2023 Makers in Residence
The Maker in Residence program at the Scott Family Amazeum is created to support and inspire creatives to develop new experiences working alongside the Amazeum team and community that inspire and power innovation with a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) focus.
This year, The Makers in Residence will focus on creating powerful hands-on learning experiences for educators in the region. Our three national and local makers will co-develop and implement engaging activities for Maker Meet Ups (September, October, November), Educator Night Out (October 5th), Tinkerfest (September 23) and will lead powerful educator-focused professional development for at least 150 educators. Breiseda Ochoa "Brioch", Dustin Griffith, and Owen Lowery will join the Amazeum during Fall 2023 to provide much-needed access to skills, tools, and resources that creatively inspire educators and help support student-led interactive learning environments. Thanks to a grant funded by the Windgate Foundation, we are honored to offer this opportunity that will support our local educators and families.
Briseida “Brioch” Ochoa
Briseida Ochoa “Brioch” (she/her) is a visual artist and educator. She was raised in the sister cities of El Paso, TX, USA, & Ciudad Juárez, CH, MX. Ochoa has served as project director in several educational and outreach programs in the Rio Grande Region and NWA. She currently lives and works in Bentonville, AR.
By applying abstraction, she creates intense personal moments created by means of rules and omissions, acceptance, and refusal, luring the viewer. The results are deconstructed to the extent that meaning is shifted and possible interpretation becomes multifaceted. Her work demonstrates how life extends beyond its own subjective limits and often tells a story about the effects of cultural interaction. It challenges the boundaries we continually reconstruct between self and the other.
She is sharing her expertise in gelatin monotype printmaking with the Amazeum community throughout her maker residency this fall. Creativity, flexibility, and surprise come together with a gelatin plate, common materials like bubble wrap, flowers, and ink. During her residency, Brioch will push the boundaries of her practice, exploring how altering materials, sizes, and processes can make monotype printing an expansive and creative learning tool.
Dustin Griffith
Dustin Griffith (he/him) is a professional industrial designer, owner and operator of Ozark CNC & Design and Fabrication studio in Eureka Springs, AR. Dustin has taught woodshop at the Clear Spring School and previously served as the lead exhibits developer at the Scott Family Amazeum for four years.
His projects span a range of materials and construction methods and include projects such as park trail signage, bespoke furniture, and interactive exhibits for children and animals. His diverse range of skills have been gleaned from a lifetime of hands-on projects including a childhood spent in an automotive shop, to the construction of his family’s shipping container home.
As an experienced woodworker, Dustin will connect others to his craft through the process of creating tops and cars. Educators will learn about techniques, tools, and accessible resources to develop their hands-on learning utilizing wood. Throughout his residency, Dustin will explore how educators engage with woodworking in the classroom. Dustin is interested in CAD designing and fabricating 3D printed jigs to help learners hold and position materials in order to encourage best practices with woodworking tools in educational settings.
Owen Lowery
Owen Lowery (he/him) is a Pittsburgh-based interactive artist with a mission to create situations that foster and reward curiosity. Owen has been a Tough Artist at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh, the Community Artist-in-Residence at the Currier Museum of Art, and the year-long Artist-in-Residence at the tech incubator AlphaLab-Gear. He is often found in non-traditional art spaces such as libraries, community centers, hospitals, halfway houses, psychiatric care facilities, maker spaces, education spaces, and community-oriented programming.
He prioritizes Universal Design in his work, hoping all people—regardless of age, height, background, or accessibility situation—can engage meaningfully. The art comes alive in moments when curiosity takes over and deeper exploration begins. He aims to create work alongside communities, rather than for them. He sees people not as an audience, but as integral to the interactive medium itself, both as catalysts to the artwork and collaborators in its development.
During his residency with the Amazeum, Owen will be working on an interactive web exhibit called Dataland! This experience allows for constant playful interaction by multiple people to explore coding concepts as well as data collection from common technological devices like phones and tablets. Owen puts his twist on coding by exploring tech as creative tools that can be used in unexpected, artistic ways.
Dataland will be developed using P5js, a creative coding javascript web platform. The source code for the entire exhibit can be offered as open-source, free to copy, explore, change, and use for deeper learning and exploration.
