Glassorama: Environments for "Kids Design Glass Too"

By Katie Phelps, Curatorial Assistant/Visiting Artist Coordinator

In celebration of Kids Design Glass Too (open at Museum of Glass through July 12, 2015), we partnered with five local high schools to continue the original spirit of the Kids Design Glass program – celebrating the creativity and artistic abilities of young artists.

We received 28 project proposals from students at Federal Way High School, Lincoln High School, Tacoma School of the Arts, Thomas Jefferson High School and Wilson High School. Five of these proposals were selected by MOG curatorial staff to be made into full-scale dioramas for the exhibition.

Our five teams recently sent us some progress photos, and it looks like they are making amazing progress:

Federal Way High School:

Kids Design Glass piece: Hamburger Cowboy (James Barr, age 7)

Diorama Title: Hamburger Cowboy – The Good, the Bad and the Meaty

This diorama is set in the town of Greasy Gulch, where Hamburger Cowboy and his sheriff Frank Furt defend the saloon from some seriously evil extraterrestrial veggies.

A close-up of one of the aliens threatening the peace of Greasy Gulch.

Lincoln High School:

Kids Design Glass piece: Blinky the Crab (Calvin Christoph, age 10)

Diorama Title: Blinky the Crab

The diorama (represented here by a scale drawing) will feature the “scene of the crime” from Blinky the Crab’s original artist statement – the fridge where Blinky consumes the radioactive donut.

Students Belen Contreras, Angel Zuniga and Jorge Zuniga from Lincoln High School are developing new skills in sewing and textiles to make parts of their diorama.

Tacoma School of the Arts:

Kids Design Glass piece: Girls Night!!! (Madeline Teddy, age 10)

Diorama Title: Girls Night!!! This dolphin is ready for a girls night out!

Student Emma Jury is designing an underwater city, including the Dancing Bowl, where renowned underwater fashion designer Penelope the dolphin spends many evenings out dancing with the girls.

SOTA students work on constructing buildings for their diorama.

Thomas Jefferson High School:

Kids Design Glass piece: Dino Guy (Mia Perfetti, age 7)

Diorama title: The Phantom of Katy’s Candy Store

A mockup of the diorama from Thomas Jefferson High School. It features Dino Guy as the Phantom, a character who lives underground in the sewer system and comes up at night to raid the candy store.

Students at Thomas Jefferson High School have successfully finished building the wood frame for their diorama. They are using a foam replica of Dino Guy to make sure they are building everything to scale.

Wilson High School:

Kids Design Glass piece: Sockness Monster (Hannah Wilson, age 11)

Diorama title: Welcome to my Crib!

Since Wilson High School has a Hot Shop, their team is working on hot-sculpting several elements for their diorama. Students Jonah Ellestad, Cordell Corbin and instructor Tony Sorgenfrei are seen here working on a hot-sculpted couch.

Students from Tacoma’s Wilson High School are recreating the washing machine home of the Sockness Monster, partly inspired by the swampy home of Scotland’s infamous Lochness Monster. This sketch details some of the components of the diorama.

These dioramas will be installed and on view at Museum of Glass April 22, 2015. Come check them out!

Katie Phelps is the Curatorial Assistant/Visiting Artist Coordinator at Museum of Glass. She is an alumnus of Whitman College (BA) and University of Washington (MA). In her life outside of the Museum she is outside as much as possible, wearing skis as often as she does hiking boots.