Our Dragon Story Create and play in ASI’s new Family Gallery experience, designed by kids, for kids. Opening February 19. What do dragons eat? Where did they live? How do they get around? Fifth grade students at Hope Academy explored these questions, and more, in the creation and design of ASI’s newest Family Gallery. An ASI staple for 10 years, the Family Gallery on the Turnblad Mansion’s Lower Level is a space where ASI’s youngest visitor to play, touch, read, and explore through imaginative and immersive exhibitions that rotate frequently. This year, ASI turned directly to experts in play to help design the newest Family Gallery experience. Sixty fifth grade students from Hope Academy joined local artists Magdalena Mora, Seth Eberle
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The American Swedish Institute
and Bart Buch, and Trent Stadler to develop an experience inspired by ASI’s featured exhibition, Paper Dialogues: The Dragon and Our Stories. The result is an inviting gallery filled with play elements, illustration, and sculpture, where visitors can explore dragon stories for themselves. But it didn’t happen overnight. Over a three-month period, the students and local artists joined ASI staff for a series of monthly workshops. Each workshop explored a different theme and built toward the final design of the new gallery. In one of the final workshops, the students presented their ideas for interactive elements to be built in the space. The class then voted on their favorites, and it was ASI’s
