Emerson Living Museum
In 2022, Emerson Elementary School in Phoenix partnered with Arizona State University’s Design and Arts Corps to bring art programming into the school. As the artist-in-residence at Emerson, I led a collaborative team of graduate and undergraduate students in the arts, design, theatre, and history programs in supporting a student-driven creative project about the Emerson community. To celebrate their centennial, the seventh and eighth graders developed multiple creative projects (ranging from graphic design, sculpture, and film) to populate a living museum. The projects, which the seventh and eighth graders ideated and developed with the support of the university students, integrated memories from their time at Emerson as well as historical records and documents. The students were also trained to conduct oral history interviews and completed interviews with current and former staff, as well as alumni of the school. These interviews were recorded and embedded as audio accounts accessible via QR codes throughout the museum.
Zombies at Emerson
The largest project within the museum was an original film created by one of the three classes working on the Living Museum. The class selected different roles, including cinematography, makeup design, props creation, set decoration, acting, and sound design. The class devised the plot and edited the final script. The undergraduates working on the project served as advisors in cinematography and art direction. The finished project reflected the students’ experiences during COVID, as well as their relationships with different teachers and peers. It also provided an opportunity to explore their creative agency.
Visual Art Projects
The other classes worked in smaller groups to create a variety of digital art projects. There were several dioramas including a lego version of the school, the volleyball team during a key match, and an outdoor-ed trip to a local mountain that the students remembered fondly from their days in the fourth grade.
In addition to the dioramas, one groups created a monument to the combination football/soccer goal posts, which had been removed the prior school year and were dearly missed. Another group created a magazine that featured the students opinions on trends in fashion, music, and television.
