Artist Susan Champeny teaches students how to create fanciful 7-foot high totem poles made of brightly colored laundry bottles and lids. A workshop can be themed to:
– Earth Day recycling awareness
– School Pride day
– Multicultural diversity activity
– After-school programs
This fun, colorful activity teaches how ordinary objects can be recycled into exciting art. Students learn interactively about the re-use of materials, the principles of symmetry as applied to design, basic tool safety, and discuss how to keep plastics out of the waste stream.
The workshop is suitable for K-12 students. Advanced workshops are available for adults.
The end result is an exciting set of totem poles suitable for a temporary indoor installation or 1-2 week outdoor display, based on the artists popular Elm Park Art in the Park sculpture exhibited in the summer of 2011. The development of this workshop series was supported by a Worcester Cultural Council Grant in 2011.
Media Gallery
One variation of several installations of the Household Gods / Laundry Bottle Totems. A prototype debuted in Somerville's 2010 ArtBeat, with a final version installed as part of Worcester's Art in the Park in 2011.Over 300 children made totems at a workshop for Worcester's StART on the Street in 2011.Susan Champeny setting up Totems at Creative Laundry Day community art-building event in 2011.Two children work on their Laundry Bottle Totem at a day-long workshop held in Worcester's Elm Park.Tools used by the 5th and 6th grade at Bancroft School included screwdrivers and an electric drill.
