WILHELMINA PERAGINE
wilhelmina.peragine@mail.harvard.edu :: 504.669.0871
RECENT INNOVATIONS and PROJECTS:
Parkolation - In an education innovation class I took this spring at the Harvard i-lab, I co-created the business plan for a venture that would put high school students at the helm of the urban greenovation movement in Boston. One component of this movement is parklets,
mini-parks that take up two-three metered parking
spaces, making streets more human-centered and green. Parklets are usually designed and built by high-end design firms but we wanted to put high school students in these roles, giving them the power to envision, design, construct and change their own
city. I am starting work on a pilot version of Parkolation this fall at Boston Green Academy, choreographing a group of students, volunteer graduate students, a mentor architecture firm and the city to bring student parklet ideas to life.
CIRQ - As part of the class Designing for Learning by Creating, I co-created a curriculum to
teach the physics of simple machines. We used Alexander Calder’s circus as an
inspiration and organized our units around the creation of a menagerie of
circus creatures, utilizing levers, pulleys, screws etc. with simple and found
materials (wire, clay, popsicle sticks).
Here is an alligator, spawned from a love of art+science:
Exquisite Portraits Installation -
For Harvard's annual Arts First Festival, a colleague and I created an
installation on Harvard Yard. Our 3-sided drawing kiosk was designed to
facilitate the collective creation of "exquisite portraits," or
whimsically morphed visages.
PERTINENT WORK WITH STUDENTS
Louisiana Wetlands Mural Collage - As an art teacher I often collaborated with teachers in various subject areas to deepen the learning that was happening in class. One example of this collaborative work was our 4th grade Wetlands mural. Myself and the 4th grade science teacher wanted to increase the whole school's
awareness of wetlands protection, as an informal pre-unit survey
uncovered an almost total lack of knowledge about this vital local ecosystem. We worked together with a naturalist to research various wetland inhabitants and their interrelation. We then constructed this giant collage to which we also added wetland facts, many of which were alarming (but also inspiring). The students were proud of their work, proud of their new knowledge and excited to spread the word about wetlands protection.
More Media - Most of my students in both New Orleans and Austin had never had an art class or, if they had, their experience with media other than colored pencils was limited.
To address this need, I wrote grants to ensure that my middle school students, in particular, could have some multi-media visual arts experiences. I was awarded grants for sketchbooks, clay, a drying rack and canvases. All of these materials helped to heighten the quality of students' processes and products. At the end of each year, students had documentation of their iterative process, via their sketchbooks, and lasting works of which they were proud.
ART WORKS
Recent work
I love to paint, draw and construct just about anything, just about anywhere. I have enjoyed creating formal and commissioned works but I also relish spontaneous requests to make restaurant chalk art or paint faces. Much of my subjects are environmentally related - landscapes, botanical illustrations - but I love stretching myself so I always welcome a challenge.
