If you created a town from scratch, what would it be like?
- Who would live there?
- What businesses would be there?
- What amenities would it include?
- What would the buildings look like?
- What laws would you enact?
- What expectations would you have for the citizenry?
These are exactly the questions that the participants in our Arts & Smarts Program have been tackling recently. They’re working together to design “Patchwork Town” and its citizens. After creating the setting and characters, they’re writing a story about them.
The entire project began in a special way. Seth, who has been a high school volunteer in the Arts & Smarts Program since 2022, is graduating this spring and wanted to lead a special project within this program that he had come to enjoy so much. The project he proposed was “The Magical Patchwork Town Storybook.”
To begin, Seth created character sheets to help the younger kids create their own characters complete with sketches of their character and their character’s home, written descriptions of character traits, and written descriptions of their character’s sparks (the things that bring the character joy).
Seth’s original idea was to take the characters and build them into a story with the kids. But, this is where the project took off in new and unexpected ways. At this point, Seth’s project joined with another major project from this spring: studying the art and children’s books of Faith Ringgold. Specifically, the group listened to Ringgold read her book Tar Beach, a semi-autobiographical book in which a girl living in New York City dreams of flying over her home, seeing the city she loves laid out beneath her in her sleep.
In response to Tar Beach, the kids created buildings in Patchwork’s ceramics studio. Originally, the buildings were going to make up a basic cityscape, but now they’ll be Patchwork Town. Additionally, discussions about how to work together as a group grew into a bigger discussion that laid out a “town charter” for Patchwork Town and its citizens. According to the town charter, the laws and rules of Patchwork Town include:
- Follow the Patchwork Arts & Smarts Creed
- No littering
- Follow the speed limit
- No being mean
- There should be nothing scary/harmful
- No denying customers
Potential slogans for the town include:
- The Amazing City
- The Patchwork that Laughs Every Day
The town includes:
- A park that includes a slide, swings, basketball, a rock wall, soccer, baseball, and monkey bars
- Trees, plants, a garden, and a water fountain
- A police station
- A grocery store
- Taco Tuesday
- A “Stay Positive” flag
- A skate park
- A news station
- A carnival
- Recycling for repurposing and edible food wrappers to cut down on trash
- A community center
- An arcade
- Book boxes
- And much, much more!
Going back to Seth’s original idea, the group will now create a story using the characters they created, this wonderful city they have constructed, and the detailed description of what life is like there. Seth is leading the story writing and is helping the younger kids decide what will happen in the story. So far, the story involves a monster who accidentally messes everything up in Patchwork Town, but then the kids of Patchwork Town help him discover his sparks and everything works out for the better. One of Seth’s sparks is graphic design, so Seth will take the story and combine it with the kids’ illustrations to make a book.
Stay tuned to hear how it all turns out!