Pillsbury House
Internship/Class, Natasha Pestich and George Mahoney
Located in South Minneapolis, Pillsbury House + Theatre is committed to confronting the causes and effects of social and economic injustice. The organization dedicates itself to unleashing creativity in service to the neighborhood through a variety of programs that inspire and initiate choice, change, and connection.
In the summer of 2011, associate professor Natasha Pestich lead a design process to engage community members with MCAD students to redesign the Pillsbury House’s main entrance and foyer area, reflecting its new focus as a center for creativity and community. The interns assisted with visualization workshops for the Pillsbury staff and created custom wall paintings that used imagery inspired by kaleidoscopes as a metaphor for movement and change.
In addition, interns helped print new custom slipcovers for the furniture in the reception area. The slipcovers, designed by the young adult interns at Full Cycle Bike Shop (a part of Pillsbury that works with homeless youth), were then stitched by MCAD furniture design alumna Mina Jang ‘11. Over the course of the summer, Natasha arranged for the interns to become teaching assistants to the teaching artist’s working in Pillsbury’s youth programs, as a way to integrate them into the community.
Following the completion of the first phase of this project, the baton was passed to George Mahoney’s Design Environments class. The furniture design students built modular furniture and screens to support the gallery exhibitions and meetings held at Pillsbury House.
Student Interns:
Aaron Barck
Dustin McChesney
Schuyler Huber ’12
Lindsay Splichal ’12
Allison Wightman ’13
Alex Chronowski ’10
Design Environment class students:
Luke Axelson
Gabriel Cruz-Ramirez ’12
Arthur Nelsen ’13
Ian Alan Nystrom ’12
Peter Yong Ra ’12
Josh Ritenour ’12
Olivia Rodriguez ’13
Sean Roth ’13
Alezah Shiffman ’13
Alexandra Worre