Client: Crocker Art Museum
Location: Sacramento, CA, United States
Completion date: 2017
Artwork budget: $10,000
Project Team
Client
Stacey Shelnut-Hendrick
Crocker Art Museum
Industry Resource
Modabloom
Modabloom
Artist
Sonja White
Industry Resource
Hacker Lab
Overview
Providing a rich aesthetic and educational experience, Wingding is an immersive art installation created for children under 5 and their caregivers and funded by IMLS and First 5 grants. Wingding integrates a sculptural geometric landscape into a 900 square foot curvilinear gallery, capitalizing on natural architectural elements. The installation is comprised of hundreds of shapes, from 6”-8’, massive wooden sculptures meant to be stacked, spun, changed, sat and climbed upon, facilitating creativity and meaningful ways for children and caregivers to connect and wonder together.
Goals
Wingding was commissioned by the Crocker Art Museum for the “All about Families” initiative. The goals being: Provide meaningful, developmentally appropriate ways for early learners to connect and engage with the world around them, promote cognitive development for early learners through interactive art experiences with parents and their caregivers, provide resources for parents and caregivers that promote developmentally appropriate practices connected to art, increase the museum’s capacity to serve children ages 0-6 and their caregivers. All of these elements were the frameworks for the design of Wingding.
Process
Working collaboratively with museum staff and early childhood professionals to gain a thorough understanding of children’s developmental needs, the artist engaged with the museum’s early childhood programs while designing elements of Wingding, meeting monthly with advisors for feedback. Cnc and Laser cutting elements were implemented and carried out by Modabloom and associates art fabrication. Musical elements to incorporate sound, language, and increased atmospheric value by Casey Lipka, musician.
Additional Information
The interactive elements encourage multiple learning styles, be it visual, auditory, or kinesthetic, tapping into creative and critical thinking skills as they create and decipher patterns and designs as well as large motor skills as they navigate their bodies across the multi level landscape.