Architecture and Families

Hello everyone,

I'm Anthony, again, one of the fifteen TAC interns at the CJM, blogging today.

A lot has happened within the last month. We've had a workshop for teens and a fabulous, fun, free, Family Day.

A few weeks ago, Ronald Rael from Rael San Fratello Architects came to the CJM for our Art Buffs workshop on Architecture and Activism. He showed us a really cool keynote presentation that contained a lot of his work. All of these projects were concerned with breaking the "rules" and allowing people to interact with each other. My personal favorite was The Bay Line, one of their projects that transforms the eastern span of the Bay Bridge into public and private spaces.

After his presentation, we got into small groups and created our own architecture with a purpose. We only had one limitation-we had to build a bus stop. With that in mind, we got to work, building and creating our own socially conscious structures.

I was extremely ecstatic to be able to build a model using our ideas, but being able to see what the other groups came up with was the highlight of this whole experience. One of the groups created an eco-friendly bus stop that was part of a city wide competition. Whichever neighborhood gets the most points (recycles the most) gets perks. It was such a good idea. I'm a little bit jealous that I didn't come up with that one.

Ronald Rael posted a little something on his website about us. It's here!

Moving on...

... Last week was Yerba Buena Family Day presented by Target. That meant that admission to the CJM was FREE! Along with that, people, people, and more people came here.

During the day, there was a lot going on. There was continuous art-making activities. There were multiple performances of a magic show that I chose not to see and now regret. Of course, Houdini: Art and Magic was open to everyone. And then there was the people greeting.

Oh, the people greeting. Around two hours before closing, Leah, our (the TAC) boss lady, made an executive decision to station me as a greeter at the bottom of the staircase. At first, I kind of just stood there and like stared at the people who passed by. That wasn't good enough. Leah wanted me to say something along the lines of, "Hello, how are you doing?" to the visitors while smiling.

The whole thing was pretty awkward, but sooner or later, I got the hang of things. I even saw people smiling back and replying to my greetings. While I got pushed a little out of my comfort zone, I'm happy that I did. Growth requires work. Growth requires a little pain. Growth requires sweat, which I'm pretty sure I was covered with. Growth is good.

Overall, Family Day was great. The CJM was bustling, always a good sight to see. Moreover, my working here as part of the TAC internship is proving to be an experience of growth and support, a wonderful mix indeed.