4 minute read
BRIMMER & ARTISTS FOR HUMANITY (S)TEAM Up!
Expanding the design process beyond the classroom Walls
By Kathryn Lee P ’32, ’34, Director of Innovation & Design
Headed into its third collaborative year, Brimmer’s partnership with Artists For Humanity (AFH) offers 11th and 12th grade students a unique opportunity to work with mentors in the 3-D design studio, designing and building installations for our School as part of AFH’s STEAM To Schools initiative. Introduced in 2019, this exciting program brings Brimmer students together with AFH, a well-established, Boston-based nonprofit that employs and commissions high school students from the Boston area to create artwork, murals, and sculptures for diverse businesses and organizations.
“As one of our first STEAM To Schools partners, Brimmer has played a foundational role in this pilot initiative, which is now serving 150+ students annually,” shares AFH Program Director Lizzy Mayer. “Brimmer students and staff have embraced our entrepreneurial model and design collaborative, approaching each project with open minds and offering creative solutions to the design needs and parameters. Witnessing each unique process and final product that students and AFH mentors create is truly inspiring. With the School’s core focus on innovation and design, we feel incredibly lucky to continue collaborating with Brimmer year after year.”
With Brimmer leadership serving as their client, our student designers work alongside AFH mentors to plan, brainstorm, and design a large-scale, one-of-a-kind sculpture to be permanently installed on the Brimmer campus. They have the opportunity to visit AFH studios in South Boston to construct their original design using various fabrication methods, such as welding and large-scale CNC routing.
For each project, students begin the design process in the winter by brainstorming and identifying needs within the Brimmer community. Our first collaboration, the Gator Bench now installed on Middlesex Field, was designed to be a unique place for students to watch athletic games, sit and chat during recess, or soak up the sun with a book. It was Director of Middle & Upper School Library Elyse Seltzer who planted the seed for our next project, a Little Free Library. The design team loved the idea of creating a community-wide resource using the iconic shape of our gym roof as the inspiration for its form. Under the guidance of our AFH mentors, our designers spent each weekly meeting brainstorming, designing, revising, planning, presenting, and making decisions about fabrication techniques and materials. All this preparation came together last spring, when our 12th graders spent the month of May at the AFH studios building the final design as their Senior Project.
The first completed project, a Gator Bench, debuted on Middlesex Field in spring 2021.
As a result of this program, we have seen firsthand the AFH model and mission in action, and we support the important work the organization does for young people in Boston. “My favorite part of what we do in studio is helping students realize their agency through thinking critically about, creating, and modifying the world around them,” explains AFH mentor Dyllan Nguyen. “Each person brings their unique skills and perspective to our projects, sharing their knowledge and learning from each other. The Brimmer projects are particularly special as the two pieces we’ve designed so far have been contributions to the campus, a gift that students get to share with their school community and feel proud of as they move on to the next phase of their lives.”
Partnering with AFH has provided our students with an incredibly creative and purposeful learning experience. Working together on such an entrepreneurial endeavor, our students experience the design process firsthand on a scale that expands and celebrates their capabilities well beyond our classroom walls while leaving a lasting mark on our community for years to come. ■
