Do you have what it takes to design a house? The more creative, the better! Grab whatever materials you have available, or purchase some to create and design a house and its interior. You can use LEGO® bricks, markers, crayons, colored pencils, Lincoln Logs, clay, or any other materials you like. This project consists of two workshops, giving students the tools necessary to create and design the layout for a house, room by room. Featuring: A special presentation on traditional Hmong housing, so youth can learn about types of homes designed in places outside of the United States. Prizes will be awarded for the best student house designs by a vote of “likes” on the Young Builders and Designers Facebook page. Prizes will also be posted to the group’s Facebook page in February.
About the teaching artist
For more than sixteen years, Brian Kelley has been teaching design education to Twin City youth through his Young Builders and Designers program.His wide range of clients and partnerships include University of Minnesota’s Design School, The LEGO® Store in the Mall of America, The Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board and many others. Many of his youth designed projects have been exhibited throughout the Twin Cities in places like The History Center and The LEGO® Store in Mall of America. He currently lives in the Twin Cities with his wife where he enjoys spending time with his new granddaughter and finding ways to create and design.
Last Wednesday, April 23, WAM Collective hosted Elements, the third annual design competition and runway show featuring University of Minnesota student designers at the Weisman Art Museum. This year, 16 student designers were asked to take inspiration from the museum’s spring exhibition. “Siberia: Imagined and Reimagined.” Siberia is as much a mythic construct—associated with vastness, remoteness, and coldness—as it is a physical place that occupies more than 12 percent of the land on earth. Its rich natural resources have sustained indigenous…
WAM’s Frank Gehry-designed building is the perfect backdrop for architecture and design programs. Expanding on existing architecture and design programs, like WAM’s Teen Architecture Summer workshop, the Weisman has partnered with designer Brian Kelley, founder of the Young Builders and Designers program, for youth design workshops over the past year and will continue to offer workshops this winter and spring. Recently, Jamee Yung, WAM’s director of education, sat down with Brian to discuss his career development, life influences, and what…
It’s finally here! WAM Collective is proud to announce their second annual design competition and runway show in conjunction with the University of Minnesota’s College of Design: Threads. Ten finalists from the U of M’s apparel design program have been selected by WAM Collective to go head to head as they send original garments down the runway on Wednesday, April 24 at the Weisman Art Museum. Student designers were asked to interpret Laylah Ali’s Greenheads Series into a ready-for-the-runway garment that narrates…
