Shadow Boxes

About this Project

Each participant is provided with a box and access to a table filled with supplies. Additionally, each participant is given one material or item thats "special" or "different". They are equipped with paint, a hot glue gun and scissors. After that, it's basically a free-for-all. Each participant is left to create anything that they like! We will have some creativity prompts if someone is really stuck for inspiration and needs some help to get going. Our staff, known as Craftenders, will hover around at the ready to assist throughout the session. This project is not only super fun to do, but provides some learnings that apply well to corporate life. Consider the box and supplies as information. Each participant starts out with, basically, the same information, except each person knows something others do not. Just as we go into a meeting assuming everyone pretty much has the same information, we go into this project assuming everyone pretty much has the same supplies. Each participant will take a unique approach to their project, which holds true for information as well; everyone comes at the information from a different perspective. At the end of the project, nearly 100% of the time, there is nothing but admiration for another's approach. Why does this happen here, at The Makerie, making shadow boxes, but rarely happens in meetings? If we truly understand each other and our different backgrounds, access to information, approaches, we can do so much better as organizations in having productive, supportive meetings that truly appreciates and encourages everyone's input. If we do so, we just might end up considering an approach or perspective that we may otherwise never have considered.