Experience / Exhibitions / Our Dragon Story

Our Dragon Story

What happens when dragons meet inside the Turnblad Mansion? Find out for yourself in Our Dragon Story, the American Swedish Institute’s new Family Gallery experience created by children for children.

ASI’s Family Gallery has transform into a vibrant and immersive space for young visitors to experience stories created by local artists Magdalena Mora, Seth Eberle and Bart Buch, and Trent Stadler, and fifth grade students at Hope Academy. Illustration and sculpture, large- and small-scale play elements, and areas for quiet play and reading, offer hands-on play and learning opportunities for children and accompanying adults.

Magdelena’s bespoke illustrations are join by unique paper art by Bart and Seth, and fabricated elements by Trent Stadler. Each component was created in collaboration with Hope Academy students in workshops. Drawings, models, sculpture, video and picture will share the creative process behind the finished Family Gallery, and explore how the children fabricated and shared their stories through art and design.

About the Artists

Magdelena Mora uses her pen to tell stories. Through the medium of picture book art, Magdalena has been a partner in creating titles that transform current events into compelling narratives. Magdalena is a 2019-2020 Loft Literary Center Windows and Mirrors Fellow.

Bart Buch and Seth Eberle are artists and educators who tell stories and engage people through puppetry. Bart became an artist 15 years ago and now works with young people making art, and has been involved in Heart of the Beast and Semilla Center for Healing and the Arts. Seth is an arts educator at Silverwood Park where he teaches at the intersection of the arts and the environment and is involved with Heart of the Beast.