ARTFUNHOUSE

Art. Fun. House. These three words form the title of the current Dana Art Gallery show. They represent the ideals of creativity, pure joy, and community that the arts can provide and that we are in desperate need of in our daily lives right now. ARTFUNHOUSE! It is a community-created installation full of colorful abstract patterns, floor to ceiling. A painted path leads through a giant archway made of a stack of painted cardboard boxes, up to a set of steps that go up to a long slide surrounded by painted walls. Colorfully painted boxes seem to float near the ceiling. There is even a swing in the gallery—a fan favorite, especially with the Middle School students. Students have already started taking selfies and TikTok videos in this colorful wonderland.

The gallery had been more or less vacant for the past year and a half because of the pandemic, and so the first gallery show back to “normal” needed to be more than a collection of paintings or photographs: it had to start off with a BANG and bring the JOY! And now the students cannot get enough. It was inspired by art installations like Yayoi Kusama’s “LOVE IS CALLING” at the ICA in Boston and pattern artists like Odili Donald Odita, and has been quite a process: all of the walls and floor were covered with cardboard and painted white.  Architecture students designed and built the playhouse-like structure out of cardboard and insulation foam.

Then students were invited to draw abstract shapes all over the place, mix up colors and start painting. Day after day for the past four weeks, students and others added their painted shape to the large, blank canvas, and day by day turned it into a world of hundreds of colors, swirling shapes, and an atmosphere of pure joy. In the process they have learned to be creative, and see how little by little they can work together to create something big and beautiful. All of the art classes, from 5^th through 12^th grade, as well as visitors, faculty, and other students who wanted to join the fun have contributed to this community art project (almost 200 artists), which has evolved into a cross between an amusement park, a three-dimensional zentangle, and a coloring book that you can walk into.

The installation should be complete by the end of the week and will be on display until Friday, October 15. Everyone is invited to participate, so please stop by! There is still painting to be done! It is so fun and “so satisfying.” At the end of the show, participants and visitors can come into the gallery, outline a section of the walls, and take it home with them, taking a piece of the joy and experience with them, a little art and fun for their own house.