For the readers
Not everybody can afford to travel to Africa to help starving kids and develop water solutions. Sometimes my school acts like it's the only way we can make a difference. I think if we want to change the world there are plenty of things we can start with locally. Often when we do try to help out for local organizations we are tasked to do things that make us question how much we are really making a difference...but of course we never really say anything because then it would make us seem selfish we aren't doing something cooler. Well, why not?
I've been to many non profit organizations where I was asked to pick up trash or do something that seems much more like I am covering somebody's shift than the actual work I signed up for.
My school, Art Center College of Design, had a volunteer day on May 17th and I signed up for it. There were many different locations but I chose the boys and girls club because I thought it would be fun to work with the students there. A few other Art Center students who also attended felt the same way. When we arrived, everybody was gone except for a few staff members and we were asked to organize their attic for 4 hours.We were reminded every hour what a difference we were making and in my head I was trying to convince myself that was the case. All of us are busy, as much as we would love to change the world and make some sort of difference, we just don't have the time to spend researching where to go to do so. We would expect that our schools provide us with the proper platforms to help in ways that utilize our skill sets. Again, there has to be other options besides travelling across the world when there can be things we can help out with locally. I suppose it's that American mentality.
We are artists and designers. Thinkers and creators. As students with limited resources, there needs to be an easy and accessible platform for us to use when we want to work with our communities on creative projects. Unfortunately, there is too much red tape and politics to hurdle through first. When I first reached out to school officials to develop a platform for artists to work with local organizations, I was told that Art Center does not really do probono work. I understand, top tier school, students should only align themselves with large organizations. I had to argue that this was hardly probono but more of a cause to create social impact. Yeah, we're not solving hunger or developing clean water but we are starting a cause: to create an easily accessible outreach program through art. No red tape, just ideas. So I just called the Boys and Girls club and told them what I had in mind. They asked for a specific plan of how this would be implemented. At first, I had no idea...then I realized that it had to be start small with a few students with a big idea. I spent the summer developing a program that would allow students from different disciplines at Art Center to come together as a team to utilize their skill sets and teach these students through a themed curriculum.
The goal of the class was to inspire students at a young age to use their imagination. To create and know that there are no limits to what they can do. With a zero budget, I thought the world of Harry Potter would give them that platform as everything in it is fantastical. I chose Diagon Alley because it was complex yet small enough to allow every student to focus on one store and also allow Art Center students to teach them something different. The prompt created a scenario that continued the storyline from the last film after Diagon Alley was destroyed. In the workshop, a new Diagon Alley would be developed with 10 empty stores, each with a concept that needed to be designed. The specific plan was then to have them develop a special key moment using physical models within the store. After a week, everything would be presented in a final showing to all parents and the local community. This was the starting point.
In order to make this first project work, I needed to assemble a strong team of creative thinkers from different specialties. Specifically, I first reached out to Art Center film makers The Next Level Brothers and their club UNITY which was all about bringing together the community through film. Their passion for doing so made them the perfect group to work on this project. They had an idea to turn one of the store concepts into a short film to show at the final presentation. The short film taught students about working together as a team. I also worked closely with product designer Vanessa Shababzedeh whom, without her, this project would never have happened. She developed many items and provided many great ideas for how certain things could be implemented.
Leo Su from Art Center's Environmental Design program worked with a team of 4 fellow Env students that included Jessica Ravanio (who was once also product design), Sean Chen, and his girlfriend. Together they taught students how to visualize their designs and get inspired about the potentials that lie ahead. With the first one complete, the plan now is to allow any student from Art Center with a plan to develop the programs they want to develop. No red tape, just ideas.
Leo Su from Art Center's Environmental Design program worked with a team of 4 fellow Env students that included Jessica Ravanio (who was once also product design), Sean Chen, and his girlfriend. Together they taught students how to visualize their designs and get inspired about the potentials that lie ahead. With the first one complete, the plan now is to allow any student from Art Center with a plan to develop the programs they want to develop. No red tape, just ideas.
The Process
