Apr
26
Spring Projects at The Lab
Filed Under Lab Stories
Spring semester is coming to a close for The Lab as we wrap up our programming with students and begin planning for next year. In the next few weeks, there will be final celebrations and showcases for many of our students doing 1 on 1 mentorships and small groups; as well as the two schools that have been coming all year for the Enrichments.
Among the many groups that started this semester and are concluding this month, two new offerings have been gardening and shoe design.
Read more about gardening and shoe design:
Saint Paul Public Schools’ Beyond School Programs fully funded our first gardening project, through their Transitions Mini-Grant. Volunteer writer and gardener, Trisha Collopy, Lab staff, Tess Pease and intern, Kristin Sancken are working with RiverEast Day Treatment students and staff at Homecroft to plant a raised-bed vegetable and flower garden. 
Using techniques from Mel Bartholomew’s book, Square Foot Gardening they are growing seedlings indoors right now and building their own beds from wood. The group has been talking about the individual and environmental benefits of growing your own food, and each student is growing their favorite vegetables from seeds. As many of the students will be in summer school, they plan to tend to the garden through the season.
Back in the Visual Lab, students from many schools have been designing and creating their own shoes. Inspired by the collaborative project between Beautiful Losers & Nike, “Make Something!!! from Nothing,” where designer Jesse Leyva designs sneakers with youth. “Start thinking about storytelling in your art,” says Leyva to his students, encouraging them to think about their own clothing and ask, “What were they [the designers] thinking when they designed it?” and “Why did I buy this?”
Using some of these ideas, Lab students begin with an outline of a high-top shoe and plan out their color scheme, textures, and decorative accents for their shoe design. Next, they translate their design to a blank canvas shoe in the style of the “Chuck Taylor” using paints, paint markers, glitter, glue, beads and other materials. The group has used this activity to talk about individual identity, ideas of “cool” and fashion, and self-expression.
After our small groups and Enrichments are over, Lab staff will be heading out to the programs to conduct evaluations and distribute the next volume of The Lab’s Poetry Anthology. The book is at the press right now, to be printed and bound in a couple of weeks. Designed by a volunteer graphic designer and student in The Lab, it includes poems written by students through this semester. Get a sneak peak at the cover and few poems here!
