Grain Summer Workshops at Open Satellite!

Do you know any Seattle-area teens curious about design?

Grain is leading two two-week design workshops for teens (12 - 15 years old) at Bellevue's Open Satellite residency space this summer and we are looking participants!

Teens will walk away with a design process tool kit that includes concept development, learning how to refine ideas, creating prototypes, and developing presentation skills. The hands-on workshop will culminate in a weekend public showcase of teen prototypes and products that will coincide with the Bellevue Arts Museum's Art Fair.

The workshops will run June 28th - July 10th and July 12th - July 23rd with the special weekend exhibition at Open Satellite July 24th - 25th.

For more info, please contact Open Satellite Public Programs Manager, Laura O'Quin at laura [at] opensatellite.org or at 425.454.7355.

Project H Seattle Chapter

James and I are excited to be volunteering with the newly formed Project H Seattle Chapter. We have only had three meetings, but it is a really great group and we are looking forward to the possibilities. We recently visited Morningside Academy, a local school, to gain some insights into their model and facility. The plan is to identify some design opportunities that can be executed at Morningside while being scalable to other schools as well. We'll keep you posted as we move forward!

For more information on Project H or to get involved here in Seattle, go here.

Bellevue By Design

If you are a Seattle-area teen interested in art and design, you should check out this new program called Bellevue By Design that Chelsea Green of Grain will be leading at Open Satellite this July 13 - 31st, 2009. The program will run Monday - Friday 10:00 am - 3:00 pm. Here is the full description:

Bellevue By Design is a three-week, college prep/intensive exploration for local teens passionate about art, design, and architecture. Participants will engage in the public and private identity-building processes of their hometown. Through meetings with local artists and community stakeholders, guided field work, and studio art making, teens will have the opportunity to reshape their city with a rich (and unexpected) array of tools and information. A final presentation of the teens’ research, process, and design solutions will be publicly presented at Open Satellite or at a Bellevue partner organization.

To learn more about the program please contact Laura O'Quin at laura@opensatellite.org or 425.454.7355.

Design for Local Sustainability

Check out the final projects of Sami's Design for Social Entrepreneurship class at RISD on their website! Amazing work!

Re+Vision at Olympic Sculpture Park

Come check out the Re+Vision: Design Your (Neighbor)hood final designs at the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle. The reception/presentation is August 7th from 6:00 - 8:00 pm.

The show will stay up through August 22nd. Grain's own Chelsea Green was the Project Manager for this exciting 6-week design education program at the Seattle Art Museum. Read more about the program on their teen-run blog.

Sami Nerenberg to teach new RISD studio: Design for Social Entrepreneurship!

The Rhode Island School of Design has asked our Sami Nerenberg to develop and teach a new course in RISD's industrial design department! Her answer? An innovative new senior studio: Design for Social Entrepreneurship. Reading the course description (below) it sounds like it will be an amazing and inspirational experience for the lucky RISD students who get to take her class. Makes me want to go back to school! We'll keep you posted as the course develops.

Design for Social Entrepreneurship (DeSE)
RISD Fall '08

A social entrepreneur is someone who recognizes a social problem and uses entrepreneurial principles to organize, create, and manage a venture to make social change. This course aims to cultivate social entrepreneurial designers by investigating the power of product, system and service design to create positive social and environmental change. Looking at both international and domestic issues, this course asks, how can design and design thinking be used to solve the world’s leading problems to achieve triple bottom line sustainability—environmentally, socially, and economically? Structured around holistic thinking, collaborative and individual design work, with mentorship from experts in the field, this course uncovers how to design products and/or services, wrap a business around it, and create tangible positive impact in our world today.

>Sami's Blog
>RISD
>Grain

Re+Vision: Design Your (Neighbor)hood

Grain's Chelsea Green is leading an exciting program at the Seattle Art Museum this summer called Re+Vision: Design Your (Neighbor)hood. It is for Seattle area teens (13-19 years old) who are interested in being design thinkers and change makers in their urban environment. They will meet June 30th - August 8th, Monday - Friday 9:30 am - 3:30 pm at the Seattle Art Museum downtown. The program is totally FREE!!

Please spread the word to any Seattle teens who may be interested!! The official deadline is this Friday, June 6th 5:00 pm (but it may be extended). Contact Chelsea as soon as possible for more info.