Our 2014 Summer ARTventures classes ended in a flash of clever creations.  During our final week of class, we looked at a variety of artworks that allowed us to compare and contrast concepts like realism and abstraction, and two-dimensional and three-dimensional art.

To help drive these ideas home, we challenged our ARTventurers to a Creativity Challenge in the Art Museum’s galleries.  Each small group was tasked with transforming a two-dimensional painting into a three-dimensional sculpture using only the following materials: pipe cleaners, Popsicle sticks, art wire, tissue paper, and aluminum foil.  Since we were in the galleries, the groups were not able to use scissors or glue—instead; they had rubber bands and binder clips to fasten their creations together

I love Creativity Challenges because they build teamwork skills; people have to work together to complete the task.  These challenges also help us to refine our problem-solving and creative thinking skills.  It can be daunting to think about how you’re going to construct a vase out of paper and Popsicle sticks.  But our groups discovered that a binder clip could be their best friend for that task—it can both hold the Popsicle sticks, and stand upright!

By far, the painting that caused the biggest challenge was Georges Braque’s Compote, Bread, and Cheese.  Each group got caught up with worrying about not having the right colors of tissue paper to make a loaf of bread or a wedge of cheese.  Each group also felt very strongly that they needed to create a compote that would not only stay balanced, but also hold pieces of fruit.  It was fun to see each group work through their ideas to create their finished artwork.

– Shannon Karol, Assistant Director for Interpretive Programs