This installation of solar powered lanterns was created as part of a yearlong after school program I co-designed and lead with Hester Street Collaborative, a community-based organization that supports and empowers local and new-immigrant community members on the Lower East Side to participate in the design of their public spaces.
In celebration of Chinese New Year our 6th and 7th grade students at MS131 in lower Manhattan completed an ambitious, multi-step design project over the winter of 2010, creating tiger shaped lanterns to decorate Sarah Roosevelt park. Each student had hands on experience with the various stages of production from stenciling, painting and stitching together the weatherproof fabric of the lantern bodies to soldering the solar panel, LED’s and circuitry that illuminated the Tigers at night.
