Rapping Vikings

Nicole Gibbs had two criteria for her Foundation Studies design class’s final project: she wanted it to involve a performance, and she wanted it to engage her students in the community beyond the CCAD campus.

The result? A Mother’s Day puppet show performed at Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH) on Sunday, May 8 at 2:30 p.m.

Bryston Walters, a Fashion Design Sophomore who worked as an oncology lab technician at NCH, is a member of Gibbs’ class. He suggested performing the show at the hospital and put Gibbs in contact with the Family and Volunteer Services department at NCH.

“When I proposed the puppet show performance to Donna Trentl (at Nationwide Children’s Hospital), she was very receptive to the idea,” said Gibbs. “The staff made it very easy for us to collaborate on this project.”

The students created every aspect of the performances, from storyline to character design and set construction to marketing.  The 4-act puppet show includes a slew of characters including rapping Vikings, fluffy sea monsters, know-it-all owls, mischievous unicorns, wish-granting stars, gregarious mice, and two chatty mermaids from Jersey.

“We decided to do the performance on Mother’s Day to be a treat for families who are spending the day with loved ones who are in the hospital,” Gibbs said.

The class chronicled the entire process of the project on a blog. You can check it out at http://ccadpuppetshow.wordpress.com. Video from the performance is at http://www.youtube.com/user/CCADpuppetshow2011.

The Short North is one of the vibrant neighborhoods near downtown Columbus.

CCAD students know our city’s vibrant arts scene well—from the Short North Arts District with its well-established galleries, killer shopping, and first-class restaurants to the rich indie arts scene with popular events like Independents’ Day, successful organizations like Couchfire Collective, and an exciting entrepreneurial landscape. In fact, according to a January 18 article by Richard Florida in The Atlantic magazine, Columbus is beginning to experience a “brain gain,” as college grads increasingly choose to make the city their home—slowing the previous flow to Sunbelt cities such as Phoenix, Atlanta, and Charlotte.

CCAD contributes to the growing success of the city in many ways: most importantly by preparing our students to be creative leaders who vitalize both the global and local creative economies.

Read the full article  HERE.

CCAD Students on the quad.

Co-ed residence halls, where men and women live in the same building but not in the same room, have been a standard of college life for decades—the private Ohio liberal arts school Oberlin College made the cover of November 20, 1970, issue of Life magazine when it was one of the first colleges in the country to have co-ed halls. But gender and college housing are in the news again now, as dozens of colleges and universities across the country are offering the option for students to choose their roommates without restrictions on gender. The issue has garnered national coverage in news outlets from the Los Angeles Times to Fox News, and it has been the subject of numerous scholarly articles.

The current movement started as an effort to help gay and transgender students feel comfortable in on-campus housing. But more colleges are embracing the idea because it allows all students, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, to pick the most compatible roommates.

Read the full article HERE.

AndrewAndrew

They’ve been featured in the hottest magazines and interviewed byThe New York Times.They have a weekly show on eastvillageradio.com and a regular DJing gig at Riff Raff’s, NYC’s fabulous new tiki/nightclub. They just got back from SXSW where they video blogged from the HP Trailer Park. You can check their creds out at their website, www.andrewandrewdotcom.com/.

Now AndrewAndrew is (are?) coming to Columbus for an unforgettable fundraising event at Columbus College of Art & Design (CCAD). The mirror-image DJ-duo will perform at Masters of Design, the 2011 CCAD Senior Fashion Show event, Friday, May 13.The self-proclaimed “iPad DJs” are mixing music for the runway and at the highly anticipated “après-runway” dance party.

“The crux of their allure isn’t technology, it’s their radical commitment to mirroring each other,” wrote New York Times journalist Michael Schulman in his article, Mirror Images in the D.J. Booth. “When they moved in together in an apartment in Chelsea, they kept only the clothing that matched, and threw away whatever didn’t. Everything else went, too—last names, hometowns, separate identities, separate lives. The only birthday they now celebrate is September 9, the date they made their first official appearance as AndrewAndrew.”

Check out www.ccad.edu/fashion for more information about the event and to purchase tickets.

All proceeds benefit the general scholarship fund.

Six hours, 14 speakers and performers, two breaks (one for sweet and one for salty treats), and more people doing live twitter feeds (#tedxcbus) than I could count added up to more that the sum of their parts at the TEDxColumbus conference that took place at CCAD’s Canzani Center auditorium on Friday, [...]

Read more at Columbus College of Art and Design Blog

Don't eat all the lotus!

I love my neighborhood. Of course there are a lot of festivals, activities, and destinations in the Short North these days. Fun things go on all the time in the park. It’s not just the site of Comfest. Just last night, the Short North Civic Association showed The Fantastic Mr Fox for its “Screen on the Green” outdoor movie series, and tomorrow The Goodale Park Music Series presents Mooncussers along with a big ol’ neighborhood potluck.

But Victorian Village is also a neighborhood that’s fond of its history and urban myths. None is quite as colorful as the Sells mansion on the corner of Buttles and Dennison on the northeast corner of the park. According to a history of the mansion written by Nancy Patzer in the Short North Gazette (date unknown), “The magnificent Romanesque style home was built in 1895 by Peter Sells, circus magnate, for his wife Mary and their young daughter Florence. Designed by prominent architect Frank Packard, creator of landmarks such as the Governors Mansion on East Broad Street, the old Columbus Country Club at Big Walnut Creek and the Jeffrey Mansion in Bexley, the Sells home cost $40,000 to build.”

There are stories of a huge carousel on the third floor, of the circus animals wintering in the mansion-the house simply invites fantastic speculation. In fact, the Sells mansion has been many things, including a meeting house for the House of Hope for Alcoholics in 1961 to a nursery school from 1963-1996. When David and Erica Brownstein bought the house in 1997, they lovingly restored the interior to it’s original grandeur. The place is unbelievable. When Fritz and Karina Harding bought the house from the Brownsteins about a year and a half ago I knew they would be good stewards of the house. They have not disappointed. Recent activity on the house has included restoration of the brick masonry wall around the front porch.

But what is really going on up on that third floor of the mansion? Recently when Marc and I were walking through the park on one of these hot summer days, we came across an odd sight, a giraffe in the pond at dusk. The the enormous ungulate seemed to be content wading around and munching on the lotus flowers. Where did the beast come from? Perhaps the recent restoration of the so-called “circus house” has included a rebuilding of the animal house. I’ll have to ask Fritz.

It’s not surprising to see such sights in the park. I just take it for granted. History, fantasy, and the present seem to get along quite well here in the ‘hood.

But who knew giraffes could swim?

Coyote foraging in Goodale Park

Where do they live on a day-to-day basis? I don’t know. Maybe down by the nearby river, maybe in the myriad nooks and crannies where we just don’t notice their existence. All I know is the detritus left behind by outsiders was a veritable beacon for the always hungry wild animals, and no hundreds-strong army of volunteers was around to mitigate the, well, overwhelming smell that brought the coyotes in.

The message? Events don’t take place in a vacuum. This is a neighborhood! Children and pets live here. Take out what you brought in. Volunteer to make events work for the attendees and for the neighborhood. I guarantee you’ll benefit as much from your experience as the event participants and the lucky people who live around the event year-round.

And keep your dogs on leash. Especially in the summer months when the event madness draws outlaws from the wilds as well as the suburbs.

My desktop dictionary defines “inspire” thus: “to fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative.” I know the meaning of the word from its Latin inspirare, to breathe or blow into, usually of a divine or supernatural being imparting a wisdom or truth to a human. When a person or experience is truly inspiring, the inspiration can raise us up from our mundane existence. If the inspiration is powerful enough it can change a person. If a person acts on such inspiration, she or he can change the world.

Pretty powerful stuff.

In the fall of 2008, I followed a CCAD industrial design class that was working with professionals from Battelle to prototype devices and systems that could be effectively used to tackle some real-world problems faced by people who live on $1 a day.  I saw firsthand how the experience touched the lives of everyone involved. My experience inspired me to publicize the class’s experience, which in turn spread small breaths of inspiration outside the initial group and led to some interesting new connections for the students. I also wrote the following article for the fall 2009 issue of CCAD’s  IMAGE magazine. I post it here in the hopes that it will inspire you.

Skills philanthropy is an exciting trend, and its popularity with young people is one of the most encouraging signs I see for the future viability of our planet. I continue to be inspired by Reade Harpham (you’ll read about him below), who continues his efforts with the OneLab Initiative, and challenges each of us with the question “So what are you going to do about it?” in his presentation at TEDx Columbus. Check it out here.

You can see the article in it’s original format—as well as the entire magazine—at www.ccad.edu. -MR

Students use Industrial Design
TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Dr. Paul Polak, International Development Enterprise

Mark Hall explains his concept for water purification

A class of CCAD Industrial Design (ID) students recently had the opportunity to work with professionals from Battelle Memorial Institute to create design solutions that could help millions of people across the world to live better lives through improved health, nutrition, safety, and economic prosperity.

What happened in the course of the 12-week class project resulted not only in products that could directly affect the lives of people in Third-World countries, but changed the lives of the students who worked on the project as well.

Tom Kier helps ID student Kyle Pierce refine his ideas.

Led by ID professors Tom Kier and Joel Gundlach, the students used design methodology to address issues that took them far out of the realm of consumer product design, systematically discovering new and exciting solutions to real problems for people who live on $1 a day. At the end of the semester, the class presented their results to a panel of professionals that included designers, scientists, and educators. The designers of the top three solutions are all working to find ways to continue the process and make their designs a reality for the people who need them.

The winning students have reprised their presentations for public audiences. “The passion the students demonstrated for this project is inspiring,” said CCAD President Denny Griffith. “This project gave them a chance to practice doing good in addition to doing well. This is a value we hope all our students will strive for in their work.”

THE STUDENTS

First-place winner Mark Hall designed a vessel that uses indigenous mangoes to neutralize over- chlorinated water in Haiti while creating a micro- industry for local potters. Hall is currently seeking ways to disseminate his product design to Haitians.

Toxic acid and lead dust, which poison many women and small children in Bangladesh, was an issue for second- place winner Samantha Richdale, who investigated the recycling of batteries. Her solution was a pipe-in-pipe device that pits the batteries and can be manufactured mostly from existing materials. Richdale has created a website with schematics so people can download the plans and make the device.

Initial concept designs

Nathan Worth and Andrew Czerpak hone in on a solution with Reade Harpham

For Ethiopia, where malaria is a major health concern, Andrew Czerpak and Nathan Worth designed a system for converting cow urine to an insect repellant and biopesticide, with a much-needed by-product: potable water. The two juniors are researching the viability of their design with some local farmers. Upon graduating from CCAD, they hope to form a nonprofit design company that will continue to create new solutions for global issues.

BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS

The collaboration between CCAD and Battelle was initiated as part of CCAD’s Business Partnership program. Business partnerships provide CCAD students with practical applications for their skills and real-world work experiences. In turn, businesses and organizations receive valuable creative services—and employers gain the opportunity to work with potential employees. Class projects involve groups of CCAD students hired to take on real-world assignments. In the past, these projects have resulted in product rollouts, marketing initiatives, and even mechanical creatures for theme parks. The business partners typically defray the cost of project materials and fund monetary prizes, scholarships, and departmental support.

SKILLS-BASED PHILANTHROPY

This class project was funded through a grant from Battelle Memorial Institute as a prototype for connecting corporate philanthropy with “socially responsible design” activities. The initiative is part of a skills-based volunteer movement in corporate philanthropy that is being embraced by a growing number of institutions and corporations. Theresa M. Ellis—an executive at a nonprofit in Cambridge, Mass.—wrote about the trend in a November 1, 2008, article in the Boston Herald:

“There’s a shift in corporate philanthropic values to deeper involvement. Rather than looking at where they can put their money, more and more companies are looking at how they can put their money and their time to best use in a philanthropic context.”

The same is true here in central Ohio: “We are seeing a significant increase in the number of design and engineering students interested in socially responsible design,” said Reade Harpham, manager of industrial design for Battelle. “They are looking for more meaningful ways to give back to the world, and will make career decisions based on their prospective employers’ ability to facilitate this. Just as Battelle prototypes a product or system to see if an idea works, we wanted to prototype a class to see what happened when students used design problem-solving methodology to solve global issues.”

Melissa Ricksecker: The event isn’t really over for me yet. There are hundreds of photos to go through, reporters to follow up with, and, oh, yeah … did I mention we are doing a TV show?

I know, tonight I’ll crash exhausted on the sofa. It’s been a long day and a lot of work, but there is something about the energy of the fashion show that just makes it fly. For now I’m still flying, and enjoying the flight!

Last year my main duty at the event was as liaison to the press and the many photographers.This year I spent the day mostly chasing after our film crew. The media folks were in the capable hands of Ritter Hoy and Apryl Ehmann from MediaSource. They have also set up a media center on the MediaSource website, which is an amazing online resource center set up to get reporters and bloggers everything they could need to augment their stories.

One thing stayed the same this year—as the lights went down and music began to pulse, I found myself fighting back tears. Like a mother watching her baby take her first steps, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of pride. These students have worked so hard and are so talented and to see all of that talent come together … well … I just hope no one saw me with mascara on my cheeks.

Be sure to tune in next Saturday (May 15) to WBNS 10TV at 7 p.m., for CCAD’s big encore.

To read the entire post (including posts from Amanda Fondriest and Lacey Luce) visit the CCAD fashion show blog at http://www.ccad.edu/blog/?p=222.

4/22/10: Update! You can now watch the entire TV show (in 4 parts) on YouTube.

Just click on the links below:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4