Session: Carpentry + Wood, Fall 2025

Builders: 16 middle school students

Materials: redwood lumber, cedar shingles, art canvases, acrylic paint, stained glass window by Kerbi Urbanowski

Tools: drill, impact driver, chop saw, nail gun

Description:

For our youngest students, we often work on take-home projects to develop their skills. This fall, we worked on two dual little free library AND little free art gallery that lives in a planter box outside of Mandela Grocery in West Oakland. On the last day of class, we filled teeny canvases with art, packed nail holes with wood filler, added another layer of exterior paint to the siding, and built mini furniture for the gallery. Taking care of these little details took this project to the next level. We can’t get enough of the delightful elements here: the tiny stained glass window by Kerbi Urbanowski, the hardwood flooring in the art gallery, the roofing and siding, and all the handmade artwork by our students.