Afterschool Art & Design Classes

Michigan Nightlight: What really differentiates this program?
CultureWorks Institute of Creative Arts Executive Director Tori Pelz: We provide free transportation to and from classes; we pick the kids up at school and take them home afterward. That’s rare, but, from day one, it was part of the planning process. We knew from the start that if we wanted to reach this demographic, if we wanted to help minorities and other underserved kids in our communities, that transportation would be necessary. A lot of our kids have single parents, and so many of the others have two parents working two shifts.

Those parents cannot leave work to drive them back and forth, so we do it for them.
 
What are the keys to success for your programming?
One key to success is our three rules for brainstorming and applying the creative process in general. They are to encourage

We knew from the start that if we wanted to reach this demographic, if we wanted to help minorities and other underserved kids in our communities, that transportation would be necessary.

wild ideas, build on the ideas of others for good collaboration, and embrace your work with play.
 
Whether they are designing a toaster or a roller coaster, we want our kids to walk away from this program with the ability to explore options, select ideas, and apply the skillsets they have learned, among other things, in the execution.
 
That’s where failure comes into play. These processes take a lot of trial and error, so being able to identifying a problem and explore options to correct those errors takes the confidence to use failure as a learning opportunity. That takes a lot of courage and fearlessness that they did not have before they came here. When I see this happen, and I see it all the time, I know that our programming is making a difference in young lives.
 
I have a good example to share. We had a student who was a tightly wound perfectionist. He was very methodical and took himself very seriously. I mean, everything had to be perfect. He spent weeks crafting his ideal figurative sculpture. Halfway through the class, its head snapped off.
 
Everybody kind of gasped, waiting for him to fall apart. Instead, he chuckled and said, “I’ll have to figure out a way to fix that.” And he did. Before, he may not have been able to recover from that failure. Some kids may have just quit. But he didn’t. He knew he could still achieve success without starting over.
 
When our kids are successful, the things that we’re doing with them are working. We want them to walk out these doors with the tools and the self-confidence to become lifelong learners.
 
What existing challenges remain with this program and how do you plan to overcome them?
Design is still an abstract concept for most of our kids – and that’s where the fun part comes into the instruction. Right now,

Whether they are designing a toaster or a roller coaster, we want our kids to walk away from this program with the ability to explore options, select ideas, and apply the skillsets they have learned, among other things, in the execution.

some are designing roller coasters, and they’ve also designed skateboards. Designing things that they like, things that make them happy, puts fun into the work they do. 
 
Coming up with new concepts and multiple ideas is another challenge we face as we take students through this process, because this age group tends to want to recreate pop culture images, like comic book characters. We are always encouraging these kids to come up with their own ideas.
 
How does your program organize the resources needed to make programs happen?
We are lucky to have an AmeriCorps staff person here. She oversees mentoring, but is also in charge of transportation, which, like I said, has been a crucial component for us from day one. She is our bus driver and she recruits other volunteers to chaperone during her transport duties.
 
We have good community partners, such as local firms that supply instruction from professionals [in various design fields]. For example, Herman Miller brought our kids in for a field trip to see the process of generating ideas, prototyping, manufacturing and to be a part of testing the finished products. Mostly chairs of all types.
 
Our students have also done design work alongside engineers at Disher Design & Development who helped teach them how to use 3-D design software. It was exciting, especially for the ones working on amusement park design. It really helped them find new methods to design the cars in their parks. These two firms help us because they believe in what we do.
 
Much of our financial support, however, comes from individuals. We are lucky to be able to live in a giving community full of kind-hearted people.
 
Which of your classes seem to be most popular right now and what, in your opinion, are the youth in your program most inspired by?
Our ceramics class is very popular. It’s tangible and it’s physical and students have two hours to use the wheel. That’s much more time than they would get at school doing the same thing.
 
They are inspired by good designs, like they saw at Herman Miller and at Disher Design & Development. Seeing quality designs made them hold their heads up a bit higher.