One morning, the school opened and was flooded with people once again. Except, this morning, something was different. The halls had been filled with paper sculptures in all shapes, sizes and colors. Taught by visual art instructor Laura Brugere, the Reimagining Spaces Project is a product of the Ceramics/Sculpture I class.
“The project is about much more than creating the art. In a classroom where students are combined ninth through 12th grades, especially in our intro level classes, it’s hard to establish connections with students that might not be in your grade level,” Brugere said.
The assignment is designed to teach the elements and the principles of design and how to use them to create an aesthetically pleasing piece of art with a focal point. A focal point is a point that your eye is drawn to.
“When you look at the designs, your eyes should gravitate towards a central point in each installation. You’ll see [each one has] a central point of focus,” Brugere said.
In this case, the school’s walls and structure are being used as a base. It is a group project, but each student has individual responsibilities.
“[The project] really taught me how to work together with a bigger group,” sophomore Jocelyn Zou said. “Because it’s a bigger group of five people and we had a lot of struggles. [Like,] how we were gonna make our Origami pieces stick to the pole. We had to work through all these problems together and combine our ideas.”
As a solution, everyone in Zou’s group built off a common theme.
“We knew that we wanted to create it around the pole. And one of our group mates was really interested in this piece of origami paper that looked like the sunset, [so] we designed it around that,” Zou said.
Zou and her group’s art can be seen on a pole near the Learning Center . The piece comprises a series of monochromatic origami boxes based on the sunset theme decided on collaboratively by the group.
“It makes the hallway a better environment. It makes it better to be in. It feels a lot less bland and more personalized for students. Being able to display art feels really good. It [makes] the mood of the hallway better,” Zou said.
Zou hopes that her artwork inspires students to come together and create things greater than themselves.
“Our idea was about creating these really simple boxes and then bringing [them] together to make this much more complicated sculpture. [I want the art to] inspire students [to be] able to come together [with] all [the] different skill sets that people have [to] create,” Zou said.
The project filled the halls with more color and life than before. According to Brugere, the feedback on the installation from teachers, students, and parents has been overwhelmingly positive.
“One teacher came up to me and said, ‘Thank you for making the halls less sterile for students.’ Another teacher was so enthusiastic about seeing color coming down the math hallway. I have had parents tell me that I have brought their child closer to the students in the classroom due to the project,” Brugere said. “Hearing that the project established [belonging] in my classroom where they didn’t feel [a] sense of belonging [before] but now [they] do gives me affirmation about the project.”
The three-year-old project requires effort from everyone, but Brugere believes it is well worth it after experiencing the joy it has brought others.
“This project has made me realize that my job is more than just teaching art. If I’m giving students confidence, a safe place to create, [to] take creative risks, and [to establish] lifelong connections with others—that is sometimes more important than the end goal of creating a beautiful piece of art,” Brugere said.
The projects will stay up until they fall into disrepair. How long until this happens depends on how well they were installed and the traffic near the sculpture.
“I believe that this project has reinforced what I know is true about art. [That it] can bring people together and help create a place of belonging—a community,” Brugere said.
