During the fall of 2010 and spring of 2011, I represented Global Kids in a collaborative project with the members of the Isamu Noguchi Museum’s Teen Advisory Board [TAB] to create a digital media project in conjunction with their work as youth emissaries for the museum and Isamu Noguchi’s singular artistic vision.
In partnership with the Noguchi’s head of education, Rebecca Herz and with support from other education staff members, I worked with TAB members to research and assess their options for creating a digital media project to attract youth visitors to the museum. Opting for an online video that would not interfere with the experience onsite, the students created “An Oasis in Astoria.” The video, which premiered at an event the Youth produced for teens from neighboring high schools, features pictures chosen by TAB from the museum’s photo archive. The audio was collected in interviews the TAB members conducted with one another about their experience of Noguchi’s work and the inspiration they draw from the museum and its community.
Barry Joseph and myself as well as Rebecca Herz, the education director of the Noguchi Museum, and Pamela, a high school senior who is a member of TAB, discussed our work together with digital media, open-ended projects and choice making in arts education at the February, 2011 Face to Face Conference in a panel titled “Who Decides? Students and Choicemaking”.
Here’s some footage of the talk compiled by Juan Rubio from Global Kids.
For more info on the project, here is an additional “Voicethread” I created about the project for my use in the classroom with other teens. It offers some great pictures of the TAB students in action as well as my reflections on the project, albeit in a classroom-oriented tone.
