With the deadline for merit scholarships fast approaching on April 2, MIAD’s Pre-College MAJORS program has announced two exciting new courses that will provide high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to see their designs come to life, including in the City of Milwaukee.
Students participating in the three-week course, Public Art + Architecture = The Built Environment + Ecology, will undertake the design and construction of structures to promote housing for Chimney Swifts, native birds that contribute to environmental quality and are threatened by a lack of nesting options.
This course, jointly taught by acclaimed public artist and Sculpture Professor Jill Sebastian and LEED Accredited Professional Architect and Visiting Professor John Durbow, will focus on the analysis of client and environmental needs, programming, a study of site constraints, design of functional art, materials selections, and construction planning and execution.
Sebastian explains what she loves about this course. “Combining public art and architecture to bettering our relationship to nature and wildlife in the city has exciting possibilities. By re-introducing habitats for the Swift, a bird whose presence is greatly missed, we have the opportunity to do something meaningful and beautiful. What could be more exciting?”
Jill Kunsmann, Director of Pre-College and Adult Learning, echoes Sebastian’s enthusiasm, “This is a unique learning opportunity for high school students in the MAJORS program. They will not only design the project, but it will actually be erected on public property in the City of Milwaukee – nothing can be more exciting for an artist or designer than to see their ideas on paper be actualized.”
Pre-College has announced an additional new course, A Creative Economy: A Window of Opportunity, that will also look to create and problem solve with real-life assignments of a professional who relies on the interdisciplinary nature of design to motivate, inspire and promote through the art of a Window Display.
Instructor Amanda Gerken’s course will involve high school juniors and seniors in hands-on projects that address technical and conceptual skills including composition, special relationships, graphics, appropriate material choices and the combination of these elements to make a compelling and irresistible statement.
Kunsmann says this course “demonstrates the collaborative nature of design fields and invites the students to develop a ‘think outside the box’ mindset when it comes to how creatives develop and pursue their professions.”
Public Art + Architecture = The Built Environment + Ecology and A Creative Economy: A Window of Opportunity are part of Pre-College’s MAJORS program.
Pre-College allows high school students the opportunity to develop a familiarity with a college environment, become comfortable with college-level expectations, meet professionals and explore career opportunities, work with professors teaching in MIAD’s Degree Program and make the essential transition to a successful college-level student of art and design.
The Merit Scholarship Application is April 2. The DPI and MPA Scholarship Deadline is June 1.
Click here for more information on MIAD’s Pre-College 2012 Summer Programs and MAJORS program.
Click here for information on available scholarships.
Click here to visit MIAD’s Pre-College Facebook page.
Top image: Chimney Swift housing
Second image: Jill Sebastian
Third image: Eclipse, by Jill Sebastian
