Make/Believe

SHADOW SHOW

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 Nov 2018 18:54:00 +0000

Art Brains "Shadow Show"! at Bradley Hills from ART BRAINS on Vimeo.

Some scenes from the Art Brainers' efforts to tell visual stories with light and shadow this Fall season. Astronaut puppies, aliens, and a new world discovered through a portal in outer space!

2018: AN ESCAPE VELOCITY

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 17:33:00 +0000

We had so much fun at this year's Escape Velocity, hosted by the Museum of Science Fiction! Art Brains was on site creating dioramas of imagined landscapes on other planets (and our very own moon), with kids stopping by making aliens, spaceships, other-worldly trees, mountains, houses, planets, and more. By the end of each day, our dioramas were overflowing with said contributions, which we then photographed and transferred to the magical green screen so that kids could take their pictures INSIDE the worlds they helped build.

We also received visits from R2D2 and Chewbacca, got to talk to NASA scientists and Klingons, see reproductions of ships, space pods and other props from movies like Star Wars, 2001: A Space Oddyssey, Ghost Busters, and Dune, learn about 3D-printing, watch science films inside an inflatable planetarium dome, and *lots* more!

Here are some snaps from the weekend. Thanks to everyone who stopped by, we can't wait for next year!

ART BRAINS AT ESCAPE VELOCITY + discount code!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 13:35:00 +0000

We are thrilled to announce Art Brains will be at Escape Velocity this year, May 26 - 27th at the National Harbor (Oxon Hill, MD)*! What is Escape Velocity, you ask?

Escape Velocity is a futuristic world’s fair to promote STEAM education within the context of science fiction using the fun of comic cons and fascination of science and engineering festivals. Escape Velocity's mission is to attract young people to science, technology, engineering, art, and math by producing and presenting the most compelling, exciting, educational, and entertaining science festival in the United States using science fiction as its primary engine.

This three day event will be jam packed with scientists, engineers, writers, filmmakers, costumes, technology, games, movies, simulations, exhibits, talks, workshops, activities, a museum display of iconic movie props, costumes and models, not to mention a life-size Millennium Falcon cockpit (!!!) So many incredible opportunities for STEAM learning and inspiration for both kids and adults!

Art Brains will have a booth of our own on Saturday and Sunday where we'll be doing one of our favorite activities - imagining and fabricating new worlds with creative kids. Dioramas of kid-made, sci-fi landscapes will be transformed into life-size interactive green screen imagery. Come build worlds with us, and then see yourself step into those worlds!

Kids 10 and under get in FREE, but must be accompanied by an adult

>>>>Use the discount code ARTBRAINS20 to get 20% off your ticket order, here <<<<

and click here to explore the Escape Velocity events page

Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated into the awesomeness of Escape Velocity. Get your discounted tickets now and get psyched!!

THEMES FOR WINTER 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 27 Jan 2016 19:51:00 +0000

With many schools in the DC/metro area closed since the snow started last Friday, Winter has undoubtedly come. And with it, our Winter Art Brains session, including subjects of exploration such as:

- the mysteries of dark matter
- Valentine candies for storybook characters
- daguerreotyping
- journeys to the center of the Earth and
- Medieval tapestries, to adorn and insulate our castle walls against the chill of the season!

Here's to school weeks that start on Thursdays, the make-up classes that result, and...unicorns. !

MUSIC FOR PLANTS (AND ANIMALS)!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Nov 2015 21:31:00 +0000

Edward Hicks, Peaceable Kingdom, oil on canvas, 1837

One of our favorite projects this season was aural in nature - nature being a key word! For the first time in our after school program, the Art Brainers used a strictly musical approach in their art making. They were asked to imagine what kind of music plants, animals, and other elements of nature might like, and how that music might sound different from our own. Would a squirrel like to listen to wild, crazy music, or soothing sounds like wind blowing through the leaves of a tree? What kind of sounds might make a cactus feel happy? Each class used some instruments and their own hands and voices to compose and perform songs for a few select creatures. You can listen to some examples of the results below.

These have not been market tested just yet, but I can say that my cat jumped up and exited the room upon hearing a number of these, so I'm thinking we've accomplished *something*, though that something may not be for cats. ("Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable," etc.)

And because hearing the kids' voices introducing each of the songs was killing me with cuteness, I couldn't resist collecting a bunch of those in one place, too.

Click "Read more" below to take a listen to the Art Brains kids' awesome tunes, and report back if your pet electric eel is into it!

Music for electric eels (blub blub)

Shark Mountain (a mountain island guarded by sharks). Sounds of wind and waves punctuated with menace and concluded with chomping.

A song for a cricket, and one for a gerbil.

Venus fly traps. Bzzz

A song about water.

Song for birds and a song for crazy dogs!

A song for whales.

Collection of kid song intros!

GHOST BUSTERS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 14:37:00 +0000

In years past, in the spirit of Halloween, we've made haunted house videos, ghost pizza, and Jekyll & Hyde masks.This year, we're back on the haunted house kick again, but in illustration form and with a neat trick (or really, just some basic physics) to accompany it. Kids made mixed media haunted house drawings in which the house haunters only become clearly visible with the use of our "ghost goggles" (aka red filter glasses!). The kids drew their creeps lightly in cool colors, and made them "invisible" by coloring over them completely with warm colors. When looking through the red glasses, the warm colors get filtered out, while the previously latent ghouls suddenly pop out and become more visible. A handy tool that the Art Brains Ghost Busters WILL be using to identify inconspicuous monsters this Halloween. So, watch out, creeps - we see you!

Thanks to Ellen, one of our outstanding Art Brains teachers, for contributing photos to this post!

THEMES FOR FALL 2015!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 17:31:00 +0000

Microscopic diatoms! Image via

I still have photos from *last* school year that I'd like to share on our little blog, but in the meantime, the Fall 2015 season of Art Brains is in full effect! This season, students will:

- create "micro zoos" filled with amazing "microscopic" organisms
- make fantasy trading cards
- craft "secret garden" diorama scenes that will be viewable only through small peepholes
- compose and record music for plants and animals
- fabricate kits of wizard's tools for working magic
- design flags for invented countries and...
- more!

We are so happy to be growing and working with more schools this season than ever, and I look forward to posting more amazing work by the Art Brainers here again soon!

COSTUME PARTY

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 17:32:00 +0000

This Spring, one of our favorite projects has been one students display on their actual person: wearable costume art. After discussing the idea of costumes as art and considering sources of inspiration like theater and film costumes, Halloween costumes, and of course Nick Cave's celebrated sound suits, the kids set to work designing costumes for invented characters, attaching fabric, paper, ribbon, pom-poms, felt, and other materials to a plastic poncho base. They were challenged to try to transform the poncho into their character as much as possible in the short time they had, and I was so impressed with how creative they were with the materials at their disposal.

One of my favorite moments during this project was when I overheard one student say to another, "You know what I love about this class? You can throw out ideas," meaning the kids are allowed and encouraged to suggest, discuss, and attempt new, exciting, and even strange ideas in the course of our projects. That melted my heart a little, since it's exactly the kind of environment we hope to foster with these classes! It's also one of the most fun aspects of teaching for me - when I'm excited to go to class to work with kids who feel like collaborators and buddies who are excited to see what they can problem-solve and create from scratch, and the whole room feels like a crazy experimental lab with scraps of color accumulating everywhere.

In addition to the actual creation of the costumes, some students also found time to work together on mini plays, which they performed in costume for fellow students and parents. These tended to be funny because, duh, kids are hilarious! Check out the pictures below - a few costumes including fantastical birds, dark wizards, living artworks, and lots more. One kindergartner originally told me she was going to make a "tongue" costume, but changed her mind and made an animal costume instead. I will always wonder how that might have turned out!

MOONSTRUCK!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 15:27:00 +0000

This Winter season, the Art Brains students have been dabbling in lunar geology. Each class spends a little time discussing the history of rock and soil samples collected from the moon and what those samples have told us. Then, they work on ~~creating~~ collecting and studying their own lunar specimens, which are placed on special rock stands and accompanied by detailed information cards. In this small sampling pictured here, you will find specimens formed from crystals, Oreos, fossils, dust, and pizza. There is a moon dragon egg, and a sorcerer's moon rock (whose discovery came at a high cost!). A number of other samples, discovered during this project and having traveled over 200,000 miles to be carefully examined in our lab, reveal that the moon is indeed at least partially made of cheese. I think we've all suspected as much in our heart of hearts, and as much is true in one of my favorite Italo Calvino stories, The Distance to the Moon, which, as it turns out, can be read online right here.

CRYSTAL VISIONS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 13 Jan 2015 18:20:00 +0000

Many profound and uncanny acts of scrying were witnessed this past Fall during the Art Brains Crystal Ball project, in which students pretended they had the ability to foretell the future by gazing into their own "crystal" orbs. Behind each crystal ball (aka plastic lid!), was a spinning paper wheel that could be turned to reveal various illustrated future scenarios. In the little gif below, behold: visions of thunderstorms and roller coasters!

THEMES FOR WINTER 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 16:09:00 +0000

We still have more projects from our Fall season to share, but our Winter session is already underway! Themes will include:

- Moon rocks
- Shadow Theaters

- Interactive Labyrinths to contain mythical creatures (a la the Greek myth of the Labyrinth

and the minotaur) moved by magnets!

- Tumbleweed Dreams

- Fictional Photo Albums

- Layer Cake (which has to do with re-inventing the layers of a planet)

- Collaborative city planning

- and more!

HOUSES FOR MOUSES

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 18:59:00 +0000

When I was a pre-schooler, I remember taking some kind of pre-kindergarten ability assessment test. Countless hours spent drawing and playing with little figurines and toys that I set up in miniature abodes meant I had fine motor skills that were well above average. I was, however, pathetically lacking in the area of gross motor skills. I remember having a ball thrown at me (to catch) and my response being something like, "Umm, what's happening? Why?" Sadly, my athletic prowess did not increase much after that time, but my love of arranging tiny little things remained, and is present in one of this season's projects, A House for a Mouse.

After talking about personification, the Art Brainers used clay, boxes, paper, fabric, and other materials to create cozy little homes for mice, turtles, snakes, hermit crabs, fairies, ducks and other small critters. They were asked to consider what a personified animal might want or need in a home, hence the long skinny beds for snakes, nest alcoves, mini ponds, and the cheese safe pictured above. I love when the kids make projects with which they can also play, and these definitely fit that bill. Long live tiny little homes for tiny little things!

A family of hermit crabs tucked into bed ^

A little living room pond for a turtle (left) and cheese wallpaper for a mouse (right)

That's an open fridge on the left with a fish in it, for the cat sleeping upstairs.

Thanks to teaching artist Naomi for contributing some pictures to this post!

THANKSGIVING ON MARS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 16:42:00 +0000

At Make/Believe, we are all about weird food (see also: this and this). This season, we brought back Thanksgiving on Mars, which asks students to imagine what a big feast would look like on an alien planet. As you can see, this year's intergalactic spread includes bubble soup, smooshed snake, a pretzel man, lizard meat, and sooooo many eyeballz! YUM. Happy Thanksgiving!

FILE UNDER: THINGS WE LOVE HEARING

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 17:07:00 +0000

Unrelated artwork by Shaun O'Dell

This recent note from a parent completely made our day!:

"I want to say THANK YOU for making this club so fun and exciting. Lilly has never liked art very much...I think because she had fine motor issues when she was younger and she always thought her art work was "bad" so she never wanted to spend any time on art. I signed her up for this club without her even knowing because I was hoping it would make her excited about art. And...it HAS!!! Your project ideas are so creative that she is coming out afterward RAVING about it. She wanted to explain every last detail of her cave drawing to me and was so proud of it. I am so pleased with what you are doing with the kids. Thank you so much!!" - Sarah, parent of Art Brains student

Thank you, Sarah!

CAVE DRAWINGS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 15:19:00 +0000

This Fall, the Art Brainers have been talking a lot about cave drawings, and then imagining what their lives might have been like in prehistoric times. After making lots of different illustrations on crumpled brown paper, and stenciled, spray-painted hand impressions, the kids climb into a dark, makeshift "cave" filled with their work to investigate and discover with flashlights. Below: some photos from this project with a mostly kindergarten-age group.

BOO!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 18:51:00 +0000

"Haunted House" by Murch Elementary students from Make slash Believe on Vimeo.

"Haunted House" by Oyster-Adams Elementary from Make slash Believe on Vimeo.

"Haunted House" by Chevy Chase Elementary from Make slash Believe on Vimeo.

Happy Halloween from Make/Believe! These Art Brains haunted house videos are a couple years old, but no worse for wear.

STORY-TELLING AND MOVIE-MAKING

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 08 Oct 2014 15:52:00 +0000

Action/Adventure - Alice Dreams of Peru from Make slash Believe on Vimeo.

This Fall, Art Brains students will be doing a collaborative project called "Action/Adventure" in which they work together to create and perform mini movie scenes. Check out the adorableness of this abridged version of our first film of the season, above, in a class led by our awesome teaching artist, Eun. It details the dreams of our hero, Alice, finding gold, tripping over an exploding time capsule (which sings "Happy Birthday" when it explodes!), and meeting a talking snowman named Carrots. It is narrated by a talking tree.

OVER THE RAINBOW

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 06 Oct 2014 13:53:00 +0000

As our little company grows, it's getting harder to find time to post about our projects, but the projects are definitely in full swing! This season, we've started out with a project called "Over the Rainbow", as in, "The rainbow? We're so over it!" We aren't, really, but it's been fun to see kids "inventing" their own colors and color sequences, and coming up with creative names for their hues, using imagery-filled house paint names as inspiration. Some students also invented their own rainbow shape, although most of the pictures I have here show some iteration of the classic arch. Finally, some come with facts about how a particular rainbow was formed, as opposed to the standard sunlight-refracted-through-water routine. E.g. rainbows formed when frogs sing, or when candy falls from the sky.

My favorite color names shown here: Grape Tiger, Friend's Money, Monster Glow, Golden Black Trash, Bird Feathers, and The Sssss.

THEMES FOR FALL 2014

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 23 Jul 2014 17:32:00 +0000

Photo by Florian Maier Aichen

Too soon to talk about the upcoming Fall semester? Never! We have a creative season planned for the Art Brainers for Fall 2014, including:

- Action/Adventure movie making
- crystal balls/wheels of fortune
- houses for mouses
- cave drawings to be explored in makeshift caves with flashlights
- neo-rainbow paintings (that's "neo" not "neon"!)
- a Jekyl/Hyde Halloween project
- and "Thanksgiving on Mars" makes a comeback

Projects for the entire year are all planned, and include a couple recurring themes: theaters and/or cinema appears every season (including a "3D movies" project and one called "Shadow Show") as well as some seriously collaborative group projects involving city planning, print making, and art games.

What's up, 2014/2015 school year! We're comin' for you!

Please visit our website to bring an Art Brains program to your school.

POSTCARDS FROM SPACE

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Jul 2014 22:23:00 +0000

Oh, did I forget to mention that the Art Brainers traveled extensively in space this Spring? Well, they did. Here are a few postcards they sent back to Earth from their travels.

We did these early in the season, and I'm hoping kids will have forgotten by about now, so that they're semi-surprised to receive interstellar mail at their homes during summer vacation.

All of the aliens' names are Jimmy.

Too many eyeballs.

From Gumball Planet

TRUE DETECTIVES

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 18 Jun 2014 16:02:00 +0000

L: The Big Questions. R: A student details found evidence.

One of our Spring 2014 Art Brains projects involved playing detective and building "case files" for imagined mysteries. Before my first class worked on this project, I was a little nervous that some kids would be confused about how to formulate their own mystery from scratch, or that I would have to continuously discourage violent themes in their work inspired by TV and movies. I could not have been more wrong. The kids picked this up right away and ran with it (mini magnifying glasses and evidence baggies in hand)! It was so fun to watch them hatch new ideas about clues and suspects, all for totally PG mysteries of their own invention. Here are some snaps of some of the reports, photos, and other evidence gathered in the files. Elementary (school), my dear Watson.

Okay, "Ded pepl" might not be totally PG. That one slipped by me!

A red ghost left behind sooo many red fingerprints. And ghost bread, a big break in this case.

This is cupcake frosting, not blood! It's a cupcake caper.

MINI MUSEUMS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 19:35:00 +0000

"Mini Museums" is one of my very favorite Art Brains projects of the season. After looking at some inspirational pictures and talking about all the different kinds of objects one might find in different museums, each student created his or her own mini museum display case, complete with shelves and labels, and accompanied by detailed informational pamphlets. Take a look at some of the treasures the Art Brainers have invented and presented here!

Left: Is it or is it not? Was this a mermaid's bra? Which is Anne Frank's diary? Is this a spoon from the Titanic? Is this a unicorn's horn?

Right: "Taylor Swift wore this necklace. Katy Perry ate off of this plate."

This display case commemorates various surprising and untimely deaths of earthworms. Yep.

Thanks so much to teaching artist Eun Jeon for contributing pictures to this post! Eun is a talented graphic designer, and is on her way to North Korea for a summer internship at a non-profit that advocates for human rights there. Best of luck Eun, we'll be thinking about you!

PINTERESTED: CHARLES BURCHFIELD

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 14 May 2014 16:31:00 +0000

A 2010 Charles Burchfield article in the New York Times, and more on Make/Believe's Pinterest page.

STORY FORT

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 05 May 2014 15:45:00 +0000

Last Spring, we told campfire stories, and this Spring, we're story fortin': using story spinner wheels, the Art Brains kids are working together to weave random spins into elaborate stories while huddled together in bed sheet forts. This has been nothing but bigtime fun so far, and I wish I had audio recordings of the kids talking and getting psyched about new ideas for our tales. The latter have thus far included classes living in giant underwater castles in swimming pools in the middle of the desert, flying sharks, magic booby-trapped gardens, and lots more.

MORE HYBRID CREATURES

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 17:18:00 +0000

Newly released information about the slugcheetah, gregiesna, shreins, and tarantula stingray.