Brooke Devenney with her "Open Container" design

Since its founding in 2002, the National Society of High School Scholars has been collaborating with top universities around the country to connect our members with resources regarding the college admissions process. This year, Mr. Nobel and the NSHSS staff have launched a program to establish formal relationships with top colleges and universities to reach out to our NSHSS members to host events, facilitate online chat sessions, publish articles, and many other benefits. We are pleased to feature an article from a talented art major at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who is finding a way to help the planet through art. University officials interested in exploring opportunities with NSHSS should contact University Relations Coordinator Veronica Squires.

The "Open Container Project": Art Can Change the World

Brooke Devenney
University of California, Santa Barbara

Note: Brooke Devenney is a UCSB art major who helped design and build a livable apartment from a shipping container.

I began my career at UCSB as an art student, starting out as a painter, but my interests have changed over the years as I discovered the variety of facilities available to students at UCSB. My evolution away from painting into areas of sculpture and photography were guided by exploration in both our metal and wood shops as well as the print lab. The lower division art classes introduced me to these facilities, and would come up with seemingly impossible ideas only to find out that I could make them happen. Whether it's fiber glassing 30 tee shirts, printing large photographs, making furniture from recycled materials, or being part of the "Open Container Project," I feel anything is possible with some hard work and ingenuity.

"Open Container" was a year-long project that explored how artists can approach shipping containers as a basis for affordable modular housing. The project incorporated reuse, globalization, and architecture, three aspects not usually associated with art. But I think these elements are what drew me to the project. There was a sense of excitement and an opportunity of doing something not only big, but also socially relevant. My contribution was a 30-foot wall perforated by a cluster of Mondrian-like windows. To my surprise, my teacher and project director, Kim Yasuda, loved the idea. Two weeks later I was getting a crash course in plasma cutting on the side of a shipping container. And I worked for two days to finish all 26 windows.

I approached this project with no expectations as to how it would shape my artistic practice. But one year and a wall of windows later, it has changed my whole outlook on my art career. Without the opportunity to participate in UCSB's spatial studies program I wouldn't have learned the value of team projects, large-scale architectural intervention, and in the end, what I was capable of as an artist. This project was long and difficult, but I received invaluable insight into my interests as an artist. And through the process I have discovered the wide range of tools at UCSB for my disposal. I have also come away with so many other ideas I'm afraid I will not be able to execute them all, but I think that's the best feeling an artist can have.