12/18/2011

On a frigid afternoon in December, a group of Lowellians gathered at Armory Park not really knowing what to expect.

During the weeks prior, there was much talk of a Lowell “Flashmob”event but details were few and far between. Invites were sent on facebook alluding to a “Flashmob Yankee-Swap” or “Flashmob Sunday” by an elusive John Smith aka (Santa’s Little Helper Elf, Community Advisor at Santa, from the North Pole, Alaska). His profile pic featured an animated cartoon Santa extending gifts in his hands.

Invitees were encouraged to bring a home-made gift: a piece of art, a mixed cd, etc. and assemble at noon in Armory Park.

Little clues were posted on the event page in the days prior: a video of The Police’s “Message in a Bottle” and Nena’s “99 Luft Ballons” but nothing could have prepared this group of gatherers what was in store for them.

That morning Santa’s little helpers were certainly on task. Members of MillCityFlashMOB were busily inflating balloons and tying postcards to strings, amongst other tasks to prepare for the event.

On that bone-chilling day, Master of Ceremonies Obehi Janice kicked off the event with her megaphone, exclaiming “Okay everyone, jump up and down if you’re cold! “Twirl around if your cold!” “Hug someone if you’re cold! This is about community!”

Participants were asked to tie their balloons around their wrists and write a personal message on postcard that would hopefully make its way to someone, somewhere.

While helpers were arranging and separating balloons and attaching postcards that had actual QR codes on them, Obehi Janice asked “So who knows everyone at this flash mob today?” Everyone was instructed to get into a circle.

While the “Funky Chicken” played, gift-givers were asked to pass their gifts to the right, then to the left,  then to someone wearing a different color as them.

“Now pass the gift to someone who lives in a different neighborhood as you,” Janice exclaimed. “Meet someone new, make conversation!”

Armed with biodegreable balloons, strings and postcards, about 50 Lowell residents then made their way down to Lord Overpass.

Obehi Janice used her leadership skills to get everyone to complete a square around all four sides of the Lord overpass.

Many cars passing by honked their horns and were met with cheer from the Mill City flashmob crew.

When you see Santa Claus, release the balloons, people!” exclaimed Janice.  And so, they waited.  Suddenly, Santa was seen making his way on bicycle below the overpass.

The crowd released their balloons and watched as 50 plus balloons crawled up into the sky carrying messages of holiday cheer. One postcard said “be gentle with yourself.” Soon the sky was filled with balloons and the crowd cheered.

After the release of the balloons, everyone headed to the Revolving Museum to open up a wide array of swapped gifts: a hand-written book of quotes, a poem, mixed cds, scrap-books, art-work, sculptures, etc. Gift givers took part in hot cocoa, cookies, and community.

Mauricio Cordero, Executive Director of the Revolving Museum, was the recipient of the hand-written book of quotes. “Having been so caught up with work and then to see this–people coming together to exchange their time, seeing people provide for one another in this kind of way and letting loose and laughing, I feel like for me personally, this is the beginning of my holiday season,” he said.  He then thanked everyone for coming and invited everyone back to The Revolving Musuem’s 2012 opening reception on January 6, 2012.

“This event was totally fun. I got some lovely, dilly beans from Santa Claus and we released the balloons into the air. I got to write a special message and it went away in the wind so hopefully a middle-schooler will find it,” said Lowell resident, Kristen Angelos.

“This was an amazing turn out. I wasn’t sure exactly how many people were going to show up, but everyone made it awesome. All the balloons going off all at the same time—it was a beautiful sight. The music was cool and everyone that helped out did an awesome job and I’m just so happy that a community can come together and share such an awesome experience. I loved it. I absolutely loved it,” said Sam Antonaccio.

Obehi Janice, the event’s MC commented by saying: “This was amazing. And I got to use a megaphone but I’m a little upset that no one believes in Santa Claus, she laughed. No really, it’s just nice to see such spontaneity and all good things associated with this wonderful, holiday season.”

Two days later, a resident on the Southshore found one of the postcards.

For more information about the Mill City Flash Mob event, please visit: http://www.facebook.com/MillCityFlashMOB.

http://www.vimeo.com/34063935

culturehive is looking for artists who would like to create artist profiles on
the culturehive website.  Artists can 1) create an account and
upload photos and information by themselves, 2) email material, or
3) culturehive can transfer material from a website. No mater which
option is chosen, culturehive is happy to work closely with anyone who would
like to create a profile.

This material makes up the best artist profiles:

1) 5-10 photos (or more) of artwork.
2) A biographical or artist statement.
3) Photo of the artist or a photo representing the artist.
4) Links to websites with the artist’s work.

If you’re interested, please use the contact link above to send a message and we’ll be happy to work closely with you to get your work on the site.

12/17/2011

12/16/2011 – Jamaican students traveled from Jamaica to Worcester, MA for the FIRST Lego competition as part of the Lego Yuh Mind after school club run by Marvin Hall. Hall runs a company called Halls of Learning which provides high quality educational experiences for young people.

In addition to participating in the FIRST Lego competition, the group visited Harmonix, the creator of Rock Band, and the Revolving Museum. Adam Norton, artist educator, gave an Artbotics workshop to the students at the Revolving Museum. Artbotics is a program where students work with robotic technology to create art. The group from Lego Yuh Mind worked with the Cricket, a small robot with wheels, to draw patterns with markers on paper. Cricket is a good educational tool because it is easily programmable and therefore was well suited for the hour-long workshop given to the Lego Yuh Mind middle school aged students.

Hall received his undergraduate degree in computer science and had an interest in teaching programming to children. That idea evolved into Halls of Learning which runs five different courses as part of the Lego Yuh Mind program. The courses are tailored toward different age groups, between 3 and 15 years old. In addition to the courses, he runs the after school club for students who have a more in-depth interest in robotics. The club has an international trip every year. The students visiting the Revolving Museum are part of that club.

Artbotics attracted Hall because it fuses art and technology. He would like to have more girls participate in his programs, so he is interested in how the art aspect of the Artbotics program might attract more  girls to Lego Yuh Mind. He described the concept of a “head fake”, the idea of introducing educational topics in a fun or interesting way so the hard work required to learn a topic in-depth will continue to be fun, even after the introduction stage. The art aspect would provide the “head fake” to learning about computer programming and robotics.

Halls of Learning has also done some charitable work by teaching workshops in under-served communities. Scholarships were given to these students with some of the money generated from student tuition. The Lego Yuh Mind program provides all the necessary equipment for students to complete their courses, including net books. The net books were especially important in teaching the classes in the under-served communities where electricity was not readily available.

Hall feels the international travel aspect of the robotics club is important  because it expands students’ horizons in ways that might not be possible in Jamaica. For example, Jamaica does not have a science museum, so he took the students to the Boston Museum of Science on their trip.

For more information on Halls of Learning, visit Halls of Learning. For more information on Artbotics, visit Artbotics.

culturehive.com is a site about bringing together creative people and their supporters. That’s why blog.culturehive.com was just launched – to do just that.

culturehive.com is looking to bring together writers and photographers to contribute to blog.culturehive.com. Writers will contribute articles about events in the Lowell/Boston area, profiles on interesting people and other topics which relate to the cultural scene. Photographers will contribute photos of events in the area, take photos to support writers’ articles and photograph creative and cultural scenes. Contributors can choose to cover a topic from a list of suggested topics or feel free to submit content based on original ideas.

Contributors of accepted articles or photos will be paid $5 per post in which the content is used to cover expenses incurred while creating the content.

If you or someone you know are interested in being a content contributor, please send a message using the contact link near the top of the page.