UCS students take DIA field trip in their own backyard

Nearly 300 Utica Community Schools students took a trip to the Detroit Institute of Arts without ever leaving their back yards.

The museum's fully furnished, 53’ double-expandable trailer pulled into Velocity Jr. this week to bring the DIA experience to the students.

Inside, students from the Summer Care program discovered some of the ways artists think and then had the opportunity to try out creative thinking skills at digital and hands-on stations.

The DIA Away experience was organized into two main areas: explore the way artists think and practice the way artists think.

DIAAwayThe exploration area featured digital and graphic reproductions of five works of art from the DIA's collection.

Using touchscreens, sliding panels, lift labels and other interactive elements, students students discovered how artists imagine new worlds, combine everyday objects in unexpected ways, collaborate with each other, fuse cultural traditions and keep their minds open to new possibilities.

Three creativity stations offered opportunities to practice some of the ways artists think.

In one area, students combined everyday objects to create a fantasy transporter. After thinking about where they want to go, what they want to move through (air, sand, water, space and time), and who they want to bring along, students designed their transporter using magnets and white boards. The idea is to explore how everyday objects can serve completely different functions when placed in other contexts.

At another creativity station, students used touchscreens to choose a scene then manipulate a series of visual filters to alter the mood or feeling of that scene. For example, an image of a street scene could be made joyous, peaceful or mysterious by changing colors, lighting and other visual effects.