Join the Santa FE Children’s Museum along with Chimera an educational collaboration between the Center for Contemporary Arts and Meow Wolf, are pleased to announce PLUSHTRONIC ZOO workshop, a four session workshop on basic electronics, narrative and re-creating old toys with new components.

In four 90-minute sessions, 1:30PM  till 3PM on February 25, 26 and March 3 and 4, children ages 8 and up will learn the basics of battery-operated and low-voltage lights, motors, and audio components.  Children will build their own basic circuits, install them in reconfigured plush toys, and develop brief biographies for their unique creations.  Students will be guided through each step of the process by artist from Meow Wolf, creating personalized, one-of-a-kind toys.  Plush toys will be provided or a child can bring along his or her favorite toy to re-create!

$75 for the series (four workshops).  Includes museum admission for the entire day for the child participating in the workshop and one and one adult.

REGISTRATION HAS BEGUN!!  SPACE IS LIMITED!  REGISTER NOW!  for more details and to register, call 505.989.839 or email dsteele@santafechildrensmuseum.org.

*SFCM’s partnership with Chimera launches the museum’s Movers and makers initiative to promote hands-on, do-it-yourself workshops.  By using old and new technologies, children explore the mechanics of everyday objects, inventing and re-inventing their relationship to the modern world.

Promo Info:

Chimera’s Plushtronic Zoo is a hands-on, intensive workshop, accomplished in four 90 minute sessions.  Each child enrolled in the workshop will produce one tech-modified stuffed animal, complete with personal biography, created from a mixture of new components and second-hand materials. Children learn to safely disassemble small electronics and plush toys and construct a basic circuit to light an LED,  run a motor, or generate audio, rebuild stuffed animals and create new ones generate a simple artist book, telling the story of their new toy!

Day 1:

Children will learn the workshop concepts, see demonstration pieces, and begin to assemble their own project kits:  for the foundation of their project, they will choose stuffed animals to disassemble and remix, as well as fabric for creating custom work.  They will also chose from a selection of tech components–some new, and some from within old toys and found electronics.  Children will end the day in destruction, learning safe ways to take apart toys and small DC-powered electronics and recycling the parts.

DAY 2-4

On the remaining days of the workshop, children will work in small groups at one of three stations:  tech/electronics, creature recreation, and story building.  Each child will generate their own piece throughout the workshop, and group-work will enable them to learn and work more quickly, guided by multiple instructors and assisted by one another.

The intent of the workshop is to build each child’s confidence and resourcefulness in the creation of new toys in a unique, multidisciplinary, and exciting way.  The final product will be a tech-modified toy for each child, complete with biography, and the know-how to independently take-on similar projects in the future.

The only fun greater then breaking a toy is re-making a better one!