participants seemed to enjoy the workshop and we received some wonderful donations. 

Tuesday was our last UA mall workshop.  I was happy to see a couple of non-class members sit down and join us in making bracelets and wallets.  In addition to gathering artwork donations, we also spread the word about the auction and BICAS in general.   

Today was our second workshop on the mall. It seemed as though many more people stopped to inquire about BICAS and the workshop than previously. I think our simple set up (with only one table instead of three) was more effective andconcise. The project was also simplified, yet moreopen ended at the same time. We made bracelets, headbands, and belts out of bike inner tubes. There was no sewing necessary (simplifying the supplies) although some needles and thread were provided.Erin, Shana, and Emma brought examples, templates, and inspirational photographs. We discovered that if the figure eights were cutlarger and from the thicker rubber they would lay flatter. I made a bracelet using the template and tied a bike part at the end to toggle through a hole on the opposite end. People that did not have time to participate seemed intrigued by the idea and surprised that BICAS even had an art sector. Both non-participants and thosethat stopped to make something seemed interested in joining the Friday workshops. People were also excited about the auction and it helped to have the action flyers this times. The majority of people that stopped by and took a look at the items on the table commented on the stickers we had laying out. Most people thought they were really funny and would read them aloud to their friends.

Meetings and New Directions

The grant group has a new direction that I think we are all excited about. After having a few meetings, our group has come to the consensus that we will write a grant for the next ARE 420/520 class to help with the costs of running workshops. I feel good about this direction because I feel more informed about our class, and more confident in being able to articulate what we need, versus articulating the needs of BICAS. It makes a big difference being part of the group we are writing for instead of being outsiders. Working through the Research part of the CRAFT method, by interviewing people and finding out what is important to them, in preparation for writing the grant is an important step, and writing for the class will allow us to do this part. It’s neat to be able to have a dialogue with our fellow classmates, and I look forward to hearing about what everyone has experienced and what they feel would make the workshops even more successful for the next class.

The grant group has planned to ask the other groups for feedback on Thursday, and we have scheduled a meeting for next Tuesday to continue writing the grant to reflect our new goals.

Week of the 15th Goal

Mainly, I'm trying to work on my written reflection and getting my hours of experience in. I'm hopefully going to BICAS this Friday and really that's all that I need to do. I'm thinking about teaching another workshop at BICAS for the hours also so I have more to write about in my reflection. We'll see!