Artful Advocates Workshop Series
In the Heart of the Beast is excited to announce Artful Advocates Workshops: a 3 month series of free online workshops for elementary-aged children!
HOBT teaching artists will guide your children through an art-making workshop on Saturday mornings.
Together we'll build a sense of confidence and connection, helping children to fall in love with the earth and know they are powerful agents of change.
Missed a Workshop? Check out the links in the Past Workshops section below to watch the workshops recorded live on our Facebook!
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Workshop Schedule
Imagine the Future Zine Making Workshop with Graci Horne
Saturday, July 31st, 10-11am
Imagine a world peaceful and green. How does that look and what steps can we take to protect and care for our home? This workshop is designed to show participants how to make their very own zine publication.
Past Workshops
Miss a live workshop? You can re-watch them at the links below!
My Dream's Doon with Ifrah Mansour
Saturday, July 24th, 10-11am
Where do you want to go?
My Dream’s Doon is a hands-on artful boat-making lesson inspired by indegious Somali hut building representing the cultural significance of belonging, resilience, and healing. Our imagination is the most powerful gift in exercising our mental health and our community’s well-being. So, where do you want your dreams to take you? How about your community and our planet? Let’s build a boat for our dreams.
Make a Homemade Solar Oven with Yani Foreman
Saturday, July 17th, 10-11am
Too hot to bake in your house?! I have the remedy. Participants will learn how to build their own solar powered ovens in this workshop. Great for cooking s'mores!
Illuminating Climate Justice: a shadow puppetry workshop with Oanh Vu
Saturday, July 10th, 10-11am
Record breaking heat, drought, floods, sea levels rising and destroying complex ecosystems- we are in a climate crisis! We are all impacted - humans, animals, and the natural world, but who is most at risk? And what can we do about it? Let’s explore these questions by playing with light and shadow. Using cardstock and recycled materials you’ll learn to make simple puppets that reflect light and cast shadows. By the end you’ll have the tools to put on a short shadow puppet show that encourages others to take action against climate injustice!
Contraption Makers with Yani Foreman!
Saturday, June 26th, 10-11am
Quarantine got you down? Stuck at home and tired of playing with the same toys/games? Well, I've got a remedy and it's also a great way we can cut down on pollution. And a bonus is we can use things in our homes to make it. What is it? A RUBE GOLDBERG MACHINE!!!!!!
A Rube Goldberg machine is a chain reaction-type machine or contraption designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way.
From Trash to Treasure: Make a Puppet and Puppet Show with Oanh Vu!
Saturday, June 19th, 10-11am
What are the important ways we can reduce waste and recycle? And why is it important? Hmm, sounds potentially boring...but not if it’s a puppet show! Using recycled materials, make a simple glove puppet and then make a puppet show to encourage others to help reduce, reuse, and recycle!
My Dream’s Nuur with Ifrah Mansour
Saturday, June 12th, 10-11am
Where do you need light?
My Dream’s Nuur is a hands-on artful Lamp making lesson inspired by indigenous Somali hut building representing the cultural significance of belonging, resilience, and healing. Since we are living in such scary painful times, our imagination is the most powerful gift in exercising our mental health and our community’s well-being. So, where do you need light for yourself?, where does your community and our planet need light? Let’s play and build a lamp for our dreams.
Watch the Workshop on Facebook!
Recycle, Reuse, Make Your Own Mask with Graci Horne!
Saturday, June 5th, 10-11am
Aren’t you tired of throwing away masks? Well here is a wonderful way to reuse the items found in your home. Participants will learn how to make their own mask from recycled T-shirts. Design and decorate global messages to encourage others to go green.
May 29th: Airbender Gliders with Yani Foreman!
What if an Airbender could save the world from pollution/climate change? How would they use their powers to bring change? In this workshop, participants will learn how to harness the wind in their way by creating Airbender Gliders ( Kites ) like the one Aang uses to fly. Inspired by the popular kids show Avatar: The Last Airbender, students will learn about the power of clean air and sustainability and how they can use their creative powers to create a better world.
May 22th: Create a Crankie, Save our Water! with Oanh Vu
Water is necessary for every facet of life on this Earth, but how can we protect it and ensure it’s safe for all (animals included!) now and for generations to come? In this workshop, come learn how to keep our water safe by making a crankie, a rotating illustrated scroll, about the water cycle.
A crankie is an old storytelling form consisting of a long illustrated scroll that is wound on two spools and loaded in a box that has a viewing screen.
Call to Action and Outdoor Activity!
Watch the workshop on Facebook
May 15th: My Dream Aqal with Ifrah Mansour
May 8th: Make Your Own Eco Buddy with Graci Horne!
Graci Horne will lead participants in creating “eco buddies” using found natural objects (sticks, acorns, stones etc).
Join us for youth-oriented art workshops Saturday mornings this Summer!
We have partnered with four local artists who will take turns leading Saturday morning workshops from May through July. These artists will lead participants through art projects exploring the following themes:
May: Protecting Natural Resources
June: Preventing Waste and Recycling
July: Taking Action on Climate Change
Each one-hour workshop will include the following activities:
- a hands-on art-making activity that can be completed at home
- a follow-up outdoor activity
- a call to action to translate your art into environmental action!
Accessibility
Due to COVID-19, all workshops will be happening virtually and can be streamed live on our Facebook page.
We are currently offering the workshops in English, with ASL interpretation upon request. We are able to provide written workshop materials and descriptions translated into Spanish, Hmong, and Somali upon request.
If you have accessibility questions or requests, please email [email protected].
We can’t wait to explore, imagine, and create together as we help the young children in your life connect with the natural world within and around them!
This project was supported by the Hennepin County Green Partners environmental education program. For more information: www.hennepin.us/greenpartners
Meet the Artists
Ifrah Mansour is a Somali, refugee, Muslim, multimedia artist, and an educator based in Minnesota. Her artwork explores trauma through the eyes of children to uncover the resiliencies of blacks, Muslims, and refugees. She interweaves poetry, puppetry, films, and installations. Her critically-acclaimed works include, "How to Have Fun in a Civil War" play, “Can I touch it" installation, "Halima the puppet" installation, "I am a Refugee" poem, and "My aqal" series. She's been featured in Middle East Eye, BBC, Vice, OkayAfrica, Star Tribune, and City Pages.
Yani Foreman
Hello, I am Yani. I am a writer, cinematographer, editor, and educator based out of Minneapolis, MN. I use Filmmaking and Puppetry to bring my stories to life. My work explores themes of healing, trauma, and identity through a Black/Queer/Female gaze that is grounded in spirituality and is centered in play. My purpose as an educator and creator is to empower the next generation to tell their own stories and to trust their unique creative processes.
Hapistinna [female given name; Dakota for third born girl] Graci Horne, was born and raised in Mnisota [Minnesota]. Her bands are the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota people and Hunkpapa Lakota and Dakota people. She is a multi-disciplinary artist, specializing in painting, printmaking, puppet making, photography, film, and poetry.
Horne holds a degree in Museum Studies from the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, NM. Her work is defined by landscape hues and the colors of water and is often rooted in undertones of Dakota culture and social themes. Horne is an Independent Curator and works full time as a Community Artist teaching workshops to ages 5-100 years of age.
Oanh Vu (she/her) is a puppeteer, filmmaker, educator and community organizer. She is a second generation Vietnamese American who grew up in rural Minnesota. She uses humor and the playfulness of puppetry to tell stories of healing for herself and her Southeast Asian community. Her stories feature characters grappling with the past and their pain. Ultimately, they are transformed by the struggle, and able to walk through the world from a place of hope and power. She was a 2020 Puppet Lab Artist and her work has been shared through Monkeybear’s New Puppetworks, the Minnesota Opera Center, Twin Cities Public Television (TPT), the Walker Art Center, and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.