Summer @ Beam Center!

Are you dreaming of summer fun? Beam Center has some great programs for elementary and high school students lined up for July and August. Sign up now while space is available!

WindowShop Gets RAD

We are thrilled to announce our new WindowShop Resident. RAD is an Austin-based design and production shop that makes functional, durable, and fun hand-crafted furniture. RAD was founded in 2010 by Ryan Anderson, who will be bringing his professional skills as a wood- and metal-worker to Beam Center’s unique community of learning and making.

Beam Center's WindowShop gives Resident Artists an opportunity to share how they make things with the kids of the Beam Center community, demonstrate their process and offer their work for sale to the public.

We've been delighted and honored to host The Makery for the last three months and will continue to keep you apprised of their 3D fabrication and design workshops both within Beam Center and elsewhere.

In addition to using the WindowShop as office, design studio and showroom, RAD will lead two week-long intensive Design-Build workshops for high school students at Beam Center this summer (July 22-26; August 12-16). The students will caollaborate on a real-life design project for the Beam Center facility, learning design, construction, and assembly techniques for furniture and fixtures. Go here for details and to register.

RAD has made coffee pour-overs and laptop stands for Google headquarters, desks and tables for a Caribbean eco-resort, and one-of-a-kind graffiti tables for customers in New York and Los Angeles.

Be sure to stop by the WindowShop and check out what RAD will be building and showcasing at Beam!

Summer Design-Build Intensive for High Schoolers

DESIGN-BUILD SUMMER INTENSIVE
Instructor: RAD Furniture (Beam Center WindowShop resident)
ONE WEEK WORKSHOP FOR STUDENTS IN GRADES 9-12
7/22-7/26; 8/12-8/16 10AM-3PM // $500 // Contact us for need-based scholarship information.

COURSE SUMMARY + GOALS

Students will work closely with Ryan Anderson, founder of RAD Furniture, on a real-life design project for the Beam Center facility. Techniques related to analysis, data-gathering, diagramming and precedent study will be introduced. Building on these ideas, the students will then be guided through simple design techniques including sketching and model-making, with the ultimate goal of transforming parts and pieces of the Beam Center facility through their understanding, ideas and actions.

The bulk of the curriculum will be focused on the production of physical elements and interventions within the space, with the students being exposed to straight-forward construction and assembly techniques of furniture and fixtures.

The week will culminate with the students documenting and presenting their work to an invited guest, who will offer feedback, and in-turn, present his/her own body of professional work for the students to observe and discuss.

DAILY CURRICULUM

DAY 1: ANALYSIS, DIAGRAMMING, SCALING
DAY 2: DESIGN, MODEL-MAKING

DAY 3: CONSTRUCTION & ASSEMBLY

DAY 4: CONSTRUCTION & ASSEMBLY

DAY 5: DOCUMENTATION, PRESENTATION

You can register after the jump.

Arts In Parts: Summer in the Rockaways Kickstarter Campaign

Beam Center is proud to fiscally sponsor Arts in Parts work with kids in the Rockaways. Please consider donating to their Kickstarter campaign to fund their summer program.

Faculty Profile: Jeff Wood

Meet Jeff Wood. Jeff is an artist who makes performance, puppetry, video, and sound. He's one of the inventive, thoughtful, and resourceful teachers at Beam Center's Inventgenuity Workshops.

WindowShop Resident Application Now Open

Beam Center is accepting applications for its three-month WindowShop Residency. We are seeking ambitious proposals to transform our storefront retail space on Bergen St. in Brooklyn into a studio, workshop, classroom, and store. Residents pay a reduced rent for this premium location and barter instructional time at one of the Beam Center programs for young people.

The ideal proposal will engage the public, inspire young people enrolled in our programs, and generate exposure and income for the Resident. The Resident will occupy a high-visibility storefront in a neighborhood full of galleries, bars, restaurants, and stores, have 24/7 use of the space as a workspace, and have the potential to use the space for exhibits and workshops at nighttime and on weekends. The Beam Center will also promote WindowShop Residency events through its mailing list and website.

More details and application form after the jump.

Summer Day Projects Announced!

We're pleased to announce the Summer Day @ Inventgenuity Projects! Two-week Projects led by Beam Center master practitioners for kids entering grades 2-5 run 9am-3pm, with extended day workshops available til 6pm. Register HERE.

Spring Inventgenuity Workshops: Sign Up Now

Sign up now for afterschool workshops through June!

We're got an incredible line up of 8 week workshops starting the week of April 22nd. Here's what you can do at Inventgenuity Workshops this spring:

...discover fine wood-working in Medieval Alarm, or The Cacophinator with Nick 
...create superheroes and build puppets in Superhero Puppet Show with Jeff & Tara 
...draw like H. Bosch and Where's Waldo in Little Drawings, Big Comic with Allen 
...build light-painting pixels and electric keyboards in Pixels and Pianos with Reid 
...design and make video games and controllers in Pretendo! with Jeff 
...explore digital programming and design with WindowShop Residents The Makery 
...invent, prototype, and make candy bars in Design A Chocolate Bar with Allison 
...build kalimbas, mics, and amps in Electric Kalimba with Reid 
...paint, draw, and sculpt with Art Workshops with Jaclyn Brown

See full descriptions and dates HERE, and register HERE!

Workshops for grades 4-9

Special for older kids: Analog Sci-Fi Movie with Allen on Mondays and Boogie Boards with Jon on Tuesdays.

Winter Cycle 3 starts next week

There's still room in our Cycle 3 workshops starting next week! 4 session workshops in electronics, movie making, mechanics, and more - check 'em out HERE, and register HERE!

Summer Day @ Inventgenuity

 

July 8-19, July 29-August 9, and August 19-30  

47 Bergen St, off Smith St 
for kids entering 2-5 grade

This summer, Beam Center is offering programs with a flexible, 2-part schedule.

From 9:00-3:00, kids collaborate on a big arts and building project, conceived and led by Beam Center Guides. Projects last for 2 weeks.

From 4:00 to 6:00, our Guides lead kids in extended-day workshops in technology, imagination, and craft. Workshops last for 1 week.

Our Guides are artists, designers, musicians, engineers, storytellers, makers and big idea people; all are practitioners and experts from across the creative landscape. Sign up for just Projects or Workshops, or sign up for both and save!

Makery Workshops at Beam Center

Beam Center is thrilled to present our first WindowShop Residents: The Makery. You may have seen their 3D Printers at the Inventgenuity Festival, or their CNC Drawing Machines in our window on Bergen Street -- now is your chance to get your hands on their technology and expertise, at weekend workshops and open houses starting tomorrow! Sign up here for workshops in robot contruction, amplifier building, and projection and film making this weekend and next.

Inventgenuity Festival

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26

SUNDAY, JANUARY 27

11AM - 5PM

51 BERGEN STREET, BROOKLYN

Kids making help happen

We were awed and humbled to work alongside the 150 kids and volunteer group leaders today. Working in Sunset Park, Clinton Hill, Red Hook and Rockaway they sorted donations, made sandwiches, cleaned church gardens and basements, delivered ice to homes, carried food cartons, set up tents, and served food. They did all they were asked to do, with energy, selflessness and cooperative spirit. We thank them and the adult volunteers for making it happen.

150+ Kids Helping Tomorrow

We've closed registration for the Kids Helping on Veterans Day effort. We hope to see anyone who didn't get a chance to sign-up out there helping anyway. Thanks to all who responded. We look forward to sharing a great day of helping and cooperation.

Kids Helping on Veterans Day Holiday

Next Monday, November 12 is the Veterans Day public school holiday and another opportunity for kids to help with important relief work.

Kids are needed to do the critical task of sorting and organizing the loads of generously donated goods at the OccupySandy distribution hubs. We will be leading groups of kids aged 10+ to help with the relief effort at two locations in Brooklyn, St. Jacobi Church on 4th Avenue and

Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew on Clinton Avenue.

As many parents will have to go to work on Veterans Day, Beam Center's staff will accompany and supervise the kid volunteers in cooperation with the OccupySandy team. Kids should arrive at our office at 51 Bergen Street in Brooklyn at 8AM on Monday, November 12. We will travel by subway to the hubs and return at 3pm.

Parents, sign your kids up here.

We expect to be at the volunteer locations at 9am. Let us know if you'd like to meet us there. Please contact us with any questions or if you would like to sign up a group from your school.

We may also be making a trip to Rockaway with a limited number of teens but we'll confirm that on Saturday night.

Yesterday, 35 kids ranging from 8 to 17 years old spent five hours in Rockaway achieving the seemingly infinite task of sorting and clearing two blocks worth of donated clothing. They pulled out  winter-wear that will be in demand in coming days and prepared the rest for processing by the Salvation Army. The group collaborated with local relief organizers from OccupySandy and NYC DOT.

Yesterdays effort was made possible by generous contributions from the Superior Bus Company, The Invisible Dog Art Center, Glorioso Associates and individual contributions from JJ Grossman, and Beam Center staff and volunteers.

We would like to replicate the trip with more kids on the Veterans Day public school holiday on Monday, November 12. Anyone interested in helping make it happen should contact us.

Open Stoop Goes To School

Let it be known that getting a 1400 pound mobile building stoop on and off of a box truck is no simple feat. Today's presentation of the Open Stoop to Brooklyn's School for International Studies was joyous regardless of the difficulties presented by gravity and rain. The BeamWorks Crew enjoyed well deserved congratulations from peers and teachers. We thank Principal Fred Walsh, Art Teacher Vered Raz and the Crew for being a part of the inaugural BeamWorks Project.

Celebrating the Stoop Project

Come hang out with us on our stoop! After months of cutting, grinding, drilling, welding and a lot of chatter, we're proud to unveil the Inaugural BeamWorks Project. 


We invite you to join us on Tuesday, June 12th at 1:00 pm at Brooklyn’s School for International Studies (284 Baltic Street, Brooklyn) to unveil and celebrate the work of some extraordinary high school students. For the last nine weeks, a group of twelfth-graders has been working after school to build a full-size, fully mobile version of one of Brooklyn’s most important indigenous architectural forms: the Stoop.

Mentored and guided by master builder Brett van Aalsburg and designers The Office of Playlab, students have learned carpentry and welding, explored conceptual design, and most importantly how to collaborate in meaningful work.  

We hope you can join us, Principal Fred Walsh and the students for “Lunch on the Stoop” and to share the students’ pride in what they can make together with their own hands. 

BeamWorks Crew #1

 

Seven weeks ago, a small group of High School students from Brooklyn's School of International Studies entered a metal shop in Red Hook to begin work on a stoop that moves. Danny and I were impressed by these kids in so many ways from the first time we met them; their rapport with one another (near constant, often hysterical chatter and challenge), their commitment to making the project happen, their utter lack of cynicism or resistance to doing something they've never done before. Though some of the original group have fallen away due to family obligations or scheduling conflicts, the core crew have lost none of their initial enthusiasm, focus and intent.

If you were sitting where am right now hearing their just loud enough warnings of "welding" coming from the shop, you'd assume the masked figures inside were veteran metal workers. Under the direction of artist/fabricator/furniture-maker (and incredible teacher!) Brett van Aalsburg, this first BeamWorks Crew, Devin, Andrew, Alex and Chris, has developed that air of casual cooperative seriousness that makes good, hard work fun and productive.

Today they will complete the second side of the stoop's frame. Their confidence and skill has grown with every session as they've moved from building of their wood work-table weeks ago to cutting, welding and grinding steel. Now the chatter is interrupted by the screech and spark of work getting done. They are even more impressive to us and, I'm pretty sure, to themselves.

BeamWorks #1: Open Stoop Project

The idea for BeamWorks is to have High School students collaborate with designers and makers of large-scale endeavors. The students work together two days a week after school to create the Project. This week I wanted to write about the designers of the first BeamWorks Project. Next week more about the students and builder who are making it happen. 

The Open Stoop Project, was designed by Archie Lee Coates IV and Jeff Franklin of The Office of Playlab. Danny and I first became aware of them from seeing the Worm Tents they designed (along with Family) that won Storefront For Art and Architecture’s StreetFest competition to re-envision temporary outdoor structures. Although, we first approached them about designing a new changing room for Beam Camp's swimming lake (of all things!), in the space of devouring a couple tacos we shifted course towards BeamWorks.

An excerpt from Archie and Jeff's initial presentation: 

Open publication - Free publishing - More beam center

The students from Brooklyn's School for International Studies have been busy at work for six and half weeks creating the Open Stoop Project. Photos from the build next week.

A big week

Welding the Open Stoop Project @ BeamWorks

Daniel Fishkin's Instrument Making Project @ Inventgenuity Workshops

Wednesday marked a milestone for Beam Center. It was the first day on which our two pilot after-school programs took place simultaneously.

While a group of second to fourth graders were working in Cobble Hill with Steve Gerberich to make Mechanized Dioramas at Inventgenuity Workshops, our first BeamWorks Crew of high schoolers were in their sixth week of welding, grinding and drilling in Red Hook on the Open Stoop Project designed by The Office Of Playlab.

As we grow over the next months and years we'll surely need to do a lot of explaining, rationalizing, defining and measuring of what Beam Center does. For now, as we just get started, we'll do the same thing we ask the kids to do: make stuff happen and let the results do the talking.

I hope you'll take some time to check in on the progress we and the kids make. Thanks for reading.