In the fall of 2011, I joined Designer Amy Leidtke in leading a group of sixteen high school students at the Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in a design workshop. In this semester-long class we introduced the Walsh students to a range of problem solving and design thinking strategies. The Walsh students were challenged to think about an object that probably the vast majority of the group had not previously given much thought to – a drum! 

Each week, students worked to resolve design problems presented to them by the designer.  Students were asked to produce concept drawings that would convey a “wild” idea of a drum to their peers. The drawings incorporated annotations to explain specific aspects of their concept and these drawings were shared and critiqued both by the designer and Walsh peers.

This phase of the class was followed by the production of rapid small-scale 3-D sketch models created using recycled material. These ideas were again presented to the group and on the basis of feedback from the designer and peers one of the sketch-models was selected and developed as a full-scale working drum using a 5-gallon plastic bucket as its base. The Walsh students soon discovered that how a drum is constructed dramatically affects the sound it produces. 

Throughout the remaining sessions of the class and working in an environment of creative competition, students worked to resolve design challenges as they attempted to transfer their design ideas into a physical reality. 
        

At the culmination of the program, percussionist George Langford was invited to lead group in a drum circle, providing the Walsh students an opportunity to play the drums they had designed and made and in the company of a professional musician. The student work was then installed in the Red Eye Gallery at theRhode Island School of Design. Students and their families were invited to an opening night reception. 

RISD | Project Open Door is an out-of-school-time learning program for teens from under-resourced high schools, particularly those in Rhode Island’s urban core cites of Central Falls, Pawtucket, Providence, and Woonsocket. Project Open Door provides multiple doorways to high quality art-making experiences and intensive college readiness preparation. Project Open Door is also an academic lab and demonstration project for Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) students exploring urban education and community arts education.

This book documents the work of teens attending the Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Pawtucket, Rhode Island participating in a semester-long POD in Schools after-school program that had a focus on design and design thinking. It is the goal of Project Open Door's out-of-school-time studio-based learning opportunities to introduce students to ways of making perhaps not typically experienced in a high school’s visual arts program. The content of the classes is determined to a great extent by the Project Open Door teaching artist’s background and experience while taking into account teens’ interests. It is hoped that the teaching artist will develop a learning environment at her/his school, which will contribute to the building of a community of young artists who will wish to continue more advanced work in Project Open Door's Portfolio sequence of classes, which are held at RISD.

 

This Project Open Door program was was made possible through the generous support of the Surdna Foundation.