Riveropolis: A Watershed Installation for Boat Making and Magic
San Francisco artist Gregory Gavin says that since he was a kid he has “returned to creeks to feed my imagination. Finally it occurred to me . . . it was the creek itself I wanted to return with from the forest.”
In a presentation at San Francisco’s de Young Museum in 2006, Gavin proposed perhaps the world’s first company specializing in the creation of miniature rivers. Since then, he has been creating rivers all over the Bay Area under the name Riveropolis. This Sunday, you’ll have the chance to experience two amazing undertakings:
First, Gavin will set up a kinetic, quiet large and fast moving play river to build and experiment with boats.
Then, inside the geometry of the Park Day gazebo, Gavin will construct an idiosyncratic “archipelago” of floating islands “that I discovered this summer while teaching river camp.
Gregory will also participate on the 12PM “Maker Programs in East Bay Schools” panel presentation/discussion session in the Studio One Theater.
Gavin has been commissioned by National Endowment for the Arts, the de Young Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, the Seattle Public Art Program, the Potrero Nuevo Fund Prize, and the Bay Area Discovery Museum. He teaches intermittently at the California College of the Arts and is a California Arts Council Fellow. He also teaches summer RIVER CAMP sessions at CAMP 510 at Park Day School, and the San Francisco School. We’re really excited to have him at the Faire!
The Maker Way of Learning: Gever Tulley
School just started Tuesday at Park Day, and there’s only six weeks to go to the East Bay Mini Maker Faire. So to get in the mood and generate some juice, we’ve invited author, teacher and tinkerer Gever Tulley to speak to the Park Day School’s Parent Participation Association on “The Maker Way of Learning.” The talk will be this coming Wednesday evening, September 15th, at the Park campus’s new Magnolia Building (old Matilda Brown building).
I first ran into Gever 4 years or so ago when searching for some un-boring content for a parent education series I was programming for my youngest son’s preschool. Searching the internet, somehow I ran across Gever’s now infamous TED talk, “5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Children Do”.
That 2007 talk has now morphed into a fabulous book, “50 Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do).” Gever explores simple things that we can do to raise our kids to be creative, confident, and in control of the environment around us. Things like letting our kids play with fire, own a pocket knife, and throw a spear.
Gever is also co-founder of the Tinkering School, a sleep-away camp in San Mateo County where kids do hands-on exploration and experimentation, building and making.
Gever’s spirit and approach might be summed up by his teenage babysitting rule: “If you’re going to play with fire, we have to go outside.” It took him many years to come back to that philosophy and shape it into a life’s mission, but we’re ever so glad he did — and are very happy to welcome him to Park Day School.
Gever’s talk will cover the fundamental principles of Tinkering School and looks at how making can be a powerful alternative to traditional education approaches. (If you’re interested in attending the lecture and are not a family at Park Day School, please write to info@ebmakerfaire.org for more information.)