Session: Advanced Design/Build and Protest + Print, After-School Fall 2020

Builders and Artists: 13 builders and 11 artists, 9th-12th grade

Materials +  tools: Plywood, dimensional lumber, corrugated roofing, risograph posters, wheat paste, hardware, chop saw, tablesaw, circular saw, drills and drivers

Description: In the fall session of Advanced Design/Build led by Allison Oropallo, Hallie Chen, and Emily Pilloton, girls built a fridge enclosure and pantry for Town Fridge, a grassroots group working to provide free food to those in need in our community. The shed-style structure was constructed by girls using a simple framed floor, vertical posts, and framed and clad roof. On one side of the enclosure, a built-in cupboard was installed to hold additional canned and dry goods. In parallel, Protest + Print participants created the mural—featuring inspiring women paired with powerful words—that adorns the exterior. Each of the posters that make up the gridded mural includes a photographic figure of a person admired by girls, plus additional imagery, patterns, and words, added by girls themselves. The concept for this mural comes from the recent tearing down of monuments around the country, and question: “Who do we wish to monumentalize?” The artistic work has been titled “Living Monuments” and was led by our Protest + Print instructor, HyeYoon Song. Our mutual aid refrigerator enclosure is installed outside of Radically Fit in the Fruitvale district of Oakland.