High School Students' Creations Take Shape: Collaborative 3D Immersive Spaces by Dallas and Meow Wolf
A glowing, electric-blue jellyfish floats through a dazzling royal-blue ocean, leaving trails of shimmering bubbles as it goes. In the deep depths, a creature that appears to be half mermaid, half deer, lounges on the sea floor. No, this isn't a scene from a comic book or a dream. It's a real space, open for exploration, tucked away in the basement of the South Side on Lamar building in Dallas.
Since the chilly days of February, students from Parish Episcopal School, specifically Sahara Tran, Marley Martinez, and Elliott Lewis, have spent countless hours breathing life into this underwater paradise. They're one of six teams of ambitious high school students participating in the program Spark! Prismatic: Fantastical Realms Art Pop-up Experience, a partnership between Meow Wolf Grapevine and Spark! Dallas, a nonprofit focused on involving students in hands-on learning.
Kaitlyn Armendáriz, Meow Wolf's regional impact director, explained that this program offers students a chance to learn essential life skills while creating art. It's about fostering collaboration, problem-solving, and budgeting skills, integrating creativity into everything they do, nurturing them to become creative thinkers and problem solvers[2].
In February, each team was tasked with transforming dull, white rooms into magical, 3D immersive spaces for the public, aiming to use about one-third recycled materials[1]. In the end, six rooms were crafted, each with its own distinctive style and color. There's the lush green enchanted forest room, an intense red Alice In Wonderland room, and a dazzling white Atlantis room inspired by Greek mythology[5].
The blue room, according to Marley Martinez, boasts an "undulating origami forest" feel. The team aimed to create a storybook vibe with a touch of the fantastical, resulting in a world made to look like it was constructed out of paper[5].
For the students, it's an exercise in bringing the impossible to reality within the confines of the real world. The blue team's "merdeer," as described by Sahara, was an exciting concept in theory, but building it was a completely different story. The sculpture underwent multiple transformations, from resembling a dog to a cow before finally taking its intended shape of a deer. Creating something from imagination, she admitted, can be frustrating at times[5].
Other teams faced their own set of challenges, including Ana Sanchez and Ashley de la Cruz, both students from Williams High School in Plano. The duo, responsible for an enchanting fairy forest room, revealed the inspiration stemmed from Tinkerbell and tells the tale of a boy who gets lost in the woods[5]. Ana found that building the tree posed unexpected difficulties, with one breaking on them, forcing them to start from scratch[5].
Every part of the rooms requires careful planning, from concept development to gathering materials[5]. The actual construction involves adding sound and lighting, which adds another layer of complexity[5]. Despite the challenges, the students seem to relish the opportunity, relishing the freedom to bring their ideas to life[5].
Overseeing the students' work are Christy Howell, an exhibition manager, and Georgi Shattuck, an exhibition technical engineer, both employees of Meow Wolf[5]. As mentors, their role is to offer guidance without crushing the students' ideas while simultaneously ensuring the rooms are practical and accessible[5].
This project represents a rare opportunity for students to oversee their creative visions from start to finish, allowing them to share the finished product with friends and family[5]. For those like Ashley de la Cruz, who dreams of becoming an architect[5], it offers a peek into her future.
Visitors can witness these spectacular creations until September. Tickets are available at $25 for adults, $23 for children, $20 for teachers, and a whopping $40 for adults (21+) that comes with two drink tickets[5]. Arts Access, an arts journalism collaboration powered by The Dallas Morning News and KERA, reported on this captivating event[5]. The project is generously funded by the Better Together Fund, Carol & Don Glendenning, City of Dallas OAC, The University of Texas at Dallas, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, Eugene McDermott Foundation, James & Gayle Halperin Foundation, Jennifer & Peter Altabef, and The Meadows Foundation[5]. The News and KERA retain full editorial control over the content[5].
- The Spark! Prismatic: Fantastical Realms Art Pop-up Experience is a unique learning opportunity, bringing together students from various schools to create immersive, 3D spaces, teaching them essential life skills like collaboration, problem-solving, and budgeting, while fostering creativity and personal growth.
- In the blue room, a team from Parish Episcopal School aimed to create an "undulating origami forest" feel with a storybook vibe and a touch of the fantastical, offering education and self-development as they navigated challenges in bringing their ideas to life, following the transformation of a dull white room into a captivating underwater paradise.
- The project, generously funded by several organizations, including the Better Together Fund, The Dallas Foundation, and The Meadows Foundation, represents a platform for students, such as Ashley de la Cruz from Williams High School who aspires to become an architect, to oversee their creative visions from start to finish, providing a hands-on learning experience in education-and-self-development and personal-growth.
