Art program expands into industrial, craft art

The Art department is offering a new course to learn how to craft for credits. The three-credit course, Creative Crafts (ART 437), is going to be offered spring semester in Burkhiser. Richard Bird, professor of Visual Arts, is planning on teaching students how to make paper, fashion glass beads, weave from a loom, and create tie-dyed and bateaus fabrics.

Bird taught this class in the early 1990s, but soon found that Memorial Hall was rapidly growing out of space. As a result, the course was discontinued. Due to the Industrial Arts program being shut down, the Burkhiser Building is opening its doors to art classes. “The students are now using the Burkhiser Building for sculpting class, Bird said.

Bird is in the planning stages of the class. He still has to create the syllabus but has been researching techniques on crafts he plans to teach. The University of Nebraska Kearney donated weaving looms to Chadron State, and Bird is planning to refinish them. “They need to be sanded and stained, and all the nuts and bolts are going to be replaced.” he said. The class also is preparing to make paper out of old jeans by purchasing a beater. The beater will chop up jeans to a fine pulp, where it will then be dried to flat sheets.

Creative Crafts is open for enrollment now.

Bird plans on having the class broken up into small groups doing different crafts. Bird explained this would allow students to learn more crafts because the class will rotate to each craft station. He is enthusiastic to bring the class back for students now there is appropriate space.