Keeping Kids Creative with Architecture
Did you know that the third week in September is National Keep Kids Creative Week? It was founded by Artist Bruce Van Patter in 2003. He wanted to focus a week on removing distractions from kids being creative. And guess who provides those types of opportunities year-round? Next Great Architects. We are keeping kids creative with the Character Clubhouse Program at The Indianapolis Public Library this fall. During the school year, we keep kids creative with the Artistic STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) after-school club at local schools in Indianapolis, IN. We kept kids creative over the summer with the Career Exploration Charrette for teens. A week just isn’t enough to focus on creativity!
Keeping Kids Creative at the Library
We have started our third tour of the Character Clubhouse Program at the Indianapolis Public Library! This program is created for school age children, but it’s so fun that parents dive in on design too. The children design a clubhouse for their favorite cartoon, super hero or storybook character through modelmaking. We start off reading the book, Jamila Pearl The Architect Girl, to ignite imagination. Then the children eagerly design and build a special place for their client. We’ve had clubhouses for a dinosaur, Miles Morales, Wonder Woman, Super Girl, Poison Ivy, and more. These workshops are free to children, and registering is easy.
Visit indypl.org/calendar and search for the event “Character Clubhouse Design - with Next Great Architects.”
Scroll to the preferred library branch and select register.
Complete the form and show up ready to have fun.
Keeping Kids Creative at School
Our most popular program is the Artistic STEM: Neighborhood Design Residency. The students each design and build a scale model of a house for a client of their choice. Most choose their family, pets or a celebrity they look up to. All the students put their houses together to form a neighborhood. If time permits, we add in community building and spaces like parks and grocery stores. On the final day, we have a neighborhood reveal where the students present their project to an audience of parents. The largest neighborhood we ever built through this program had 16 homes and 16 community spaces!
Keeping Kids Creative over the Summer
Our signature summer program for teens is the Career Exploration Charrette where middle and high school students explore their hobbies, desires or passions as careers through architecture. This year the charrette was hosted by OfficeWorks of Fishers, IN. They served our participants with amazing hospitality, a beautiful space for the students to create and the parents to co-work and an inspiring tour of their headquarters. The students were introduced to the Norwood Neighborhood of Indianapolis, Indiana. We discussed how entrepreneurship is a great way to invest in neighborhoods without pushing people out of their communities. The students imagined their selected careers and envisioned them as businesses to contribute to the Norwood Neighborhood.
The students suggested a school, church, municipal airport, gaming lounge, art/career studio, animal shelter/clinic, fashion warehouse, coding school, finance firm, sneaker store, boba tea bookstore, and architecture firm. The final presentations brought tears to one mom and every parent beamed with pride. We were also joined by a third-year college student majoring in Landscape Architecture. He provided each of the students with encouragement and positive feedback on their projects.
Keeping Kids Creative
We appreciate what Mr. Van Patter started in 2003. Since 2014, we have been keeping kids creative year-round. Check out our previous blog for more ways to keep your kid creative. It will be some of the best memories you can make.
Next Great Architects is an award-winning teaching studio that introduces architecture to students as early as kindergarten and nurtures them through college and licensure. Contact us if you are interested in bringing our programs to your children, schools, or organizations.