LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Educators are rising to the challenge posed by remote learning, creating new programs to engage and inspire their students during the pandemic.
To that end, the Life Cube Project will be returning to Las Vegas, connecting art and community at Del Sol Academy of the Performing Arts.
Invited by art teachers who collaborated on earlier Life Cubes in Las Vegas, the project will culminate in an interactive zoom artist talk on March 5 and is expected to reach a thousand high school students.
This pilot program is crafted to encourage students to envision and write down their goals and dreams while creating original art for the Life Cube.
Hildred Faultersack, an art teacher at Del Sol, believes that “the experience of a virtual Life Cube Project will collectively give our students a sense of community and pride as artists, the freedom to enjoy being creative and to help bridge the gap and separation we experience teaching online. I think now is the perfect time to focus on positivity, dreams, and the future!”
The Life Cube Project recently participated in Virtual Burning Man, offering its unique blend of collaborative art and inspirational message to people around the globe. Some of those virtual elements will be reprogrammed to upload and display the students’ goals, dreams and artwork via an Instagram tag for the current Las Vegas project, as social distancing in the CoVid era prevents them from congregating at an actual Life Cube site.
As always, the project’s school outreach program is providing free art materials and curriculum for workshops on the themes of interactive and collaborative art. First brought to Las Vegas in 2014, the Life Cube Project was underwritten and supported by the late Tony Hsieh, first through the Downtown Project, and in 2016, by Zappos, without commercial sponsorship or recognition.
Its connections with the Las Vegas community are strong, forging and maintaining relationships between artists, educators and community groups who made those installations so impactful.
David Heide, head of the Del Sol Art Department, said “In 2014 and ‘16, Scott came and spoke to our middle school. It was super cool to have a professional artist sharing his passion, and then inspiring us all become a part of that passion! I'm glad we get to participate again on a different level and see how this continuous project is evolving!”
“This project has far exceeded our wildest expectations,” said Scott Cohen, the artist who founded the Life Cube Project.
“During this difficult year for community engagement, we were delighted to hear from our friends at Del Sol Academy! Building on our history with Las Vegas, we hope that we can expand and leverage what we learn here to bring the Life Cube to communities that otherwise wouldn’t have access.”
“Our new team is already zooming together,” added Cohen, “and we are excited to be partnering with the art teachers at Del Sol, applying their skills, expertise, and energy toward making magic happen.”
Interested in learning more? Begin your journey at lifecubeproject.com.
