Welding for Teens

Investigate new materials and approaches to building sculpture in this two-week exploratory workshop. Students discover innovative ways to combine different materials, creating dynamic mixed-media sculptures. This workshop experiments with adding different materials to students’ work — such as clay, steel, and found objects — while considering how each adds formal information and intensified content. A rigorous studio environment gives access to a variety of new materials and fresh ways of approaching students’ studio practice. The workshop is open to students working in any media who are looking to try something different and add new skills to their toolbox.

Throughout art history, steel has been associated with industry, strength, and even violence. This workshop challenges those associations by exploring ways to make steel appear visually delicate, and by creating new meanings through its combination with materials of contrasting characteristics. Participants engage in exercises that address both technical and creative questions, including how steel is cut, shaped, and joined, as well as how to rethink its role in a composition—treating steel as a secondary, supporting element rather than the primary focus. Through experimentation, students learn to challenge material assumptions and expand the expressive potential of steel in contemporary sculpture. We explore the aesthetic and technical consequences of combining steel with soft, vulnerable, contradictory, and unexpected materials.

In this foundational paper-making workshop, students transform pulp into one-of-a-kind cast-paper sculptures. Beginning with dry abaca pulp, participants learn to reconstitute, beat, dye, and cast sheets using a traditional mold and deckle. Abaca paper, with its long fibers and impressive wet strength, is ideal for sculptural manipulation. Students mold wet sheets onto objects brought from home, found in the studio, or discovered in the environment. Sewing and gluing techniques are used to combine dried paper forms into cohesive sculptural creations. By the end of the week, students gain a versatile set of paper-making and sculptural skills that can be adapted to any studio environment.