Our creative group of educators

Assembling pieces for a 3-D scene

It’s always a pleasure to return to beautiful Amana, this time to lead a four-day Artistic Journal Making workshop at Amana Arts Guild. The workshop was part of the Art Iowa Workshops offered every year in cooperation with Grant Wood AEA to provide continuing education for educators. We explored how the components of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) can bring together “left brain” and “right brain” approaches and provide a new perspective for problem solving.

The class used a variety of artistic techniques and reflective exercises to create colorful three-dimensional popup art journals. The teachers really had to work the “left brain,” measuring and planning for the precision needed to make the popups work. One idea led to another and they truly enjoyed it. We employed Science using the cotton paper, Engineering and Architecture to make things stand up, and Art for the creative messages.

   
Tunnel popup by Maggie, two views to show its construction