Armadillo Project has a new mobile home!

Some avid RISD | Public Engagement blog readers might remember the Armadillo Project, an MIT-sponsored repurposing of a FEMA trailer, from the Tricks of the Eye exhibition earlier this spring.

Last week, MIT professor and Armadillo project coordinator Jae Rhim Lee, passed off the keys to the trailer to an AMAZING arts group based out of Pasadena, CA called Side Street Projects. In a nutshell Side Street Projects is a completely-mobile artist-run organization that helps visual artists with a wide array of unusual programs and practical services that help artists roll up their sleeves and do things themselves.

Each year, more than 1,000 children age 5-11 participate in SSP's renowned Woodworking Bus program, which teaches kids how to use tools and create unique objects out of wood. For the grown-ups, they also provide a host of practical support services designed to meet the needs of working artists.

You can follow the Armadillo's journey back to California here. Once it returns the Armadillo will become newest addition to Side Streets fleet of mobile art education classrooms for kids in LA County.

A happy ending to a great piece of public art!

Project Open Door DEEP DOCUMENTATION

THURSDAY, JUNE 18 FROM 5-8PM

at the RISD | Public Engagement Gallery
IN RISD’S CIT BUILDING, 169 WEYBOSETT STREET, 2ND Floor

Project Open Door and RISD | Public Engagement invite you to the opening of DEEP DOCUMENTATION, a multimedia installation by local teaching artist and documentarian Jori Ketten resulting from Ketten's participation in a year-long RISD Project Open Door classroom.

Deep Documentation is funded by the Surdna Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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Contrasting with standard evaluation projects by resisting reduction and simplification, the installation instead provides a textured look at student learning via interactive exhibits, video, and the pairing of text and still images.

What are students really taking away from my classroom?

At the end of the school year, educators around the country are asking themselves this question as summer vacation approaches. Tests, papers, standardized tests, and rubrics help school teachers analyze what students have learned, but questions remain: What did my students deeply absorb? What changed or shifted for them this year? What do they really think about their work, and what are they taking away for the experience of being in my classroom?

The same questions apply for teaching artists working in schools and after-school programs. It's easy to say arts learning is visible. We know when a student enjoys the arts and we can see his or her skills improve. But what else is he getting out of it? What will she remember? What were the bright moments, what stood out? Why? And how do the arts fit into students' lives when they're not in an arts classroom?

A year-long research and documentation project at RISD’s Project Open Door.

During the 2008-2009 school year, teaching artist and documentarian Jori Ketten was invited to RISD's Project Open Door. Ms. Ketten came to class weekly and piloted participatory observation practices in the program's Portfolio 1 class with the goal of helping program staff understand why students come to Project Open Door and what they get out of the experience.

Project Open Door is a free after school art education and college access program aimed at students from low income families attending Rhode Island’s struggling public schools.

Featuring students' own work and words, the installation is the culmination of Ms. Ketten’s research and investigation. Ms. Ketten will also lead a workshop on June 19 as part of Plugging In: Connecting Teaching Artists with New Media and Technology, a conference at RISD sponsored by the New England Consortium of Artist Educators (www.artisteducators.org).