Staff Spotlight: Brittany Liscord
For Brittany Liscord, Youth Coordinator, the relationship between the MakerSpace and Ashley Bryan’s Beautiful Blackbird Exhibit is more than just proximity. As visitors walk through the two exhibits Ashley Bryan’s quote greets them:
“I have always sought to create something useful, something beautiful, with objects that have been cast-off, disregarded. - Ashley Bryan in Words to My Life’s Song .
“That’s why I was so excited about Ashley Bryan and the MakerSpace. His art is all about using found objects, making the ordinary extraordinary. He has always been so connected to children, honoring and inspiring children’s art and creation. Using his work as a starting point, fits the MakerSpace and the interdisciplinary potential of the space,” says Brittany.
Brittany has been part of the Museum & Theatre education team for six years. Her background in history and museum studies shaped her interest and enthusiasm for museums “because of their potential for learning through play.” While working at the Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH, Brittany witnessed learning through play up close, as kids would experience historical reenactment activities like cooking, crafting, or tinsmithing. By the end of the day, the kids would be well versed in 18th century life, demonstrating the impact of learning through experiences.
This educational philosophy is still core to Brittany’s work and incorporated into the purpose of the MakerSpace. Aside from providing opportunities to tinker, create, and make, the space fosters the exploration and development of essential life skills: focus, self control, empathy, communication, making connections, critical thinking, facing challenges, and self direction. Visitors of all ages practice these essential life skills while building a simple machine, making art, or crafting a creation. These experiences mirror real life: “It allows us to work through those times when a project doesn’t go as planned,” explains Brittany. She encourages visitors to take a pause and observe, as they work on their art, learn to use a new tool, or plan a new project. “We do a lot noticing and wondering,” says Brittany, “about the environment, tools, materials, experiences, where things work, how things work, and how they fit together.” Unlike other exhibits in the Museum & Theatre, the MakerSpace is a staffed area and staff play a huge role in engaging visitors to talk through their idea or project, guiding the noticing and wondering, building essential life skills. The multidisciplinary backgrounds of the staff, reflects the diversity of skills encouraged in the MakerSpace: Kifah Abdulla is an abstract painter and writer, Connor Perry is a sculptor, and Erica Murphy is trained in contemporary miming (just to highlight a few!). Brittany explains, “We want materials to be special, we want tools to be real, we want tinkering, crafting, making to be real and therefore create authentic and relevant experiences.”
The MakerSpace was not always the well stocked space full of possibilities it is today. The space was first tested out by Samantha Conelly (previous early childhood coordinator) and Terra Fletcher (Exhibits Associate), to provide agency to kids wanting to make something special for friends and family around the holiday season in late 2019. With lots of inspiration and persistence, the incredibly successful trial period lasted until the Museum & Theatre had to close due to the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The space was such a favorite that they knew it had to be incorporated into the new building being built on Thompson’s Point.
During the pandemic, Brittany and the education team worked to solidify the vision of the MakerSpace into the building plans for the new building. As an arts classroom, the MakerSpace would serve as a space for arts, crafting, tinkering, making, engineering, and community gathering. During the construction of the building and exhibits, Museum and Theatre staff worked to incorporate community wide issues of diversity, equity, and identity into the exhibits. Children’s books that incorporate these themes became great sources of inspiration, including Ashley Bryan’s book Beautiful Blackbird. In partnership with Indigo Arts Alliance and the Ashley Bryan Center the Ashley Bryan’s Beautiful Blackbird Exhibit was created. The impact of this partnership stretched to the MakerSpace as well and the Museum & Theatre currently has one of Ashley Bryan’s puppets on display, generously on loan from the Ashley Bryan Center. “Ayodele” stands by the entrance to the MakerSpace area, marking the connection between Ashley Bryan’s art and making, crafting, and tinkering. Made with everyday found objects, it is an impactful emotive puppet, striking and inspiring to visitors.
“The makerspace is designed for those who are not sure what to make and those who come with a stream of ideas,” says Brittany. Ashley Bryan’s art and puppets bring creative constraint to the space, serving as a starting point for inspiration. Visitors can begin to consider how to bring a puppet to life, and focus their attention, amid a large amount of tools, materials, and crafts. Yet the makerspace is also open-ended. Visitors are encouraged to follow their personal interests and to gravitate toward any tool, material, or project, opening up the space to make everyone feel that they belong. Brittany’s enthusiasm for working in a space that fosters real essential life skills and is inspired by the incredible art and life of Ashley Bryan is clear: “I value the opportunities for creative constraints - that is the beauty of a space that can do both - flexibility and constraints. There is no wrong way to explore these materials in the MakerSpace.”
Ayodele
Joy Comes Home
-Ashely Bryan
It doesn’t take
Much scrutiny
To know that I came from the sea.
My lobster beak,
Shell head, bone jaw
Combine in way not seen
Before.
We’re startled by
The mystery
Of how new life
Can come to be.
The answer’s in the revelation:
Creation’s Joy is
Imagination.