During The NEST Residency, artists use adaptive facilitation to engage students in a collective story about the illusive Creature that comes to life through storytelling and art making, such as drawing, creative writing, collage, and 3D sculpture construction. Through this story, students will:

Explore identity and honor intersectional identities
Use placemaking as a tool to celebrate and deepen student’s connection with their school and neighborhood
Increase socio-emotional awareness around ideas of personal safety, welcoming others, and belonging
Encourage students to welcome difference and support those in need
Collaborate with others around a shared goal
Build fine motor skills and creativity through open-ended art making

The residency includes 3 sessions.

Session 1: Story introduction and giant map making
Session 2: Clue exploration and Creature identity building
Session 3: Art making and helping others

Prior to sessions

As a way to build intrigue, Teaching Artists will add “clues and artifacts” around the school campus prior to the first session. Clues include postcards from various places, found 2D media, and symbols that comprise the Creature’s language.

Session 1

Objectives:

To introduce the idea of a migrating Creature coming to Chelsea Heights
Create collective maps exploring students community

By this point, students will hopefully notice little clues around their campus, sparking their imagination. This first session is a chance to officially introduce students to the story of the Creature. Through a rich discussion and brainstorm process, the class compiles information and discusses clues they’ve seen around, which often creates quite a bit of excitement. Then, students are presented with a letter from the Creature letting students know they’re new to the area and they need help.

Students break into small groups to create giant collective maps that help the Creature know their neighborhood better. This placemaking allows young people to explore assets of their own communities while helping a newcomer feel more welcome and oriented to a new area. Students are asked to keep their eyes and ears open for clues until the next session.

Session 2

Objectives:

Explore clues around the space to better understand the Creature

More clues have popped up around the school! And as students enter the room, they notice something different- there’s a huge structure! Students are introduced to the Creature’s NEST. It’s a sparsely decorated structure with 3 walls of netting. There are clues in the space either hanging or in suitcases on the floor. The students notice there’s a new letter from the Creature thanking them for the maps they’ve made to help them navigate the neighborhood.

This session, students are working in pairs or individually to make Creature Profiles. Knowing the Creature needs help, these Creature Profiles allow students to better understand the creature to know the best ways to help. Students have bins on their tables with a variety of 2-D and 3-D clues they can use to start their profiles. They are encouraged to include questions, facts, hypotheses, guesses and drawings including portraits of the Creature, maps of where you saw clues, recreations of clues. In small groups, students are allowed to explore the NEST further as they build their profiles.

Students love to explore the clues and naturally begin building a narrative about the Creature. Through this problem solving process, students often work together without prompting. Conflict can arise when students disagree, but we see it as an amazing learning opportunity to let students explore what it’s like to hold differing opinions in a respectful way.

Redefining playful art in public spaces

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