HYCC kids create thrones

 
Hawthorne Youth and Community center is one of the
organizations connected to the Community Partnership
Program of the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum www.isgm.org

Last year after noting all the mythic creatures at the museum,
the HYCC kids created Sedred, the dragon for the
Community Creations exhibit. See my blog post:
www.wendyellertson.blogspot.com/2011/06/hycc-kids-sedred-fire-biter-silver.html
This year during the visits to the museum, the kids took
special notice of all the chairs, seats, and thrones in the
museum and decided to create their own seats for royalty.

We took two chairs which had been pulled from the trash
and transformed them.

They used rolled up cardboard and tape to create arms
and extended the height with more cardboard that they
painted gold. They  wrapped the "arms" with polyester
and cloth.




  Then created two "shields" - one for a queen, one for a
king. ...and decorated, decorated, decorated:

 

Of course what is a project without hot glue?

 


...and lots of stitching...satin pillows and covers

 

 and final fringe:

The King's skirt seemed a little plain, so more decoration was added:





Then of course, the chairs had to be tried out.  To see if
they felt sufficiently royal.  They passed.

The final touch - two peacock feather each...and off they went to
the museum for display:

 



and celebrating with family and friends in the new bright
artspace in the new addition to the museum.

 

 The entire Community Creations exhibit including the work
made by the youth of all the partnership organizations will be
on display  through August.  If you are in Boston and haven't
been able to visit the Gardner Museum since it reopened
with its spectacular new wing, I recommend strongly
that you do.  It's beautiful.  The HYCC thrones await you!

With the school year wrapping up, I'm helping with just
one last HYCC project - a model of "green architecture"
in collaboration with Archventures and students at the
Boston Architectural Center.  I'll let you know what they
come up with.

Adventure on!   Wendy

HYCC community wakes the watery world

 
The first Saturday in May, Boston celebrates with a "Wake up the
Earth"  parade and festival in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood.
The festival  began in 1979 as a celebration of community success
in halting the  extension of I95 which would have divided Boston
neighborhoods.  Many  houses had been torn down by the time the
eight-lane highway was finally stopped.  Activists who
worked on this issue in Jamaica Plain and Roxbury subsequently
started community gardens and worked for the creation of new
parks on the vacant lots left by the destruction of the houses.The
result is a series of parks, depressed subway line, and a bike path
greenway into downtown Boston. 

 
Since '79 with the leadership of community organizations like
Spontaneous Celebrations: www.spontaneouscelebrations.org
the festival has grown as a event affirming community, diversity
and the importance of green space in an urban environment.
For years there were two streams of the parade, one beginning in
Roxbury and another at the  monument on Center Street in JP.
But for the last 10 years, there has been just one parade. With
active development growing on both sides of  Columbus Ave.,
it was time to reinvigorate both streams.  With the encouragement
of Discover Roxbury : www.discoverroxbury.org  a lot of
Roxbury groups joined in.   I helped facilitate Hawthorne
Youth and Community Center's part.


We opted to "Wake up" the watery world.

Stuffed paper water creatures were designed and made by

the afterschool program kids as well as by families in Saturday

community workshops.

Starfish:

Catfish:

Grinning sharks:

Jelly Fish:



Turtles, dolphins, seahorses and more... We attached dowels
with two tone blue streamers (from plastic table cloths)so
the creatures could swim down the streets.

Some families added items made from home - like  waves with blue
paper streamers

And so we marched down the streets waking the water and seas
accompanied by other groups playing music, dancing, carrying
puppets, holding signs (no more bullying), walking within a dragon
and more...

Once at the festival on the greenway, HYCC set up a table to keep
the water theme going.  Children and adults decorated paper
fish,  seahorses, turtles and sharks:

They were put into our HYCC "pond"

or carried around the festival swimming in their blue ribbon
water:

The weather was cooperative.  A fun day of music, dance,
play, and communities gathering.  Can't ask for more.

Next blog - more work with HYCC - transforming
discarded chairs into thrones for Community Creations
exhibit at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Adventure on.  Wendy