It is with such a heavy heart that we share that our host, guide, guardian, visionary, activist, artist, and very dear friend, Shukit Panmongkol has passed away. Shukit Panmongkol brought Thailand to life for us and for all the students who traveled with Handshouse to Thailand…
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Rick and Laura Brown, listening to Maria Piechotka at the final installation of the Gwozdziec Synagogue Project recontronstructed for the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland.
In Honor of Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka
With heavy hearts, Rick and I, and Handshouse Studio wish to honor the lives of Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka. Maria Piechotka recently passed on Nov 28, 2020 and her husband Kazimierz passed in 2010. The Handshouse Studio’s Gwozdziec Synagogue reconstruction for the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews was possible because of their work and research.
Read MoreBuilding Forward
For the first time since Handshouse was officiated as a non-profit in 2002, we are expanding our Board of Directors and employing a year-round staff member. In July of 2020, the Founding Board Members Rick and Laura Brown, Joel McCarty, and Cary Wolinksy formally hired Marie Brown to assume the role of Handshouse Studio’s first Executive Director.
Read MoreWhen the OBJECT we study is Handshouse: The Pedagogy Project
Handshouse Studio has been exploring ways to bring our unique project-based pedagogy to more learners. In July, Art Education faculty, Adriana Katzew, invited Handshouse to be a case subject for her intensive Creating Curriculum summer course at Mass College of Art and Design.
Read MoreHands-On(line)
Throughout the summer, we have been talking with teachers, educators, advisors about what we learned from our Toys for Monkeys and Trojan Horse remote projects. We are exploring the prospect of bringing this project to other institutions, as well as to other age groups of students in partnership with school teachers.
Read MoreMeditations on the Gourd Banjo Project
This week, we decided to reach out to our past Banjo Project participants to have them remind us how this project impacted them, to rejuvenate our resolve, to help us regroup the many past participants, to invite in future banjo makers, and to begin to explore safe ways to continue the project in the strange new world of COVID 19.
Read MoreHands of Handshouse: Krista Lima
Over the past several months we have been working to develop curricula to help spread the stories rediscovered through our Handshouse projects to a broader audience. We have had the pleasure of working with a dedicated team to start this process, one of whom is our long time Handshouse family member, Krista Lima!
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Ailton Correia performing on his Berumbau at a Banjo Project immersive workshop at Handshouse Studio in Norwell, MA August 2018.
Honoring a Hero, Ailton (Nito) Correia
We have lost a hero. Ailton (Nito) Correia, a rising star in Industrial Design at Massachusetts College of Art, a central member of our Handshouse family, a Capoeira performer, a Cape Verdean-American from Amherst, MA, an artist and so many things, most important of which being a very, very dear friend to so many…
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Prototype and sketch of the Swivel Box Puzzle Feeder by Mallory DePoe
Monkeys?! Marvelous!
This is the time of year, The Toys for Elephants project class would normally be delivering a fleet of enrichment toys to Emily and Ruth, the Elephants at the Buttonwood Park Zoo in New Bedford. Circumstances this year turned out to be a little bit different. Students in the 2020 Massachusetts College of Art and Design Toys for Elephants class did not let these circumstances get them down however, they just found a slightly smaller group of clients at the zoo. The Monkeys!
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The “Rainbow Bridge” elephant enrichment toy, one of the 2019 toys designed & built by Massachusetts College of Art & Design Toys for Elephants students
10 Years of Toys for Elephants
This week each year is a special one for Handshouse Studio & the Buttonwood Park Zoo. Students from the Mass College of Art & Design Toys for Elephants class deliver unique enrichment objects they have designed & built during the course of this semester-long Handshouse Studio workshop to Emily & Ruth, Buttonwood Park Zoo’s resident elephants. This week would have marked the 10th consecutive year of designing, building & delivering enrichment objects for these elephants & their managers.
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