Ben Pranger
Art Form(s):Artist Statement
My mission is to get kids to make things, especially things that move. To do this, I tap into children’s innate sense of play and imagination, and then structure this energy to make things happen. In our grown-up world, finely developed skill sets tend to separate disciplines such as art and science, but in the world of kids, anything is possible: An art project could become a useful invention or a science experiment, and then go back to being “art.”
Artist Bio
Ben Pranger teaches kinetic sculpture residencies in K–12 schools through the New Jersey Artist in Education Program. He has taught sculpture classes for adults at the New Jersey Artist/ Teachers Institute, Stockton University, Bloomsburg University, Hollins University, and the Art Institute of Chicago. He has shown his sculpture throughout the United States and abroad, and has participated in artist residencies at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Program NY, the Fine Arts Work Center of Provincetown, and Kohler Art/Industry. He has received sculpture grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, the New Jersey State Council for the Arts, the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
