A Leap Into Reality: Our First Pop-up

Nov 2

With no end to COVID in sight, we decided to take our pop-up virtual. After 7 months of being postponed, we decided to reevaluate how to make this opportunity work for young people, without compromising on our vision.

All supplies was hand delivered to students the day before the event

Our pop-up, which was a part of our founder’s 4.0 Schools Essentials Fellowship, was an opportunity for young people to be the first to experience what it's like to be an Inspired Aesthetics artist. Over two days, participants took part in team building exercises, group discussions, and breakout art workshops.

Aligned to a topic that was important to them, together these young artists determined a shared theme for the weekend. They discussed topics and ideas that were most important to each of them personally, things from police brutality and LGBTQ+ rights to COVID-19 and our education system. Together they worked to find common ground and discover what the issues closest to their hearts had in common. Soon they were able to come up with one theme that they felt like said it all “This is not a movie, this is our reality.” They discovered how this theme connected them to each other, and with theme in mind, they created original works that showcased their individual voices and experiences to share with the group.

Voting on a theme for the weekend, after having both small and large group discussions.

With a common theme decided, students separated into their breakout groups, Visual Art and Creative Writing.

Our visual artists worked with acrylic paint and discussed the use of colors and how a limited color pallet could help convey theme and emotion. While our writers discussed liberatory design and the impact of sensory details.